Use controls above or click here to open this Hometown Heroes podcast in a new window

The June 1, 2013 edition of Hometown Heroes features audio from both General Dwight D. Eisenhower and President Franklin D. Roosevelt as it was heard on June 6, 1944. As we mark the 69th anniversary of “D-Day”, we also hear a rare first-hand account of Normandy’s Omaha Beach on “the longest day”. 92-year-old Phillip E. “Pete” Hauck of Fresno, CA, was there as a demolition man with the 502nd Engineer Company. Along with 13 fellow engineers, Hauck used C2 explosives to knock out two German bunkers from which Nazi machine guns had been mowing down waves of Allied troops as they hit the beach.

One of the bunkers, or Widerstandsnests, that Pete and his team disabled. For many more photos relating to Pete’s story, visit the Hometown Heroes page on facebook.

That was one of the official actions his unit was assigned after driving throw waist-high water onto the beach about 10:00 a.m. on June 6th. But the story of how they had an open path to drive onto that now sacred sand goes back into the early morning hours of that fateful day.

That red arrow on the map Pete is pointing to depicts the “E2” entry point at Omaha Beach. This is where Pete and his fellow engineers came ashore that morning, and the very same spot he had visited hours earlier on a secret mission he recalls on Hometown Heroes. Floating in on a 22-foot raft equipped with a silent electric motor, Pete and his team attached timer-detonated explosives to German tank obstructions, opening a path for Allied vehicles in the unprecedented assault that morning.

Pete was eventually wounded at the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Day, 1944, but you won’t hear those details on this week’s program. This represents just a portion of Pete’s experiences. I originally interviewed Pete in 2011, and you can hear the entire discussion here in PART 1 and PART 2.

One thing that is discussed in this program is his love for a young lady named Beverly. He proposed before heading overseas, but at the advice of her father, waited to marry her until he returned. Beverly wrote him a letter a day for two years, and the Haucks still have those letters, some of them yet unopened! Pete says they open a few every anniversary, and even after celebrating 68 years of marriage in April, they still have plenty left for future anniversaries. Pete’s holding a pristine piece of V-mail in the photo below.

Yes, that entire briefcase between Pete and Beverly is packed with letters to and from war. Pete takes pride in his Purple Heart, his Bronze Star, his French Croix de guerre and other decorations, but is also eager to chat about his more recent exploits as an author. What he derives the most pride and fulfillment from are his 3 children, 11 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren: 30 individuals who would have never been born if he didn’t survive one of the most bloody and pivotal days of World War II. Thanks to Pete’s next-door neighbor, Stan Ryan, for letting me know about this Hometown Hero. If you run into Pete at church, the Exchange Club, or anywhere else, make sure you thank him for serving our country. You might also ask him about the latest project his 92-year-old hands just finished.
—Paul Loeffler