Eighty years ago on June 6, 20-year-old J.D. Luna jumped from an airplane in the early morning hours into Normandy as a private with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne.

A few hours later, 27-year-old Sgt. Charlie W. Grayson hit Utah Beach as Allied forces began the liberation of France. He served in an anti-tank company in the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division, which was in the first wave to go ashore.