Tony Pagano, who deployed to Europe not long after D-Day, is marking the Normandy invasion a little differently this year.
Pagano, who retired from service with the rank of staff sergeant, is among a large group of veterans returning to Normandy, France, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday. President Biden is also in France to mark the anniversary.
For Pagano, the trip is about “recalling memories” and being with other veterans who share similar experiences.
“I can’t believe I’m 98,” Pagano said when asked what the anniversary means to him. “I remember different things, and I have nightmares once in a while. But [returning to France] just reinforced my relationship with the material, the guns I’ve seen, the rifles.”
Pagano, who is from New Jersey, enlisted into the Army in downtown New York in 1943 and was deployed for training at Georgia’s Fort Benning (now called Fort Moore) by the time he was 18.
He was later transferred to the 1255th Engineer Battalion in the 3rd Army before going overseas in October 1944, months after D-Day. He landed at Omaha Beach, one of the D-Day landing zones for the Allies, before he made his way to the front lines.
Pagano’s deployment was just before the Battle of the Bulge, the Nazi German counteroffensive in Belgium and Luxembourg in late 1944 that was designed to push back against the D-Day invasion, which had put the Allies close to victory.
Pagano remembers arriving toward the front lines in the dark and could only see the “pinpoint” lights of the military convoys. “My heart, my chest, trembled.”
But Pagano said he did not see any action until after the Battle of the Bulge, which ended Jan. 25, 1945.
“At that point, we really went into action and liberated the last town in Luxembourg,” where 50 of his fellow troops were wounded and 12 of his friends died, he said.
Among the friends he lost was a young medic who wanted to be a physician, Pagano said. One fellow soldier also died in his jeep.
During his deployment, Pagano said what he and his fellow comrades thought about was sticking by one another’s side.
“What we thought about was mostly was helping each other to live through the experience,” he said. “To support each other.”
The Allies moved closer to victory after the Battle of the Bulge, sweeping toward Berlin. Adolf Hitler would die by suicide in April 1945, and Nazi Germany would officially surrender in May.
Pagano remained in Europe for more than a year. When he finally returned to New York in March 1946, he did so on a Canadian ship that held 10,000 troops.
“Getting to New York was so thrilling,” he said. “And it was so thrilling to see the Statue of Liberty. We were greeted by a brass band on a little tugboat.”
Now, 80 years later, Pagano, who now lives in Nevada and is supported by his family, including his son and daughters, is returning to France through the help of Old Glory Honor Flight, an organization that helps veterans travel across the country or abroad.
The experience has been great, Pagano said, and he has also bonded with other World War II veterans during the trip.
But even after the anniversary is over, one thing will always stick with the veteran: Pagano said he will “never forget” the 12 friends he lost. He became a doctor after the war, in part because of the memories of the wounded and dead from World War II.
“I mourn my 12 friends every day,” Pagano said.