Omaha Beach Veteran Gallagher

Honored For His Will and Spirit

By Denise Marshall   

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U.S. Navy veteran John Gallagher was a communications expert with special amphibious forces 
during WWII.  As a First Class Radioman in the 6th Naval Beach Battalion, John’s shore-to-ship 
messages on D-Day June 6, 1944 were responsible for getting troops and materials across the 
invasion beaches of Normandy.  After sustaining a serious injury on D+1, his picture was taken, 
with the heavily bandaged face, patiently awaiting casualty evacuation from France. 

A long time resident of Dutchess County, John Gallagher worked for IBM before retiring 
in 1984 and moving upstate to Sidney, NY. The following Veterans Day story was published 
in the November 6, 2002 issue of The Tri-Town News.   ~  KCD  

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John Gallagher of Sidney was 17 years old in 1942 when the request came 
for 3rd Class Navy radiomen and signalmen to volunteer for the “Beach Party.”  
He remembers asking what they meant by a “beach party,” and the reply 
“wine, woman and song” from the chief boatswain.  While the November 8, 1942 landing of the USS Dorothea Dix at Safi, French Morocco in North Africa was definitely no party, it paled in comparison to the action he would see two years 
later as a 1st Class radioman in the 6th     Naval Beach Battalion serving with the Army’s 5th Engineer Brigade at Omaha Beach, Normandy.  Some 57 years of “classified silence” about that D-Day invasion have now been broken, but the 
suffering is not soon forgotten by John and fellow survivors. 

While the film “Saving Private Ryan” played a big part in breaking the silence, 
and the lengthy process of facilitating presidential citations between the 
departments of the Navy and Army finally achieved results in August 2000, 
Gallagher has literally been “carrying the weight” of the battle details, including 
the shrapnel, for years since he was discharged from the Navy in the mid 1950’s. 

“I didn’t want to see “Saving Private Ryan,” Gallagher confesses. “It’s 
still too painful.  But, they sent me the tape and I have to say that the first 
twenty minutes is quite accurate.  There was much that could not be shared, like 
the fact that bulldozers were there by late afternoon, burying bodies 
before the reinforcements arrived and saw them.” 

For Gallagher, the two presidential citations, from the Navy for action in 1942 and 
the Army for 1944, as well as the French Croix de Guerre and the Purple Heart for 
the 1944 action, take a back seat to the “surprise” mirrored plaque presented 
Sunday, September 29, 2002 at the 13th annual reunion of the Sixth 
Naval Beach Battalion held in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Etched in the corners with symbols of the medals he received, the plaque reads, 
“If anyone ever questioned the existence of a divine being, the answer is given 
by John Gallagher’s presence here tonight.  Among the first to land on Omaha 
Beach, Normandy, France, D-Day, June 6, 1944, John had hardly reached the 
shore under heavy enemy fire when he suffered a grievous injury which would 
have destroyed any lesser man.  That he survived that wound and has endured 
the struggle of ensuing years is testimony to his will and indomitable spirit.” 

That same spirit was no less praised by the attending doctor, J. Russell Davey, 
who, in a letter to his wife, Mary, dated July 29, 1944, wrote “I met one of our 
Enlisted Men who had just arrived from an Army Hospital.  He had had a 2.3 cm 
piece shrapnel enter his face just below the eye, which passed thru the upper part 
of the maxillary sinus, entered the orbit to sever the optic nerve and lodged 
in the petrous part of the temporal bone.  One unsuccessful attempt to remove the 
shrapnel was made.  Perhaps you would expect that these cripples would be bitter 
and resentful.  They are not, nor are most of the others I’ve talked to.  They’re 
just very, very happy to be alive.  The only regret was from the first eye case.  
He is regular Navy and wanted to make a career of the service. (Of course he 
will now be surveyed out.)  I have found the morale of these casualties is 
excellent.  But no less excellent than their courage and patience 
immediately after receiving their wounds.  That latter was a big help to those 
of us trying to care for them.” 

In the June 2002 issue of the National Geographic, John is pictured 
among the wounded on Omaha awaiting evacuation, his face covered with 
bandages.  Another of his battalion, beachmaster for Easy Red Beach, 
Joseph P. Vaghi ‘42D, who has been instrumental in the placement of a 
plaque placed at Omaha Beach honoring the fallen of the 6th Naval Beach 
Battalion, was also interviewed in the National Geographic article and 
presented with the mirrored plaque at the reunion.  Every battalion member 
received a replica of the plaque placed at Omaha Beach which reads, “The 
officers and men of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion dedicate this plaque to our 
fallen comrades who gave their lives in defense of good over evil.  They are 
the silent sentinels who from their final resting place above the cliff perpetually 
watch over the sacred ground of Omaha Beach.  June 6, 2001.” 

As the presidential citation reads,  “At 0735 hours on the morning of 6 June, 1944, 
the first elements of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion reached the beach.  
Underwater obstacles and enemy artillery damaged or sank most of their landing 
craft, losing valuable equipment and forcing personnel to swim for shore under 
hostile fire.  Assault troops were pinned to the beach by murderous fire from 
enemy rifle, mortar, machine gun and artillery emplacements.  Officers and men 
of the battalion worked along the side of gap assault teams in clearing obstacles 
so supplies and troops could cross the tidal flat of the beach.  Other elements 
helped build up a firing line and set up control stations on the beach to 
direct the landing crafts.  Safe lines of approach were marked and ship-to-shore 
communication was established.  Movement on the beach was made hazardous 
by enemy fire and mines which had become detached from obstacles and buried 
in the sand.  During the night, the beach was strafed by enemy aircraft and the 
imposed blackout hampered the battalion’s activities.  The extraordinary 
gallantry, heroism and determination displayed in overcoming unusual difficulties 
and hazardous conditions and the esprit de corps displayed by the 
6^th Naval Beach Battalion contributed materially to the capture of Omaha Beach 
and reflect highest credit on personnel of this organization and the Armed Forces 
of the United States.”    

A licensed HAM radio operator since the age of 14, John’s job at Omaha Beach 
was a radioman, establishing communications between the beach and the ships 
in the harbor waiting to land the invasion force.  His experience with electronics 
later landed him a job with IBM where he worked until 1984, moving to Sidney 
after his retirement.  Due to his exceptional expertise, IBM recruited him at the 
age of 32, making an exception to their own age rule.  It was while working at 
IBM that he lost two pieces of the shrapnel in his head, one after a coughing 
spell when he could have choked on it save for the quick action of a nearby 
ex-Marine and another, 14 years later, when he, not having any feeling in that 
side of his face, didn’t realize a piece had fallen and was lodged in his gums 
causing blood to stream down his face. 

While other highlights of the 2002 reunion included sharing the experience with 
his son, being served their meal by a four-striped Captain, full 
commander and lieutenant commander at the Atlanta Naval Air Station who said 
“We owe it to you for your service to your country,” and receiving 
Diplomas of Appreciation from the government of France presented by 
French Consul General Rene Marty, the big push for John is to be 
one of these survivors of the fighting “sons of beaches” who celebrates 
the 60th anniversary reunion at Normandy, France in 2004. 

In the meantime, those of the Tri-Town area join the rest of the nation in saluting 
the courage and commitment of John Gallagher and those who have served their country in the Armed Forces. 

Veteran John Gallagher – pauses among mementous of his precious service to the United 
States Navy in the photo by The Tri-Town News author Denise Marshall.  Back in 1957 
when he worked at IBM, John holds an enlarged photo in one hand while the actual shrapnel 
is in the other.  This piece, and another which came loose 14 years later, had been lodged in 
his head since D-Day when he lost his eye when hit by the shrapnel from a German artillery 
shell.