Omaha Beach - A Survivor's Story

This new book is written by a World War II D-Day survivor





Warrior to Spiritual Warrior: The Soldier’s Journey by Jess Weiss with Chuck Noell recounts a rare and remarkable personal story of spiritual healing. Jess Weiss is a decorated member of the Greatest Generation, one of the few combat soldiers from the landing at Omaha Beach, D-Day, who lived to tell the tale. This book is not about the blood and guts or the glory of a soldier’s life, it is about coping with death and dying, surviving fifty years of “Why me?” survivor guilt, and the ravages of Post Traumatic Stress (an impairment that didn’t have a name in World War II.) It is the tale of how one man climbed out of the dark pit of debilitating injury to forge a path of spiritual resurrection and transformation for himself. Whether you are religious, spiritual, or simply concerned about the long-term effects of war, this book will inspire hope and renew your faith in what is grand and great about the human adventure.

Click on article to enlarge: Postscript - Staff Sergeant Herbert Siegal was found and Jess Weiss was reunited with him. Courtesy of Tom Brokaw, the 2 men were sent back to Normandy together.

Click on title for link to Warrior to Spiritual Warrior: The Soldier's Journey, the new book by Jess E. Weiss

Emotional numbing of combat

The article by Mark Van Ells (click on post title for link) published in VFW magazine in 2002 demonstrates how for a small number of WWII vets the war never ended. According to the author, only about 6% of the 16 million servicemen actually saw sustained combat. Maybe that's why the myth of the well-adjusted WWII vet began. So many had not seen combat and therefore had not experienced the trauma of war. My dad, a paratrooper, told me that when he came home, nobody wanted hear about that side of war. So they were left silent with no outlet or support.