Tom joined the Army at age 19 in 1940 and served in the 101st Airborne Division’s “Screaming Eagles.” Shortly after midnight on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Tom parachuted into Normandy from a C-47 that had been hit by anti-aircraft “flak,” as part of the largest military campaign ever undertaken. Tom, armed with a submachine gun, landed near Utah Beach and heavily armed German forces, fought in Normandy for over a month while sheltering in hunting holes, helped capture hundreds of German soldiers, and was wounded by shrapnel and a sniper bullet in his left knee. Tom also parachuted into Holland during Operation Market Garden and fought in the Battle of the Bulge where he was seriously wounded when sniper bullets tore a leg and the radial below an elbow. After one month, he re-joined his regiment in Austria. Tom’s military honors include a Purple Heart with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, 2 Invasion Arrows, Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star with Cluster, Good Conduct Medal, French Fourragère, Belgium Fourragère and the Parachutist Badge (“Jump Wings”). In 2015, France honored Tom as a Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest award granted to foreign nationals for military service on French soil, in recognition of his heroic service during the Invasion of Normandy in the liberation of France. Tom is 98, lives in San Diego with his wife Brenda, and jumped in tandem last year during the 75th anniversary celebrations of D-Day and Market Garden.