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You don't know what you'll do -- I didn't have anything I could do, I was a signal man, I didn't have no gun. Our flag got cut down, some of the guys got a gaff and put that flag back up again -- they tied it up so that it didn't hit the deck. Those are the things you do inadvertently and you don't know why -- you don't know what to do, because you never went through anything like it. It's hard to explain to people who weren't there. The mind just says Oh my God, what am I doing? Don't hit me. War is something ... if you weren't there ... you can't explain it.

We got the Presidential Unit Citation, which is the highest award a ship could get. Our commander, he got the Navy Cross.

I drive a school bus now, I'm 81 years old, and I look at these kids and I think: This is what we were -- these were the kids who fought WWII, who landed at Normandy. You hear these stories, it's just kids. You ask me Why did you get a tattoo? and it's just: We were kids. You see kids today with rings in their noses -- they're just kids. It's just what a 17 year old would do.

Am I boring you?

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