Honoring Glasgow Son Who Stormed Normandy

The following was submitted by R. Walby Johnson in honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6.

Ed Peterson had to leave Glasgow before completing his senior year and was on one of the first three transports that landed on Omaha Beach as a Medic with the 29th Infantry Division June 6, 1944. The boats were 36 feet long and 11 feet across and were crammed with 30 soldiers that had stood for two and a half hours. They wore special assault jackets over their uniforms with six pockets ladened with ammunition, food and equipment as they would not be resupplied for two days. Their uniforms were treated so gas (if used) would not penetrate and each carried a gas mask and sea sickness pills. Grenades were hitched onto metal rings on the shoulder harnesses and life vests one-third inflated around their chests. At 5:50 a.m. eight minutes before sunrise they could see the features of the Normandy coast. Naval rockets whizzed overhead pounding the Germans on top of the cliffs. Waves splashed against and inside the boat soaking the soldiers before they hit the water.

When I asked Ed if he would like to return to Omaha for the 50th reunion, he said, "No." He said the Medics were not allowed to carry guns-only tend to the injured. He spent three Christmases in Europe before returning home. He was given his high school diploma.

I once read a fitting poem:

When we shall be gone and shall have been forgotten-

When the place where we stood shall know us no more-

When future generations shall walk upon this land-

May those who remember say, "These men died to save the world."

Ed's brother Paul was fighting on the Pacific Front and his mother Cozy worked in the shipyards out of Portland for the duration of the war.