"I worked for the Ready Mix Concrete Company in Saginaw for 35 cents an hour doing concrete work setting forms, pouring and finishing concrete."

"I bought a car, a 1935 Cadillac convertible with a rumble seat white wall tires, red leather interior, doors opened on the front, wheel wells on the fenders, white wall tires with spoke wheels, a radio and heater and a spotlight. It was a sporty car (I wished I had it today). I think I paid $250 for it back then."

"I drove up to Ludington and found a place to stay in a private home, my room and board were $12 a week, with a pack lunch taken in the morning for my noon meal. The people where I stayed with were retired school teachers.  My wages were $1.25 an hour, a little more than my buddies were earning. No more complains on what I was earning an hour from then on."

"I sold my convertible to a friend and bought a 1939 four door Pontiac Chieftain for $450. We had gas rationing and I could get all the gas I wanted because I was working on for the government, and I pooled with other workers from Saginaw."

"But one day in January 1943 I got a card in the mail from Uncle Sam, saying I need you!"

"We were given clothes and I was sent to Camp Wheeler, Georgia from army basic training. After eight weeks of training they asked us if anyone wanted to join the paratroopers. Well there was the jump suit, boots, extra money and the rest. I joined!"

"When I wrote home to my mother and dad, they thought I was nuts and so did all the people my mother talked to. I got lots of letters from the neighbors telling me not to be a paratrooper. Well I told them, someone had to do it."

"After strenuous training of callisthenics eight hours a day, you ran from one place to the other, from time to time for play. We climbed ropes 30 ft. high. We jumped out of mock towers into saw dust piles as simulated jumps. We twirled Indian pins about 1 ½ lbs., until your arms almost dropped off. When you slowed down, the Sgt. who was in command over all no matter if you were a colonel or anyone else, would say give me the GI laugh. A lot of nice words were said under our breath to him. Then the Sgt. stood on a platform about four feet high, so they could see us. I think we were in groups of about thirty fellows. Four weeks of training if you passed along with five jumps, and then I was send to Alliance, Nebraska to the 507th."

"I believe it was in June when I hooked up with the 507th. I was assigned to C. Company and after training on the rifle range I was designated to be a machine gunner. While on the rifle range, I shot the M1 Rifle from fifty yards to one thousand yards, I shot a ninety-eight out of a possible one-hundred bulls eyes and another fellow shot ninety-nine. We both got three day passes to Denver, Colorado for our achievement."

"I Was a machine gunner who used the 1919A4—30 Caliber I also used the BAR at the times we used what ever was handy for the situation."

"We were all glad to get home !"

"My thought when going over the English Channel to France. It was beautiful to see the Dover white cliffs and the ships below but when we hit the coast of France we couldn’t see any thing because of the fog. Then inland we could see them shooting at us. All I wanted to do was get out of the plane and be on the ground."

"Most of us missed our drop zone in miles.  As we were over our drop zone there was a downed burning plane. Later I found out it was one of ours. The flack was hitting our plane and everything from the ground coming our way looked like the Fourth of July." 

"When I hit the ground in Normandy, I looked at my watch.  It was 2:32 AM, June 6, 1944. I cut myself out from the drop, and the first thing I heard was shooting and some Germans yelling in German"

"There were four of us from my stick that got together, I didn’t see any more of them."

"If I would have landed in the water, I may not be here today as I can’t swim. A lot of paratroopers drowned because of the flooded area.

I crawled to the edge of the flooded area alongside of a tree to get my bearings. I knew I was in the wrong area a long way from our drop zone.  About a half hour later someone came toward me from the direction I had landed in. By the morning light I could see his helmet and knew he was an American."

"We gathered the wounded and dead soldiers and had about seventy-five to one-hundred prisoners, and went down to the same road. It seemed like two to three miles to the beach."

"It was something to look over the water and see all the ships. It looked like a bunch of corks in the water. The equipment that had already been put ashore was awesome."

"I remember a truck coming up on the beach loaded with ammunition and a German 88 shell hit it. It was the loudest noise I have ever heard."

"I heard nothing and saw nothing, but I sure got stung on the rear. Whether by accident or choice, a stray bullet tore up my pants and went under my butt and out of the other side. The fellow that was sitting about eight feet from me heard it go past him. I jumped up and dropped my pants, no blood, just a pair of shot up pants"

"I often wondered what would of happened if that bullet would have hit me in the hip, but I guess the Good Lord was with me that day as He has been since, and I hope He always will be."

"The night before the attack on June 8, 1944, about eight of us from the 507th waded across the swamp, as it was called by the French people. We went up into German territory to see what munition they had. We could hear the Germans talking on one side of the hedge row and we were on the other. We were only there to survey what they had."

"The next morning our company commander Captain Robert Rea, got orders from General Gavin the 82nd Airborne commander, to take the bridge and causeway. The 505th had knocked out two tanks on the causeway. We had a little cover for a few feet and then nothing but sure luck and the good Lord with us, but we made it across. It was running and firing. You see your buddies lying there and you can’t help them, but we were trained to kill or be killed and that’s what took us across the causeway; guts and determination."

"It cost about 500 lives to take a half mile of road.  A very high price to pay."

"It was one of four roads from Utah Beach to high ground to bring in supplies and troops."

"While moving toward the front line I remember going up a lane lined with German black bicycles. The Germans used these to get to the front lines and transportation."

"I was the last fellow in the column and Sgt. Brothers was ahead of me. As we walked along I heard some noise behind me. When I turned it was a German soldier with both hands above his head, as well as his gun. I turned and told Brothers, ‘’Look who is behind me’’. He said shoot so and so, I said no and took his gun, emptied it and threw it in the brush and frisked him. Later I had to take him back to the battalion H.Q. By then it was dark. What ever happened to him, I don’t know."

"When I got back to the company, a Lieutenant came over to me and told me to go to B Co. area and take over the machine gun on the front, which was set up in a German foxhole. An American was hit in the face by a piece of shrapnel and his face was wide open from skull to neck. In the other corner was a dead German."

"The American was a friend of mine named Ron Bonell."

"In the United States Army as a paratrooper stationed in Alliance, Nebraska with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, I spent two weeks in the Black Hills in South Dakota near Deadwood. When we returned to the camp we were all given a two week permission in October of 1943."

"I lived in Saginaw Michigan. I took the train from Nebraska to Detroit, Michigan. While I was waiting for a bus to Saginaw, I met another paratrooper, Reinold Bonnell from Hemlock, Michigan."

"We traveled home together and had some good times during our stay. Unfortunately we had to return the 15th of October, which is the opening day of the pheasant season in Michigan. Well, Ron and I opened the season on the 14th. We only took two birds apiece, the limit."

"When we got back to camp Alliance, Nebraska, we were told to pack our gear and get ready to move out. It took several weeks then we headed for New York. I managed to see New York from the Empire State Building. We had to take the ferry across the Hudson River. One of our buddies lived in the Bronx where we spent time."

"While going across the Atlantic, my friend Ron or Red as we called him, told me his girlfriend gave him a wrist watch and that if he got killed and I found him, I should take it, and if I lived to send it back to her. We landed in Ireland and we were stationed at Port Rush, Ireland. We spent Christmas there. I cut a branch off a tree and hung tin foil from cigarette packages on it and tin cans, you name it. It didn’t look too bad, but it was Christmas."

"When we left Ireland, we went to Nottingham, England, where we trained and stayed until D-Day June 6, 1944. It was a day we all looked forward to for because we knew we were there for a reason, and that is what we trained for. We both made the jump but I didn’t see Ron until the 15th of June, a day I will never forget."

"When I got back to the company, they told me to go over to B Company and to take over the machine gun. I said Ron was their machine gunner, why can’t he? ( I was machine gunner also) I was from Co C going into Co B."

"When I got there, they set the machine gun outside of this German dug foxhole, approximately eight foot long and four foot deep. Ron was in one corner, a piece of shrapnel had hit him in the face and tore it open from skull to his throat. I tried to take the watch off but I couldn’t. I crossed his arms and said God bless you. In the other corner was a dead German soldier."

"That night I will never forget as I stayed there guarding the front line and the alive Americans as they slept, and dead Americans and Germans."

"The 507th went in with about 2000 men and came out with about 800. My company, C Co. left with about 75 out of 230 men. We the 507th had the worst drop of all paratroopers on D-Day. Why? I guess because we were the last ones and the fellows before us had stirred up the bees (the Germans)."

"We, the paratroopers of the 101st and 82nd Divisions, did not have any replacements for the thirty-three days we fought in Normandy. And the food we ate, we had to find or get from the French people. We learned to live off the land."

"After we went back from Normandy in July of 1944, I was promoted to corporal and we had to take care of business of sending personal things home of the fellows who were killed, and send personal things to the fellows who were in the hospitals, and take care of our equipment."

"It was a gusty, windy day and I thought I was going to make a good landing when a gust of wind caught me and threw me up and my chute hit the ground. Four moths later I left the hospital after three bones healed in my right leg."

"I was ready to go and the company commander told me I couldn’t go, as I had just come back from the hospital. He told me what to do with the mail and other things as I was (going) to be the acting company commander. Well, that’s what he thought."

"I told another fellow who had come back from the hospital, to do what I was told to do by our company commander."

"The next day the jeep and I caught up with our company. Well, when the company commander saw me he couldn’t believe it.

He said:

- ’’Huebner, you so and so, you're going to get a General Martial Court’’.

I spouted back and said do what you have to do, I trained with these fellows, I fought with these fellows and I will die with these fellows. That was that and we went on doing what we were trained to do, fight for our country."

"The war ended on May 9, 1945, and we were in Essen, Germany. I was sent to the 505th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, and on to Berlin for occupation duty. I was made Special Staff Sergeant without pay. I had to wear the stripes."

"Then the Army went by a point system. I think if you had 80 points going by service time war duty and overseas, time you could be sent back to the States. I was short and sent to the 505^th. They also sent the 507^th Parachute Infantry and the 17^th Airborne Division to the States and were deactivated or put out of service of the United States Army. Some fellows with less time in the service and less points were sent home. So I went to Berlin Germany for 7 months."

"I served in the army paratroops from 1943 to 1946, and then was honorably discharged."

"I met my wife in 1946 on a blind date. We went together for 4 years and then got married in april 1950."

"My wife and I have traveled and have been in all but one province in Canada and all but one state in the United States. I have not been in Oregon yet. We have traveled to France three times and Belgium, Holland and England."

"I worked hard all my life and retired in 1988 and haven’t worked since. Just do what we like to do."

"The cottage was on a lake and in a pretty setting with clean, clear water. We miss it but as life goes by you have to give things up sometimes that you love dearly. And with me my family comes first."

"I sent some German things home German Army belt and buckle. German typewriter. Some German spoons a few guns old 9mm pistol. German officer boots and pants and a lot of other small things."

"There were about 160 from our Company who got the Bronze Star. But after the war, the Government said every soldier that had a Combat Badge got a Bronze Star. I got mine in 1994, I think it was."

"Why did I do this? Only for the love of my country, my buddies and friends of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment in WW2." 

"The soldier buddies and the people that I have met in Normandy, France. All I can say is that they are so gracious to the soldiers that were there during the liberation of their country. And I can say I was one of the fellows and darned proud to have been part of it."