45 D-Day veterans return to France to remember fallen comrades

Forty-five U.S. veterans -- most now in their late 90s -- traveled to France to mark the 79th anniversary of D-Day on Tuesday (June 6). Then 21 and serving in the 13th Infantry Regiment, Jake M. Larson was among those who landed on Omaha Beach in the early hours of D-Day. After jumping into the water, he ran to the beach through heavy machine gun fire, making it to the cliffs without being wounded. “The stars are all these guys that put their life on the line for me to come through. I’m a survivor of D-Day, I’m not the actual hero,“ the centenarian said. At the Normandy American Cemetery perched above the sea at Colleville-sur-Mer, dotted with white cross headstones and U.S. flags, 9,386 soldiers are buried. U.S. officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended the ceremony there on Tuesday along with the 45 veterans who were helped to travel by the Best Defense Foundation, founded by former American footballer Donnie Edwards. In the early hours