At 98, D-Day Veteran Medic Returns To Normandy To Remember A Generation's Sacrifice

For much of his life, Ray Lambert wouldn't talk about World War II. But then the 98-year-old veteran army medic began returning to Normandy, where, on June 6, 1944, he led a unit of medics as a 24-year-old staff sergeant in the allied invasion of western Europe.

"I realized that if I didn't tell these stories about my men, that they couldn't do it," he says. "I felt it my responsibility and obligation to them to talk to people and tell people about the war and what they did."

Lambert's part of a dying generation: veterans who bore witness to the largest amphibious assault during World War II. An estimated 10,000 allied forces were killed, wounded or counted missing that day, including more than 6,600 Americans.

This week, as he's done in recent years, Lambert traveled to Omaha Beach to join world leaders for the solemn commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

Above the beach landing sites, the town has dedicated a plaque to Lambert's unit of medics and bolted it onto the chunk of concrete where they sheltered the wounded. "Ray's Rock," as it's known, is where he fought to save the lives of his men more than seven decades ago.