On 82nd anniversary of D-Day, Spokane-area siblings remember father who stormed Omaha Beach

Lawrence Stingley and the soldiers who fought beside him were the only ones who knew exactly what it was like storming Omaha Beach 82 years ago.

Like many veterans, Stingley didn't share many details about his horrific combat experiences to his children, who are now in their 70s.

It's fair to assume Stingley, like other members of the U.S. Army First Infantry Division, endured a barrage of intense machine gunfire from German forces on high ground as Americans slowly marched across what would become the deadliest battle on beach when Allied forces invaded Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day.

Stingley's two children, Larry Stingley Jr. and Linda Peters, said the one detail they do know about their father's experience during Operation Overlord was that he witnessed fellow soldiers drowning in front of his eyes after they stepped off their ship near Omaha Beach's shore. Seeing this, their father, who was 21 at the time, asked for a second flotation belt to keep him afloat as he scurried the short distance to the shoreline as part of the first wave of Allied soldiers on the beach.

"He said they'd go underwater and then sometimes they would come up, and some of them would not come up," said Stingley Jr., a Vietnam War veteran who served as a U.S. Navy radioman. "So, they drowned right there just getting right off the ship."

Mike Jones, keynote speaker Wednesday at a Spokane Falls Community College D-Day commemoration, called the beach invasions a "perilous business."

"Some troops drowned after jumping off into water that was deeper than expected, while others disappeared under landing craft as they were suddenly swept forward after discharging their loads," Jones said. "Even light injuries could prove fatal, with wounded men heavily weighed down with equipment unable to drag themselves from the sea."

The heaviest casualties were suffered by the Americans landing at Omaha Beach, protected by landmines, barbed wire, huge, steel anti-tank hedgehogs, and surrounded by cliffs and bluffs rising to 150 feet.

American forces on Omaha Beach suffered around 3,700 casualties on June 6, including over 2,200 killed, said Jones, a Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam War.

"Allied planners had always known Omaha would be the most difficult of the five landing zones," he said. "It proved even harder than they had anticipated."

Stingley survived the battle and the war. He left the Army as a staff sergeant after the war ended in 1945 and took home Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals, according to a plaque on the younger Stingley's wall inside his Greenacres home.

Stingley Jr. said his father was wounded three times on European battlefields, including from a "Bouncing Betty" landmine that left shrapnel in his leg.

Stingley got married to Mable in January 1946 and they had Stingley Jr. and Peters.

The elder Stingley worked for the Milwaukee Road railroad in Lewistown, Montana, where the family of four were from. After the railroad closed in Lewistown, the family moved to Spokane Valley, where relatives lived, about a decade after the war.

Stingley Jr. said his dad got a job with Northern Pacific Railway and stayed in the Spokane area until his death in 2010. He was 87.

Peters, an Inland Northwest Honor Flight board member, said her father, as part of an Honor Flight three months before his death, visited Washington, D.C., memorials honoring war veterans' service.

Many World War II veterans are nearing or exceeding the century mark. About 45,000 veterans of the war are alive as of last year.

Two of them were honored Wednesday at the Spokane Falls Community College D-Day commemoration, which was hosted by the school's French Club.

Joseph "Pat" Tully, a 105-year-old veteran of the Army Signal Corps, and Bill Beckstrom, a 99-year-old U.S. Navy veteran machinist mate aboard the U.S.S. Curtiss in the Pacific, received applause from the roughly 50 people in attendance Wednesday.

A Japanese Kamikaze pilot struck the Curtiss at the Battle of Okinawa, wounding Beckstrom and killing 35 of the crew.

Tully was serving in Weymouth, England, across the English Channel from Normandy.

He said he remembered the Weymouth harbor full of ships the day before D-Day. The next morning, the harbor was empty. A British soldier told him "the invasion is on."

Tully, who grew up in Sprague, Washington, and now lives in Spokane, was unaware Allied forces would launch the largest seaborne invasion in military history.

"At that time, you didn't know anything," he said.

Jones detailed on Wednesday the Allied invasion of Normandy, which ultimately pushed German forces back into Nazi-occupied France and paved the way to victory in World War II.

Jones' parents served in World War II, including his mother who served in the Women's Army Corps as a radio operator with the 392nd Signal Company.

"My mom and Pat probably walked in each other's boot tracks, and I'm proud to say that my mother really did wear combat boots," Jones said.

This year's D-Day commemoration focused on minority groups, like African-Americans, who greatly contributed to the Allies' victory during the war but often weren't appropriately credited until decades later.

U.S. Army Cpl. Waverly Woodson Jr., a Black combat medic on Omaha Beach, was one of the heroes Jones mentioned.

Woodson suffered a shrapnel wound to the abdomen while aboard a boat approaching the beach, Jones said. Under continuous mortar and machine gunfire, Woodson gave himself a shot of morphine and for 30 hours cared for more than 200 soldiers.

Woodson's Bronze Star was eventually upgraded to the Army's second highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross. It was awarded after his death to his surviving family members two years ago on Omaha Beach.

"We owe everything today to all who served in that horrible conflict called World War II," Jones said. "Whether serving overseas or at home, they never considered themselves heroes. They will say that they just did their job."

Eddy Cuisinier, a native of Paris and adviser to Spokane Falls Community College's French Club that sponsored the commemoration event this week, said the club has hosted the D-Day event for several years in an effort to recognize the sacrifices of veterans.

"We want to do more than just reciting facts," Cuisiner said. "We really want people to be involved firsthand. We want people to do something that will matter to them and to our community."

Jones is one of those who recognizes the sacrifices of World War II veterans.

"Had the Allies not been victorious, if you know history, you will understand that many, if not all of us, would not be here today enjoying our freedoms," he said.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.