Heirs keeping the D-Day stories alive

At the Vineland (N.J.) Veterans Memorial Home, assistant business manager William H. Palmer Jr. has a special bond with the 175 or so World War II veterans who live there. His father, Ensign William H. Palmer, was part of a secret mission during the D-Day invasion that delivered messages from the command ship Ancon to the shore during days of radio silence.

His father, who was originally trained for one of the rocket boats that pounded the beach right before the troops went in, rode near the beach in a British seaplane tender, then swam the rest of the way. He made several such swims for the first two or three days of the invasion as part of Task Force K of Force O (for Omaha).

Just like Butch Maisel, a Baltimore history teacher whose father landed on D-Day, Palmer is determined to carry forth the legacy. "I went to find out what my father did on D-Day," he said, and the research led him to write two books, one about the "Rocket Men" and the other about his father's secret duty. "I was always interested because my father told me he had almost drowned at Utah Beach."

In his job, Palmer reviews the discharge papers of all the veterans who are admitted. It's not uncommon, he said, to discover that they are entitled to medals they didn't put in for. He advises them on how to get the recognition they have earned. Of D-Day veterans, he says: "These guys were reluctant to tell their own story. They were too humble."

His voice tightens with emotion: "It's a story that's almost surreal. The amount of bravery and sacrifice poured into it."

Butch Maisel's father, Maj. Frederick C. "Fritz" Maisel Jr., a company commander in the Fourth Infantry Division, survived D-Day and destroyed a German heavy gun battery with only one of his men lightly wounded. On June 22, an 88 mm shell exploded near Fritz, showering him with shrapnel and sending a chunk of metal into his foot, leaving him with nerve damage that kept him in pain the rest of his life.

"People like me are trying to keep the flame alive," Butch Maisel said. And he has deftly passed the torch down to the next generation. His son, Christian A., is a first lieutenant in the Maryland Army National Guard who served a year in the Sinai as a peacekeeper. Christian Maisel is cocurator of the Maisel collection.

They're making sure that nobody forgets June 6, 1944, even after there's no one left to tell what they saw that day.