ST. PETER — June 6, 1944, is a date our country should strive to remember, believes Gabriela Roemhildt, an organizer of a local D-Day observance and related programming at the St. Peter Community Center.
“It’s a time to remind Americans of the part we played,” said Roemhildt, St. Peter’s assistant recreation program supervisor.
Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of the pivotal day in World War II when allied forces stormed the German-occupied beaches of Normandy.
Free programs are available this month for local residents interested in the military operation, which profoundly affected countries throughout the globe, including the war-weary United States.
One of the series speakers, Randal Dietrich, is the executive director of the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum near Little Falls. He was part of group that recently visited D-Day sites on the Normandy coast of northern of France.
“We got to walk in the footsteps of those who liberated France,” he said.
Dietrich’s St. Peter presentation is slated June 20.
He’ll also be the host for a virtual program 7 p.m. Thursday about Minnesotans who participated in the historic operation.
“Minnesotans who had loved ones at D-Day, history buffs, as well as others with deep respect for our nation’s Greatest Generation are invited to join in and listen to their stories,” he said.
During the museum’s program, attendees will have opportunities to ask questions about the storming of the beaches at Normandy.
Registration in advance is recommended. For information on how to participate, visit: mnvetmuseum.org or contact Dietrich at: rdietrich@mnmilitarymuseum.org.
Traverse des Sioux Library System has provided a grant to fund local educational activities that focus on D-Day and other military topics. The various activities are slated at St. Peter Community Center, 601 S. Washington Ave.
• A multi-media presentation by local historian Arn Kind is slated 2 p.m. Thursday. The free program, “D-Day! Operation Overload” is scheduled for more than an hour of information about the historical event.
• Episodes of the HBO series “Band of Brothers” will be shown 1 p.m. Mondays, June 3 through July 1, in Room 217 at the center.
• D-Day memorabilia is on display at the St. Peter Community Library, which is part of the community center.
• A presentation about the 99th All-Norwegian Infantry Battalion is set 2 p.m. June 12 in Room 219 at the center. Kyle Ward, the director of Social Studies Education at Minnesota State University, will discuss the World War II soldiers who trained at Fort Ripley.
• Diedrich’s program “Minnesota in the Global War on Terrorism” is slated 2 p.m. June 20.
Roemhildt is looking forward to hearing Diedrich’s profiles on people who served after 9/11. That’s when her husband, Mark, served in the military.
Twenty years ago, Mark, a retired Navy commander, was stationed in Italy about a day’s drive from the beaches of Normandy.
The couple cherishes their memories of celebrating the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Europe, Gabriela said.
“I was three months pregnant with our first child … I got to ride on a beach in a World War II Jeep!”
The military vehicle, one of many abandoned on the battlefield, had been restored by Belgium mechanics in appreciation of their country’s liberation from the Nazis a few months after the invasion by the Allies.
Roemhildt said she’s not aware of any surviving St. Peter residents who were part of the D-Day operation.
Centenarians Charles Sehe, of Mankato, and Merle Brinkman, of North Mankato, are among the area’s surviving military veterans who were part of the allied invasion.
Sehe was aboard the USS Nevada when the battleship fired the first shots of D-Day, bombarding German positions along Utah beach. Brinkman was a radio operator on a B-24 bomber that flew above the Normandy coast.