D-Day 80th anniversary: World War II veteran travels from metro Atlanta to Normandy

NORMANDY, France — Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allies invasion of northwest Europe during World War II. A metro Atlanta veteran traveled to Normandy, France to mark the solemn occasion.

Alan Kinder, 99, served in the 14th Field Artillery Observation Battalion during World War II. He worked with microphones in the ground to detect enemy gunfire.

“Imagine wearing this every day,” Kinder said as he tried on a helmet just like the one he wore 80 years ago. “It’s brought back a lot of memories.”

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Kinder had just finished basic training at Fort Lewis, Wash. on June 6, 1944 when more than 156,000 Allied troopers landed in Normandy.

“We landed in, at Utah here, but it was the middle of the night.”

He arrived at Utah Beach about two months after D-Day. By then, the war had moved inland.

“And for the next month, we just chased across the country,” Kinder said.

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He chased the war all the way to Germany, where he remembers spending a very cold Thanksgiving.

“We’ve told your mommas’ you’re going to have Thanksgiving dinner. So we had them. So we had gelatinous gravy and frozen meat,” he said.

As the memories came flooding back, Kinder got to share it all with his grandson Justin, who snapped a photo as Kinder put on his helmet.

Kinder marveled at how he and his fellow soldiers all traveled hundreds of miles across Europe in such heavy gear.

“Between this and those wool clothes, I don’t know how we carried all those things,” he said.

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D-Day 80th anniversary: The RAF Red Arrows display team perform during the IWM Duxford Air Show in Cambridgeshire on June 2. (Joe Giddens - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

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