PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Their dads have been gone for several years now, but Sandee Laezza Pearce and Diana M. Lara met via Zoom on this D-Day anniversary to talk about their fathers’ place in history.
“When I think of how young our dads were it just blows my mind,” said Lara.
“And the bravery. How did they do that,” said Pearce.
Watch the full Zoom interview below:
Back in 2012, I interviewed Army veteran Alphonse Lara who was living in Pasco County.
He had been part of the first wave to storm Omaha Beach.
After we aired his story, the family of another D-Day veteran also living in Pasco County got in touch with me. His name is Al Laezza.
It turned out both were in the same Army unit but never knew each other.
Both men were members of the 294th Joint Assault Signal Company (JASCO), a specialized unit of about 380 men whose job was to set up radio and phone communications during the invasion.
We were there when they met for the first time.
“I don’t care how old I get as long as I’m healthy,” Laezza said in 2012.
I also traveled with them and many other veterans to Washington D.C. on an honor flight.
The day was filled with emotion, especially when they visited the World War Two Memorial.
“I’m speechless. I got chills,” Lara told me in 2013.
“It brings back a lot of memories. I got tears in my eyes,” Laezza said.
Both men never talked to their families much about D-Day.
“He said that was the day his hair turned white and his pants turned brown,” Pearce said.
“My dad was so skinny and his backpack pulled him backward and he started drowning. And I do believe it was his commanding officer that pulled him up and out of the water,” Lara said.
“I don’t want to think about it a lot because it frightens me. He had to be so scared. So afraid. They all did,” Pearce said.
“We never knew he was on the first wave of Normandy until about three years prior to his passing. That generation is the greatest generation,” Lara said.
Lara was 90 when he died in 2014 just a short time after going on the Honor Flight.
Laezza was 94 when he passed away in 2018.
