'Praying to stay alive': How a D-Day veteran remembers that battle 80 years ago

Several World War II veterans — including some who fought in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 — were honored Sunday in Fairport.

George Steitz was among those who gathered at the Perinton Historical Society and Fairport Museum. The 99-year-old was a very young man during the 1944 invasion in Normandy that helped liberate France.

He said he and his fellow soldiers were just trying not to die as they stormed the beach in Normandy, an action that helped lead to the liberation of France and the rest of Western Europe.

“We were so damn scared. Here I am, 19 years old, I was praying, like everybody else, we were praying to stay alive,” said Steitz, who emphasized that “it was nothing like what you might think you know about war from the movies.”

“You have to be in a war, to know what war’s about. You can see 'Saving Private Ryan' and all the movies, but you’ve gotta be there,” he added.

Steitz, who was a longtime athletic coach in Penfield, said that even though it’s been 80 years, he still often thinks of that time.

“There isn’t too many days that go by that you don’t think about it," he said. “It’s like being married, I lost my wife, but I think about her every day, and just like the war, you just don’t forget those things.”

Some other local WWII survivors will be headed to Normandy in June for the 80 ^th anniversary of D-Day, but Steitz won’t be there. He said that he’s been invited before, but he doesn’t want to remember D-Day with an in-person visit.

Among the other WWII veterans at Sunday’s gathering in Fairport was Robert Persichitti, now 102 years old. The Navy veteran wasn’t in Normandy but was stationed in the Pacific, and Persichetti said he aboard a ship at Iwo Jima when the iconic WWII photo was taken there.

“I was the radio operator aboard the ship, and we were offshore a little ways and when they raised that flag, I was on deck that day, and watched them raise that flag twice,” Persichitti he.

Persichitti, who will be attending ceremonies in Normandy on June 6, said he’s not sure how much of WWII history is being taught in schools these days.

“It shouldn’t be forgotten,” he said, noting the thousands of U.S. military members who gave their lives.