NPR

World War II Paratrooper On Commemorating D-Day: 'Show Some Citizenship'

Leslie Cruise served as a paratrooper during the D-Day invasion, June 6, 1945. The 95-year-old veteran reflects on his survival often and believes he has an obligation to share his story.
Leslie Cruise, a World War II veteran, pays his respects to Pvt. Richard Vargas with a wreath laying ceremony at Lorraine American National Cemetery and Memorial, St. Avold, France, on June 2, 2014.

Retired Pvt. Leslie P. Cruise, 95, remembers June 6, 1944 clearly. Standing at the airplane's edge, preparing to jump onto the enemy lines of Normandy on D-Day, fear didn't occur to him.

"It was very moving and exciting," Cruise tells NPR's Noel King. "We fly over the channel, you can look out the window and see the silhouettes of the ships. We know what's going to

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