“This year, 12 veterans from across the U.S. will be traveling to Normandy with us for this important event,” says Roger Vickers, U.S. liaison for the group that was founded in 2012 by French national Valerie Gautier. “When we notified Sam that he would be going, he was at first speechless, then he said he couldn’t believe it.”

As a 16-year-old in 1943, Sam’s mother gave him permission to tell recruiters he was 17 because he was so determined to sign up. It was the start of a military career in the Marines and the Army that would take him to Okinawa and the Philippines during World War II, then to serve in Korea and Vietnam.

“Ever since I was a teen, I’ve wanted to visit the place where the paratroopers landed in Normandy right after midnight on June 6 for the start of the D-Day invasion,” says Sam, who lives in Cumberland County. “I’m finally realizing my life’s dream.”