Veteran keeps flag flown on father's landing craft during D-Day invasion

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Ballantyne man treasures a tattered U.S. flag that once flew on his father’s landing craft during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Thursday marked 75 years since that day.

Vietnam veteran Jerry Pelletier shared his father’s story with Channel 9 and the importance of remembering June 6, 1944.

[North Carolina honors veterans for 75th anniversary of D-Day]

"It was luck,” Pelletier said. “If he would have been like the other people, I wouldn't be here."

His father was a sailor in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was among those who landed on Omaha Beach in France on D-Day.

"The other boat was blown up before he hit the beach, but my dad's boat was lucky enough to land," Pelletier said.

He had kept the U.S. flag that was flown on his father’s LCT-590 tucked away until four years ago.

"We opened it, and we laid it out, and it was very fragile,” Pelletier said. “And it was 71 years later, and the smell of the flag was full of oil and gun powder."

Along with the flag were photos of the crew, the boat and a handwritten note from his father sharing the flag's significance.

"It's things like the flag that will teach them and remind them of the sacrifice that was made that day," he said.

Pelletier also has his father’s handwritten log he kept from D-Day, which details the battle that took place.

"Unless you know what it is to be in war, you really don't appreciate it," he said.

Pelletier said he wants others to not take those sacrifices for granted.

"That's a generation that's almost gone, so there's not many of them left,” he said. “So, you have to have memories."

Pelletier said his father didn't share much about his D-Day experience until Pelletier started preparing for war himself.

Cox Media Group