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Arizonans Commemorate 70th Anniversary Of D-Day

A jump jacket worn by an Arizona soldier who fought in D-Day is on display at the Arizona Military Museum.
(Photo by Alexandra Olgin - KJZZ)
A jump jacket worn by an Arizona soldier who fought in D-Day is on display at the Arizona Military Museum.

It was 70 years ago Friday more than 100,000 American troops landed on France’s Normandy beach to tip the scales in World War II.

Joe Abodeely runs the Arizona Military Museum. He described what it was like for the thousands soldiers to run across an open beach the size of three football fields while being fired at.

“It would have been a horrendous experience. People would have been yelling and screaming and bullets would have been flying and popping by and twanging and people would have been yelling for medic and people would be rushing to cover as quickly as they could,” said Abodeely.

At the museum he has a paratrooper jump jacket from an Arizona veteran on display.

“G.W. Yates. H Company, 3rd battalion, 101st Airborne, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment,” said Abodeely.

A presentation about the battle is free and open to the public at the Arizona Capitol Museum on Friday.

Alexandra Olgin was a Senior Field Correspondent at KJZZ from 2013 to 2016.