The thing Ben Asquith remembers most about D-Day was the sound of the machine guns.

The 94-year-old World War II veteran was a machinist third class for the Navy when he landed on Omaha Beach 75 years ago. Though June 6, 1944, was hectic with history’s largest amphibious invasion landing in Normandy, the clearest detail to him is still the firepower.

“The most vivid thing in my mind about the invasion was the noise,” Asquith, wearing his sailor’s uniform and a boutonniere, said. “It was war.”

Asquith and two other veterans told dozens about their experiences on the day experts say changed World War II at the Oregon Historical Society on Thursday. The “A Celebration of Heroes” event allowed dozens to meet World War II veterans.

Vancouver resident Abe Laurenzo was on one of the first ships carrying soldiers to land on Omaha Beach. While serving as a radioman, Laurenzo was part of a team responsible for unloading 200 troops in eight minutes. He spent the rest of the war bringing more men from England to other parts of Europe.

The consequences of war were lost on him at the time, he said. They got through the war “because God preserved us,” he said, but he did not realize until later the gravity of his experience.

“I think I was too dumb to appreciate the danger,” Laurenzo, who was 18 when he was deployed, told the audience with a chuckle. “I didn’t tremble or shiver about it.”

Asquith, a Dayton resident, agreed. He said his repeated training in Idaho before deployment left him treating the invasion like another drill.

“I had no feelings in that moment,” Asquith said. “If I had thought about it, I might have turned around and run. But our duty was to hit the beach, and that’s what we did.”

U.S. forces were a large part of the battle — 73,000 of the 85,000 Allied troops that day. Though the overall death toll is still being calculated, Veteran’s Legacies estimates four Oregonians died on D-Day and approximately 80 died throughout the Battle of Normandy, Executive Director Terry Howell said.

Dozens thanked the veterans for their service, which they all said was humbling. But Laurenzo said he sees remembrances of World War II, like Thursday’s, differently. He said the value of veterans from other 20th-century wars has been largely ignored and urged others to honor them, too.

“When I meet a Korean or a Vietnam vet, I am really, really sad," Laurenzo said. "They were not celebrated the way we were. Especially the Vietnam War veterans. I break down in tears when I hear what they went through. We were celebrated. We did our job, we came home – people appreciated what we did.”

-- McKenna Ross

mross@oregonian.com

503-221-5776; @mckenna_ross_

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