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One Day At Normandy Sent Ripples Across Two Veterans' Lives

Published June 6, 2014 at 5:05 PM EDT
D-Day veteran Ralph Frias was a linguist and forward observer with the 19th Corps 963 Battalion and went over the Normandy cliffs in search of American paratroopers. After the fighting, he interviewed German POWs and French civilians.
D-Day veteran Ralph Frias was a linguist and forward observer with the 19th Corps 963 Battalion and went over the Normandy cliffs in search of American paratroopers. After the fighting, he interviewed German POWs and French civilians.

Robert Siegel speaks with Ralph Frias and Eugene Levine, two veterans of the D-Day landings in Normandy 70 years ago. They offer stories of their experiences and relate what it was like to take part in a day that changed the world.

"I have four brothers who came back horribly disturbed by Vietnam and Korea. I vowed that I would try not to become eaten up by the war."

-- D-Day veteran Ralph Frias

D-Day veteran Eugene Levine was a weather observer with the 82nd Airborne Division and landed near Utah Beach in a glider. He was the division's only weather observer to survive and transmitted the first weather report from Ste. Mere-Eglise.
Amy Ta / NPR
D-Day veteran Eugene Levine was a weather observer with the 82nd Airborne Division and landed near Utah Beach in a glider. He was the division's only weather observer to survive and transmitted the first weather report from Ste. Mere-Eglise.

"I was changed by the fact that I survived. We even had to make out wills."

-- D-Day veteran Eugene Levine

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