WWII vets are rock stars in France as they hand over the duty of remembering D-Day

OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — The D-Day generation, smaller in number than ever, is back on the beaches of France where so much blood was spilled 81 years ago. World War II veterans, now mostly centenarians, have returned with the same message they fought for then: Freedom is worth defending.

In what they acknowledge may be one of their last hurrahs, a group of nearly two dozen veterans who served in Europe and the Pacific is commemorating the fallen and getting rock-star treatment this week in Normandy — the first patch of mainland France that Allied forces liberated with the June 6, 1944, invasion and the greatest assembly of ships and planes the world had known.

On what became known as “ Bloody Omaha ” and other gun-swept beaches where soldiers waded ashore and were cut down, their sacrifices forged bonds among Europe, the United States and Canada that endure, outlasting geopolitical shifts and the rise and fall of political leaders who blow hot and cold about the ties between nations.

In Normandy, families hand down D-Day stories like heirlooms from one generation to the next. They clamor for handshakes, selfies, kisses and autographs from WWII veterans, and reward them with cries of “Merci!” — thank you.

Both the young and the very old thrive off the interactions. French schoolchildren oohed and aahed when 101-year-old Arlester Brown told them his age. The U.S. military was still segregated by race when the 18-year-old was drafted in 1942. Like most Black soldiers, Brown wasn't assigned a combat role and served in a laundry unit that accompanied the Allied advances through France and the Low Countries and into Nazi Germany.

Jack Stowe, who lied about being 15 to join the Navy after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, said he gets “the sweetest letters” from kids he met on previous trips.

“The French people here, they’re so good to us,” the 98-year-old said, on a walk to the water's edge on Omaha. “They want to talk to us, they want to sit down and they want their kids around us.”

“People are not going to let it be forgotten, you know, Omaha, these beaches,” he said. “These stories will go on and on and on.”

At the Normandy American Cemetery that overlooks Omaha, the resting place for nearly 9,400 American war dead, workers and visitors rub sand from the beach onto the white gravestones so the engraved names stand out.

Wally King, a sprightly 101-year-old, wiped off excess sand with a weathered hand, resting the other atop the white cross, before saying a few words at the grave of Henry Shurlds Jr. Shurlds flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighters like King and was shot down and killed on Aug. 19, 1944. In the woods where they found his body, the townspeople of Verneuil-sur-Seine, northwest of Paris, erected a stele of Mississippi tulip tree wood in his memory.

Although Shurlds flew in the same 513th Fighter Squadron, King said he never met him. King himself was shot down over Germany and badly burned on his 75th and last mission in mid-April 1945, weeks before the Nazi surrender. He said pilots tended not to become fast friends, to avoid the pain of loss when they were killed, which was often.

When “most veterans from World War II came home, they didn’t want to talk about the war. So they didn’t pass those experiences on to their children and grandchildren,” King said.

“In a way, that’s good because there’s enough unpleasantness, bloodshed, agony in war, and perhaps we don’t need to emphasize it," he added. "But the sacrifice needs to be emphasized and celebrated.”

With the march of time, the veterans' groups are only getting smaller.

The Best Defense Foundation, a non-profit that has been organizing their trips to Normandy since 2004, last year brought 50 veterans for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. This year, the number is 23.

Betty Huffman-Rosevear, who served as an army nurse, is the only woman. She turned 104 this week. The group also includes a renowned romantic: 101-year-old Harold Terens and his sweetheart, Jeanne Swerlin, were feted by France's president after they tied the knot in a symbolic wedding inland of the D-Day beaches last year.

D-Day veteran Jake Larson, now 102, has made multiple return trips and has become a star as "Papa Jake" on TikTok, with 1.2 million followers. He survived machine-gun fire when he landed on Omaha, making it unhurt to the bluffs that overlook the beach and which in 1944 were studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American soldiers.

“We are the lucky ones,” Larson said amid the cemetery's immaculate rows of graves. “They had no family. We are their family. We have the responsibility to honor these guys who gave us a chance to be alive."

As WWII's survivors disappear, the responsibility is falling on the next generations that owe them the debt of freedom.

“This will probably be the last Normandy return, when you see the condition of some of us old guys,” King said. “I hope I'm wrong.”

Wally King, a 101-year-old former U.S. fighter pilot who flew 75 combat missions in World War II, and his granddaughter Kara Houser pay their respects Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, at the Normandy American Cemetery grave of Henry Shurlds Jr., who flew P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighters like King and was shot down and killed on Aug. 19, 1944, above the town of Verneuil-sur-Seine, northwest of Paris. (AP Photo/John Leicester).

World War II veteran Wilbur "Jack" Myers, a 101-year-old who fought in the U.S. Army's 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, hands a souvenir postcard of himself to Ryan, a young French boy, on Monday, June 2, 2025, at Omaha beach, which was one of the D-D-day invasion spots on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

World War II veteran Wilbur "Jack" Myers, a 101-year-old who fought in the U.S. Army's 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, hands a souvenir postcard of himself to Ryan, a young French boy, on Monday, June 2, 2025, at Omaha beach, which was one of the D-D-day invasion spots on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

FILE - U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. (Bert Brandt/Pool via AP, File)

Calvin Shiner, center, a 102-year-old who was drafted in 1943 into the then-racially segregated U.S. military to serve in an all-Black construction unit, and other veterans of World War II attend a commemoration on Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, at the Normandy American Cemetery that is the final resting place for nearly 9,400 American war dead and which overlooks Omaha beach, one of the D-D-day invasion zones on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

A black and white photo that Kara Houser, the granddaughter of a World War II veteran, pinned to her chest during a visit on Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, to the Normandy American Cemetery shows Fred Mitchell Shafer, who Houser said served aboard one of the landing craft that deposited American soldiers on Omaha Beach during the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France (AP Photo/John Leicester)

World War II veteran Wilbur "Jack" Myers, a 101-year-old who fought in the U.S. Army's 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, greets schoolchildren during a visit on Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, to the Normandy American Cemetery that is the final resting place for nearly 9,400 American war dead and which overlooks Omaha beach, one of the D-D-day invasion zones on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

D-Day veteran Jake Larson, a 102-year-old who is also a star on TikTok, with 1.2 million followers, greets schoolchildren during a visit Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, to the Normandy American Cemetery that is the final resting place for nearly 9,400 American war dead and which overlooks Omaha beach, one of the D-D-day invasion zones on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

World War II veterans, mostly centenarians, who traveled as a group to France with the non-profit Best Defense Foundation, pose for a photo on Monday, June 2, 2025, at a memorial on Omaha beach, which was one of the D-D-day invasion spots on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

Arlester Brown, a 101-year-old veteran of World War II who served in a laundry unit that accompanied the Allied advances through France and the Low Countries and into Nazi Germany, regales French children with his stories during a visit on Monday in Colleville-sur-Mer, June 2, 2025, to the Normandy American Cemetery that is the final resting place for nearly 9,400 American war dead and which overlooks Omaha beach, one of the D-D-day invasion zones on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

FILE - This photograph is believed to show E Company, 16th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, participating in the first wave of assaults during D-Day in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. (Chief Photographer's Mate Robert M. Sargent, U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File)

One person was taken into custody after a fire ripped through a synagogue in Mississippi, heavily damaging the historic house of worship in what authorities say was an act of arson.

No congregants were injured in the blaze, which broke out at the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, officials said. Photos showed the charred remains of an administrative office and synagogue library, where several Torahs were destroyed or damaged.

Jackson Mayor John Horhn confirmed that a person was taken into custody following an investigation that also included the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

“Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship,” Horhn said in a statement.

He did not provide the name of the suspect or the charges that the person is facing.

The synagogue, the largest in Mississippi and the only one in Jackson, was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 — a response to the congregation’s role in civil rights activities, according to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which also houses its office in the building.

“We are devastated but ready to rebuild, and we are so appreciative of the outreach from the community," said Michele Schipper, CEO of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and past president of the congregation.

The congregation is still assessing the damage and received outreach from other houses of worship, said Schipper. The synagogue will continue its regular worship programs and services for Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath, likely inside of one of the local churches that reached out.

One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass not damaged in the fire, Schipper said. Five Torahs inside the sanctuary are being assessed for smoke damage. Two Torahs inside the library, where the most severe damage was done, were destroyed, according to a synagogue representative.

The floors, walls and ceiling of the sanctuary are covered in soot, and the synagogue will have to replace upholstery and carpeting.

“It’s going to be an extensive revitalization process for them," said chief fire investigator Charles Felton.

FILE - This Nov. 2, 2018 photo shows an armed Hinds County Sheriff's deputy outside of the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, file)