Warriors, in their own words, is brought to you by the Honor Project, committed to putting the heroes of our nation on record.

This presentation is dedicated to the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

Al Ungerlider is a true American hero.

During his career in the U.S. Army, he saw combat in three wars, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

His first taste of battle came on June 6, 1944, on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day.

In 1944, in preparation for the invasion of Normandy and what we call now Omaha Beach,

I was assigned to Company L of the 115th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division.

And we were designated as the second assault wave to Gwyn on Dede behind our 116th Infantry Regiment was mostly Virginia National Guard.

Ours was mostly Maryland National Guard.

I joined the 29th Division and 115th in January of 1944, which was six months before the invasion.

I was a platoon leader of the third platoon in Company L, the 115th,

and I got so involved in training immediately,

training in the moors, along the moors of England,

a lot of overnight, a lot of two or three day exercises.

And then we had some practice landing exercises off the coast of England.

That's when it dawned on me when we first time we first practiced landing we made, that we were going someplace.

We didn't know where at the time, someplace along the coast of France,

but we didn't know where it would be. And then it started to sink in that we're heading for

what, in my mind, would be the beginning of the downfall of the Third Reich.

I was trying to weld my platoon, which is my main concern, into a good fighting unit,

make sure they're a good physical condition, make sure that we train hard, give them chance at night and weekends to play a little bit and relax and see the English countryside.

But mainly it was training, get as hard and tough as we could,

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