POINTE DU HOC, Normandy - Ignoring the admonitions of the

men in uniforms, Donald Pechacek slipped through the barbed

wire that shields bystanders from the edge of the cliff,

pausing to flash a quick grin at his kids before his silver-topped

head popped out of view.

The kids weren't that worried. After all, Dad had done this

before.

Pechacek is 72, a retired postal worker and farmer who has

never made a home more than five miles from the spot where

he was raised in a tiny township outside Ellsworth, Wis.

He's cut back on his acreage - it's down to about 120 now

- but he still sells home-grown vegetables in the summer.

He and his wife, Peg, still enjoy their wartime romance;

they met while he was stationed in Wales and have eight

grown children. Oh, every now and then, some military historian

from New York or London will write him, but he rarely answers.