Dover-based D-Day Veteran looks back on his history
By DOVER — Alexander J. Deusa stormed the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, 80 years ago this past Thursday. Today, nearly 99 years old, he resides at Complete Care at Silver Lake.
Eight decades later, the memories of that day are still vivid.
“Well, we were on big ships ... we climbed down the side,” said Mr. Deusa who was born in Marydel, Maryland. “Oh, it was really rough. Then we got into landing crafts and headed for the shore. I happened to be right there when they dropped the gate ... and we started running to the shore.”
“You got guys falling around you, wounded or dead. You’re shooting, they’re shooting the enemy, and it’s what you have to do so you keep doing it.”
Tears well up as Mr. Deusa speaks about the death of his buddy on that day. Mr. Deusa was only 18 at the time. He described how at that age, he felt like he was full-grown man.
But in truth, he was still a boy.
He recalled being on the ground listening to the sound of artillery.
“You’re laying there,and you don’t know if the shells are going to land right next to you or on you or what,” he said.
He eventually looked back at the water.
“I waited, and there was a whole bunch of our buddies, our men, floating in the waters. They’d been killed by machine gun fire,” Mr. Deusa said.
Even after the invasion, life on the front line affected his psyche.
“You see dead people every day, every day, every day. So, after a while, after months of it, you figured ‘This is my day.’ You just figure ‘I gotta go. All these other people get the shot, why not me?’”
Mr. Deusa said that behind the heroism lay the terror of combat.
“(The public doesn’t) realize the fear. You know what I mean? You’re killing people, but you know, they’re killing people,” he said.
Mr. Deusa’s patriotism runs through his veins, even saying his last name was as patriotic as it could get:
“DE and USA are Delaware and United States,” Mr. Deusa exclaimed.
Now, 80 years after the D-Day invasion, Mr. Deusa has a sense of pride.
“I was proud to serve my country,” he said with resolve.
