He was a soldier in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, the famous “Big Red One.” He remembered the constant sound of machine-gun fire, and crawling through the sand without ever stopping.
“When we landed, we had 901 men,” he recalled. By his count, only 387 were left afterward.
For 69 years, he never went back.
Then in 2013, a nonprofit called Daughters of WWII raised $75,000 to send eight North Texas D-Day veterans back to Normandy. Sgt. Maj. Blatnik, then 93, was one of them. A CBS 11 crew from Dallas went with them.
Once on the beach, he wanted more than to stand in the sand. He wanted to reach the exact stretch where he and his men had landed. It was a long walk, and he needed a walker with wheels. He struggled, but he refused to stop.
“This is the most I have walked in years,” he said. “I just can’t stop. I’ve got to get there and see where the guys went up.”
When he reached it, the 93-year-old dropped to his knees. With tears in his eyes, he thanked God for sparing his life, and he prayed for the men who never came home.
“May all the soldiers rest in peace,” he said.
He had no idea why he survived when so many didn’t. But he spent his life giving back. He volunteered more than 10,000 hours at the Dallas VA.
Robert Blatnik died at the age of 100. He never forgot the men on that beach, and now, neither will we.
Do you have a family member who served in World War II? Share this to honor them this Veterans Day.