My grandfather drove an M4 tractor onto Okinawa in WW2. I guess he was chosen because he was a farm boy and knew how to operate heavy equipment. He told me he thought he was going to drown at first because the entire thing went under water but he just punched it, the tires and tracks started grabbing, and he slowly made it ashore. The thing was made by Allis Chalmers and that’s the only tractor he’d ever buy when he came back from the war.
Also had had one of my old Captains ( I’m in a large metro fire Dept) tell me a story about his dad who landed on Omaha Beach but rarely talked about it. He took him to see Saving Private Ryan at the theatre. This man was in his 80’s at the time hadn’t seen a movie theater in 40 yrs. He wasn’t prepared for how real the opening scene would feel with the new technology in sound systems today. He told me after the opening scene his father had tears in his eyes and would later tell him that he could smell gunpowder and rotting flesh as he was sitting in that theater. Still gives me chills to think about it.
Both of them are gone now, but I hope series like BOB will make sure that their memories and experiences will never be.