BANGOR, Maine — Brewer resident Henry Wyman wasn’t one of the 160,000 soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day 71 years ago Saturday, he was an Army medic who helped treat the wounded.
That was on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The following day he landed on Omaha Beach with the 32nd Medical Depot Company and was tasked with picking up the bodies of his fallen brothers-in-arms, a memory that still haunts him to this day.
“There was a great sense of courage on the part of the infantrymen,” the 90-year-old recalled as he told members of Boy Scout Troop 1 in Brewer, who still meet at the same church as when he was a young Scout, about the historic day when Allied forces created a toehold that 11 months later would lead to Adolf Hitler’s downfall. “The Americans were the perfect targets. You can’t pay them enough for the courage they had.”
D-Day, called history’s “Longest Day” was the largest amphibious invasion ever to take place and included troops from France, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States storming the beaches of Normandy, France, to break Germany’s hold on Europe. The U.S. took heavy casualties on Omaha Beach.
“If they had not fought, pushed back, and put Hitler in his grave, I hate to think what would have happened,” said Wyman, who became a preacher after returning from the war. “D-Day is so important. The young people today don’t know what June 6 means. They just don’t understand.”
He talked about the sacrifices of those who died on the battlefield and how the hidden scars of war surface at times for those who came home.
“The memories sweep back at you,” the veteran said, sitting on a bench outside of the Maine Veteran’s Home on Hogan Road, where the Troop 1 Scouts spruced up the grounds and installed a bench as part of John Zebiak’s Eagle Scout project.
“I can still remember a sergeant I picked up,” Wyman said. “I picked up a picture of his family that fell out of his pocket.”
When he looked at the picture, Wyman felt heartbroken thinking about them learning about the soldier’s death, and it was such a strong emotion that it still stings, seven decades later.
Wyman, like many World War II veterans, kept his wartime experiences mostly to himself, only talking about them a few times at Kiwanis meetings in recent years.
He mixes humor with the stories of mayhem to balance things out, said his wife of 66 years, Soma Wyman, while sitting beside him on the bench, holding a display of his military medals that the Boy Scouts framed.
For example, he talked about stealing chocolate cake from the mess hall, “taste testing” a steak meant for a high ranking official, and eating all the ice cream, milk and candy he could eat while on the dreaded KP, or kitchen patrol, duty, and meeting Gen. George Patton for the first and only time.
“Patton was coming down the stairs and said, ‘Get the hell out of my way,’” Wyman said, making those around him laugh. “I went right over the banister. I wasn’t about to stand in his way.”
To end his presentation, Wyman returned to honoring the dedicated soldiers who fought and perished on D-Day. He reminded the youth that they have freedoms today because “a huge price was paid by them with rifles in hand.”
Boy Scout John Zebiak then led the group in the Boy Scout pledge, which Wyman knew by heart.