Local Veteran Remembers D-Day

JACKSONVILLE, FL -World War Two veteran, Gilmer Sadler, tells his war story on the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Sadler still has all of the old letters and photos from the WW2 era.

For better or worse he still has all the memories, too.

"You see a lot there you don't ever want to see or even hear about," said Sadler.

After returning from the war, Sadler never joined any veterans' groups. He's never watched any of the Hollywood movies or documentaries about the war. He's never even talked about it.

"Some people could sit down and talk about it. I couldn't," said Sadler.

For the first time, he's ready to talk about the war that changed his life.

Sadler was a member of the National Guard. He studied during the week and served on the weekends. That is until the attack on Pearl Harbor and his unit, the 186th Field Artillery Battalion, was activated.

"I wasn't but 22 years old. I wasn't old enough to be scared of nothing so I just went," said Sadler.

In 1941, he got married and 20 days later he was sent to training and then to Europe.

He traveled from hotspot to hotspot.

"We were the first troops to go into France and I was with the first troops to go into Paris," said Sadler.

And on June 6th 1944, the 186th was part of the 160,000 allied fighters who stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight the Nazis.

By the end of the first day the allied forces had a foothold on Normandy but 9,000 men were dead or wounded.

"The first four or five days of the invasion were terrible," said Sadler.

"I lost all of the original people I left with," said Sadler.

At the end of the fighting in the Atlantic, Sadler says he was cleared to come back to the US.

"I was tickled to death, that's for sure. I was ready to come home," said Sadler.

After two kids, six grandkids and six great-grandkids, Sadler says he's lived a good life.

Although he was a reluctant warrior, Sadler knows the battle 65 years ago made this a better world.

"I didn't go to Europe by choice but you're there for a reason so you do what you gotta do," said Sadler.

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