Seventy-five years to the day after he stormed the beaches of France on D-Day in World War II, highly decorated veteran Carl Mann was given a hero’s farewell as he was buried on the historic invasion’s anniversary Thursday.

The Indiana-born soldier, who earned three Purple Hearts and seven Bronze Stars for his bravery, was part of the second wave of Allied troops to land on Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

He died in his native Evansville, at the age of 96 in March, before being interned Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. Dozens of Mann’s loved ones, including six of his surviving children, were at the funeral, according to the Evansville Courier & Press.

Eldest son Carl Mann II was presented with the American flag draped over his father’s coffin.

“My brothers and sisters have been aching since dad passed,” youngest son Miles Mann told the paper. “It’s nice to finally lay him here at Arlington and let him go home. The rest of us can understand it’s time to turn the page.”

Mann spoke regularly in elementary schools about WWII and recalled to the Courier & Press how soldiers returning from war burst into tears when they sailed into New York Harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty.

“Old lady, I’ve been to hell and back for you — and it was worth it,” Mann remembered saying to the statue, teary-eyed.

One of his Bronze Stars was earned after he reportedly spent three days carrying around a wounded comrade, refusing to leave him.

The war hero returned to southern Indiana and raised seven children with wife Dolores while reportedly working seven days a week as a mechanic until retiring on his 92nd birthday.

Mann’s various awards were scattered in sock drawers and cigar boxes or were lost entirely, and he struggled with survivor guilt and PTSD, family said.

“I would have gladly turned all of those awards in and never gotten them if all of my friends I served with got to come home,” he would say.

An estimated 416,800 American soldiers died during the war, according to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

According to son Miles, Mann didn’t talk about his experiences for more than 60 years until one grandson asked him 10 years ago which side of the war he was on.

Mann committed the last decade of his life to speaking at local elementary schools when he realized students weren’t being taught about WWII anymore.

He still became emotional when speaking of his friends who never made it home and was apparently very uncomfortable whenever called a hero.

Those who got to hear Mann speak described him as a gifted storyteller who bridged the gap between generations.

“He moved the entire crowd,” said Mike Goebel, a teacher at Mater Dei HS in Indiana. “He left them totally quiet and in awe of his story.”

“We search for role models, we search for heroes, and Carl Mann would be the last person to ever say he was a hero,’” Goebel said.