Back to the beach

Jerry Deitch thinks he'll be able to keep his nerves in check but isn't sure. The survivor of Utah Beach, one of the five D-Day beaches, had always refused to go back to Normandy.

"I said, 'No,' I said, 'I don't think I can handle it. I'll get too emotional,'" he says.

Now 93 years old, Deitch decided he must see where good friends died and revisit the spot by a seawall where he was hit by a piece of shrapnel that left a fist-sized dent in his helmet.

Deitch, who is from Nevada, was 18 years old when he landed and says "after the first day I felt like I was 30. I went in a little boy and came out a man. You grow up fast."

Serving in a U.S. combat demolition unit, his job was to clear obstacles and blow up strong points that could slow the Allied advance inland. The shrapnel that dented Deitch's helmet gave him a concussion; he was evacuated back to England.

"I know exactly where I was when I was hit. Exactly the spot. I see it in my mind all the time," he said.

Long unable to speak to his family about his experiences, he recently started writing down his recollections so they'll know, when he's gone, what he went through. "I did a few chapters just before I came here," Deitch says.

"It changed my life, yeah," he said of D-Day. "It taught me to be very tolerant. God gives us free will; you've got to use it."

Having long kept his war to himself, Deitch thanks people for listening to his recollections now.
"I feel better when I speak about it," he said. "If you have demons, face them."

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