A local combat veteran who runs an organization facilitating rescue operations across the globe is on the ground in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day ahead of his next phase of missions to save lives. Bryan Stern is the founder and former CEO of Project DYNAMO, a nonprofit that has rescued nearly 7,000 people — and their pets — from life-threatening situations. In Normandy, Stern will participate in parachute jumps over the city’s famous beaches, and he’ll introduce his new operation, Grey Bull Rescue. His new venture...

ABILENE, Kan. (WIBW) - Local, state, and federal leaders gathered at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum today to observe the 80th anniversary of D-Day. President Dwight Eisenhower served as supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during the war. “It’s such a perfect location for us for us to be able to do this here in Eisenhower’s not only hometown but also the place where he chose to be buried, to have his museum, and his library so it was an honor to be able to pay...

NORMANDY, France — A Utah band was among those attending and performing at solemn ceremonies Thursday honoring the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The Utah Pipe Band performed for those who gathered at the Brittany American Ceremony in France. It was a special moment for John Barclay, the band's manager, whose grandfather was wounded on the same ground during World War I, as well as having a great uncle buried in the cemetery. "It was a great homecoming for us, but to be here and honor the sacrifice of the Allied...

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, about 20 people gathered at Veterans Memorial Park in Stamford to reflect on June 6, 1944—a time when war was raging in Europe and Adolf Hitler controlled most of it. “Freedom and democracy were under assault around the world,” stated Philip Alan Gerard, of VFW Post 9617. “But on that day, hope had landed on the beaches of Normandy when 73,000 Americans joined the Allied forces to carry out one of the greatest military missions of all time, a mission that would become known...

Eighty years ago on Thursday, some 150,000 troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other Allied nations fought the climactic battle of World War II, landing on the beaches of Normandy, France and punching through Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall,” at frightful cost. Twenty years ago Thursday, on the 60th anniversary of D-Day, Izaak Schwaiger landed in Iraq along with the rest of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. A military translator, he was stationed in Najaf, a Shia holy city 100 miles south of Baghdad, where he came under...

A 150 American veterans arrived in Normandy this week, to crowds of French well-wishers waving American and tricolore flags. Most of the veterans were in wheelchairs; the oldest was aged 107. All were on their way to the 80th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings on June 6th at Omaha Beach. In the presence of America’s Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron as well as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, the event was designed to mark deep French transatlantic gratitude as well as broader allied thanksgiving for the campaign that helped to...

Editor's note: This story first ran in The World-Herald in 2014, on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. * * * In the anxious final days before his giant gamble at Normandy, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower took great comfort in spending time with his troops. On the eve of D-Day, Eisenhower visited the fellows at the 101st Airborne Division. Their job would be to parachute behind enemy lines in the dark of night. In small groups, they would seize roads, bridges and waterways so German forces couldn’t reinforce the soldiers...