99-year-old WWII veteran returns to Normandy for 80th anniversary of D-Day

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A Kentucky native returned to Normandy, France, to observe the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

World War II veteran Henry Armstrong, 99, now lives at Traditions at North Bend.

Armstrong is one of thousands of U.S. soldiers who risked their lives to defend the Allies against Nazi Germany on June 6, 1944.

“When my team and I went ashore on the day, and it was in the middle of the afternoon and we engaged the Germans for about I’m gonna say three or four hours before it got dark and when it got dark, they began to back off,” Armstrong recalls.

Armstrong helped liberate two concentration camps in Austria.

When he returned to Normandy on June 6, 2024, he visited areas that played key roles in the Allies turning the tide of World War II.

“There are a lot of things that I went back to that I’d been there before,” Armstrong says. “There were still a lot of bomb craters over there. There was a lot of German bunkers still there and you could go into those if you wanted to. And I got to see concrete, so they weren’t all destroyed. And it’s fascinating to realize that Germans spent a lot of time.”

The veterans like Armstrong that make up the Greatest Generation are dwindling as years go on, making the D-Day anniversary trip all the more meaningful.

Thanks to American Airlines, dozens of WWII veterans made the trip recently to see how they made history.

That included Armstrong’s great-grandson, a paratrooper, who performed a jump demonstration at the ceremony.

Surrounded by his family and fellow veterans, Armstrong says he felt the love and appreciation from the community.

“They were all speaking in perfect English when they came up to me and shook hands and thanked me for my service, give me a kiss on the cheek,” Armstrong says of the gratitude the French showed him.

Armstrong served 41 years and ended his military career as one of the highest enlisted ranks.

Now, he spends his days teaching younger generations about the sacrifice of service and showing them what is worth fighting for.

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