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SERVICE: Drafted into the Army in March 1942. Awarded a Silver Star and French Crois de Galle.

RANK: Technical sergeant

WHERE LANDED: As part of the 56th Signal Battalion's radio platoon, Mr. Raborn led a communications team in two amphibious trucks onto the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach.

The soldiers, stationed 10 miles off the coast of Normandy in LSTs - Landing Ship-Tanks - did not sleep the night before the invasion, Mr. Raborn said.

At about 3 a.m., the order came to move out.

As the amphibious trucks dropped into the English Channel, the water rushed in and Mr. Raborn worried that the vehicles would sink. But his team closed the top of the vehicle and made it to Omaha Beach.

At 6:30 a.m., Mr. Raborn said, his team began transmitting information to the Allied forces in 10-minute intervals.

Later, they received a message that the team's other amphibious truck had blown up, killing one man and wounding a second, Mr. Raborn said.

During the invasion, Mr. Raborn acknowledged, he worried about the mission failing.

"I was scared I wasn't going to be able to do the work," Mr. Raborn said. "The government had spent a lot of money on me."

Although his amphibious truck was shot at, Mr. Raborn said he made it through the invasion unscathed.

"During all of that, I didn't shoot a gun. I sure didn't shoot anybody. I didn't get shot. I didn't even get a scratch. I guess I was lucky."

MOST VIVID MEMORY: Mr. Raborn remembers watching an amphibious truck bearing howitzers and ammunition come ashore.

"It looked like a gorilla coming out of the water," he said.

Seconds later, the enemy fired upon the vehicle, destroying it.

"It just blew it all to pieces, men and everything," he said. "It went up like a Roman candle."

- Kate Lewis

Editor's Note: The stakes were high and well understood. To Allied Forces - and the Nazis - the success of World War II rode on the outcome of the invasion of Northwest Europe on June 6, 1944, better known as D-Day. Code-named Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy landed more than 150,000 U.S., British and Canadian troops along a 50-mile stretch of coastline in 24 hours. Six divisions assaulted five code-named landing beaches - Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword. Those who survived that hellish day will never forget what they saw. The Augusta Chronicle talked to a number of D-Day veterans and will present their stories this week.

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--From the Tuesday, June 1, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle