A few years ago, on the anniversary of D-Day, Frank DeSorbo took a buddy who had taken part in the invasion of Normandy out to dinner.
It was the only time all day that anyone had acknowledged the anniversary, the friend told him.
The comment stuck with DeSorbo. People make a big deal out of the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he thought. D-Day should get its due, too.
So DeSorbo decided to do something about it. Last year, he held the first local D-Day rememberance event, with some 30 veterans who fought at Normandy showing up to the Holiday Inn Express in Latham. He will hold his second event this year and has 45 veterans signed up.
DeSorbo isn’t a veteran himself. He doesn’t have any special connection to D-Day. He admires all men and women who have served our country under any circumstances.
“It just happens to be I’ve zoned into this,” he said.
Part of it is that D-Day is not as widely recognized as other events. DeSorbo is also struck by the fact that American troops knew what they were getting into at Normandy and persevered.
“This was the good fight,” he said. “It was for the right reasons.”
A former school administrator, DeSorbo, 64, considers his D-Day work a way to volunteer in retirement. But it comes at a price. For last year’s ceremony, DeSorbo had booklets printed featuring biological information on each of the veterans who attended. He presented each one with a plaque.
Although he covered many of the expenses out of his own pocket, DeSorbo made sure to note, “I’ve got a lot of good friends.”
And the cause struck a chord. “A lot of people do things for veterans,” he said.
When DeSorbo first decided to put together a D-Day ceremony, he wasn’t sure where to start looking for local survivors. He decided to try the New York State Military Musuem in Saratoga, where he was able to track down names and phone numbers, but more often than not, the numbers weren’t in service.
“You know darn well what happened,” he said, lamenting the men who passed away before he could get in touch with them.
Next he turned to local VFW posts, but that didn’t prove particularly fruitful either.
Everything changed when DeSorbo’s story hit the press.
“I kind of got bombarded,”he said.
Not that he’s complaining. DeSorbo was thrilled to hear from as many veterans as he did and even more excited that the number has grown this year. He hopes to turn the ceremony into an annual event that will only get larger than the 250 people who showed up last year.
He smiles remembering one table that had 16 people. It’s special for the veterans to be honored, he said.
And it’s special for DeSorbo to be part of it. Recalling some of the feedback he got, he pulled off his glasses and wiped away a few tears. Some relatives told him family members hadn’t talked much about D-Day until being invited to DeSorbo’s event.
When DeSorbo took his friend out to dinner that night a few years ago, he joked that it was because D-Day stood for Dinner Day. In truth, he admits he, like many people, wasn’t sure what D-Day stood for. D-Day and H-Hour are the date and time the military intends to carry out an operation. The invasion of Normandy was carried out on June 6, 1944.
DeSorbo hopes the date will stick with future generations the way Dec. 7, the date the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, has been ingrained in so many people’s minds.
If you or someone you know was part of D-Day and would like to take part in the second D-Day rememberance ceremony, contact DeSorbo at [email protected] or 439-9265. He also welcomes volunteers and is looking for someone with expertise in making movies.
