From The Diary Of Pfc. Ryan Morrison

I was born in a small town in southern Kansas where the biggest event of the year is the harvest. I lived on a small farm where I spent my childhood growing up in what my parents called "A traditional way". Everyday I would go out and tend to the farm animals and do some chores. After finishing my morning chores I would go to our small school where everybody knew everybody. When I finished school I would go home and tend to the animals again and work on the farm until it was time to call it quits. This was an ordinary day for me back home, but now I'm sitting in a camp with what's being called the largest invasion fleet ever assembled.

My name is Pfc. Ryan Morrison, I am a basic infantryman serving in the American 1st Army. We have been informed that we will be landing on the coast of Normandy. Our men have been practicing our landings for quite some time and I think we've become pretty proficient at it. The invasion has been called off multiple times due to bad weather, some of the men are having doubts that the invasion will occur at all. We'll see soon enough I'm sure, the weather is beginning to settle slightly even now.

Right now I'm in one of our Higgins boats on my way to shore to storm the beaches of Normandy. I've been assigned to assault Utah beach along with some 150,000 other troops that are also assaulting the coastline as well. I can see the shore right now! There are all kinds of shells and bullets flying everywhere this is chaos! One of the men next t me just took a bullet in the chest he's bleeding everywhere. The ramp is going down very soon, I will write later if I survive.

The largest naval invasion ever is now over. I will never be the same ever again, I've seen more horrific images today than anyone should see in a lifetime. I'm going to write down the events of today while they're still fresh in my mind.

After the ramp went down 3 of the men in my boat were hit immediately and at that same moment a boat next to us was hit by mortar fireÐ'...there were no survivors. I waded into the blood stained water under heavy German machine gun fire while my eyes frantically searched for a place to take cover. I was about ankle deep in water when a mortar shell landed right next to me sending me immediately to the ground. I tried to hide myself behind the body of a fallen soldier who had multiple limbs missing and part of his torso, I began to feel