Elmer Jensen of South River, NJ was a helmsman on the USS Augusta. He watched through his binoculars as American troops were storming and dieing on Omaha Beach and the cliffs they tried to scale... Meanwhile, he said "The guns on the Augusta fired so often and so fast that the paint on the hull blistered from the heat."

Young seaman Jensen

Elmer Jensen, Navy veteran of the Normandy Invasion, seen here 60 years later in 2004 as he sits outside his fish market in South River, NJ.

One of the "Greatest Generation"

Higgins landing craft arriving at Guadalcanal Island,1943