WEBVTT

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(dramatic music)

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- My full name is Gerald Mack Anderson

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and I went in the service
in January of 1943

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and in July of 1943 I joined
the Big Red One in Sicily

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and I was assigned to Headquarters
Company Second Battalion

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in a demolition squad and
that started my career

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with the Big Red One.

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I was just an old farm boy when I went in.

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I served about 32 months and 18 days.

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13 weeks of basic
training in Campers, Texas

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and then I started my
journey to the East coast

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and I wound up in Casablanca, North Africa

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on the 12th of June 1943

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and then they trucked us
from Morocco to Tunisia

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and in July I went
across the Mediterranean

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on the LSD and joined the Big Red One.

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All we knew was it was gonna happen

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and we were gonna be one
of the leading element

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to make it happen.

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So we had no knowledge of the date

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but we guessed it had to be
sometime in the warm weather

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but we had no knowledge
of the date or location.

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They dumped us in the water

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quite a ways out, in fact it
was up chest deep in water

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and everybody, we'd been
on this little higgins boat

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running around out there in a circle

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for at least an hour and
a half, maybe two hours

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and the sea was rough
and guys had got sick,

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threw up all over us

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and it was just a mess

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but when they dumped us in the water

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we were taking fire immediately,

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firearm fire, mortar
fire, and artillery fire.

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But there was a little bit
of a sandbar about halfway in

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and the guys were trying
to make that sandbar

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and catch a rest and go
on up to the waters edge

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and all the way we're
losing guys, getting hit,

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and guys are trying to
help their buddies out,

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drag them out of the water
and it was kind of a mess.

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But the thing I'll never forget

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was our regimental commander

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telling about to get off the beach.

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Even the lower ranked
guys used to talk about

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why we were there and
all that sort of stuff

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and if you look at the Lazzo
white cross that says Normandy,

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Lazzo's never rested the
vote, weren't old enough to,

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they gave their life for the privilege

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they didn't qualify for themselves.

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It's just one of the oddities of war.

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I'm alive.

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But it's, you can't forget your
guys and those white cross.

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(slow peaceful music)