He was aboard a troop carrier on June 6, 1944, that was transporting men from battleships to the beach as bullets and artillery flew overhead.
Unfortunately, he said some younger people know very little of World War II.
“On my Chrysler van, I have a big World War II veteran sign on the lift gate,” Hill said. “I go to Kroger about three times a week and I deliberately tell them to put the groceries in the back.”
He said no one helping him with his groceries has ever commented about the sign.
“No,” he said. “It's just like they've never heard of World War II.”
However, Hill was getting gasoline about a year ago when a fellow driver said he wanted to shake his hand.
“But he's the only person to ever say that,” Hill said. “He was older and he knew about World War II. But these young people, they don't know. It's just like Vietnam. It just doesn't register with them.”
However, it registered to Hill to enlist for the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
“But I went up to Huntington (W.Va). for my physical and they found a heart murmur,” he said. “So they sent me back home. Then I got drafted and no one found the heart murmur.”
Then if was off to the U.S. Navy as a machinist 2nd Class mate.
“In our landing craft we had two 250-horsepower diesel engines,” Hill said. “It was my job to take care of them engines so we could get back off the beach.”
He said D-Day was one of the roughest days he endured in the war.
“I mean the water was rough,” Hill said. “The troops would come off the transports down the sides of the ships and drop into our boats. A lot of them got sick too. We'd go back and get another load and take them in, about six or eight loads up to the beach.”
He said it was important to take the troops as close to the beach as possible so they wouldn't have to swim as much.
“It was crowded, but we got them up so close so they could walk,” Hill said.
The action was punctuated by two or three battleships blasting their guns at German troops behind the beach.
“After we got the beach secured, we walked to the top of the hill and watched the battle going on,” Hill said.
He said he was afraid as D-Day raged on.
“But you didn't have much time to be really scared,” Hill said. “You had too many duties. I was mostly concentrating on the job.”
His unit was in the battle for at least six to eight hours, Hill said.
But his crew stayed on the beach for a while after the fighting subsided.
After running their boats onto the beach, the crew lived on them for several days until another assignment came.
“Gen. Patton's 3rd Army had got up to the Rhine River,” Hill said. “They built a pontoon bridge, but they could only take one machine and one load of men at a time.”
So Hill's crew helped out by transporting Patton's men and equipment across the river.
“The Germans had blown up all of the bridges but one,” he said.
Hill's group later received a commendation from Patton, of which Hill still has a copy of.
As a WWII veteran, Hill offered a unique view of the Iraq War the United States is in the midst of fighting.
He said he does not approve of this war.
“When Bush ran the second time, I didn't think it was time to change presidents in the middle of the war,” Hill said. “So I've regretted it ever since. I'm a staunch Democrat. I've been a Democrat all my life. One of my friends said Bush carried Ohio by one vote. You know who that one vote was.”
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