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SERVICE: Enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and was later assigned to the USS Thomas Jefferson, an attack transport with landing craft on it. The Thomas Jefferson received six battle stars for World War II service. Mr. Nix was awarded a number of service medals, including an Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with a Silver Star.

RANK: Coxsman

WHERE LANDED: Mr. Nix piloted a landing craft carrying the first wave of troops that hit Omaha Beach, but he never felt any more special than those who stayed aboard ship.

"I never have made any difference between those who worked on the ship who had just as hard a time and just as much as those who hit the beach," Mr. Nix said. "I have never separated the two."

But, after three previous invasions, D-Day was just another amphibious landing to Mr. Nix and his shipmates on the Thomas Jefferson.

"I couldn't put one above the other," he said.

MOST VIVID MEMORY: After D-Day, Mr. Nix participated in two more invasions in the Pacific theater and was later hospitalized with combat fatigue, now called post traumatic stress disorder. It still affects him, but Mr. Nix said he doesn't look back on his service with sorrow.

"We had to defend our country," he said. "It was something that had to be done. I have no regrets for what I done, what I seen. Of course I can't get rid of it. I still see it."

- Mike Wynn

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 Augusta-area D-Day veterans and will present their stories this week.

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--From the Wednesday, June 2, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle