A legendary figure within Navy circles, Captain Phil H. Bucklew devoted his entire Navy career to scouting, raiding, and intelligence. One of the Navy's first "frogmen" and a charter member of its Scouts and Raiders of World War II, he scouted the beaches at Normandy, Salerno, and Sicily weeks before Allied invasions.
In this excerpt from his oral history, Captain Bucklew serves up a vivid, action filled account of D-Day at Normandy; the sights, the explosive sounds, the confusion, the perils—and the validating relief of spotting the steeple he first had noted on his recon mission.
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