Louisville area World War II veterans honored at Bowman Field on 79th anniversary of D-Day

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Seventy-nine years ago, American soldiers and Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on what has since come to be known as "D-Day."

On Tuesday, a ceremony was held on Louisville's Bowman Field to honor a 11 local veterans who served in World War II.

Honor Flight Bluegrass and the KILROY Chapter of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association hosted the ceremony, which took place at the Bowman Field Administration Building.

The public was invited to show up to thank the veterans, who are in their late 90s. One of them was 105.

The veterans were given rides in vintage military vehicles.

Jack Mooney is 96 now, but was just barely 18 when he joined the U.S. Navy.

"I graduated from Saint X," he said, "and two weeks later, I was in Great Lakes."

He said he eventually became a gunner's mate on a destroyer in the Pacific.

"Things were so very much different then," he said. "I remember it was probably '42 or '43, there were pictures on the news of tankers just a mile off the east coast being torpedoed. The German submarines were within a mile of our coast. People today don’t realize that."

He said many people have forgotten the importance of what the day symbolizes.

"I wonder how many people today know what June 6 is," he said. "It's the date that changed Europe – or started to change Europe."

Jeff Thoke, the chair of Honor Flight Bluegrass, agreed.

"How many young people would know what D-Day is?" he said. "But D-Day – those men stormed the shore and 11 months later, May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered, because of what started on D-Day and in the Pacific. And we just owe everything to World War II veterans. They don't realize: they saved the world. There's no doubt about that, so it’s time to give back."

Mooney said the "whole mood was different" in those days.

"You had to go," he said. "You had to do your part."

He recalled seeing about two dozen guys lined up outside the neighborhood draft board the Monday morning after Pearl Harbor, waiting for the office to open so they could volunteer.

"That was the mindset then: When you're old enough, you gotta go do your part."

He said he hopes there will never be another World War, but he also knows it will always be a possibility.

"Today, if we got in a war, it wouldn't be anything at all like [World] War II," he said. "It would all be missiles and planes. It would be totally different. But there's been wars as far back as the history goes, so there's going to be more."