Public invited to attend D-Day anniversary event

June 6 marks the 80th anniversary of the World War II operation D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in military history.

The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by more than 195,000 naval personnel from eight countries. Almost 133,000 troops from the United States, the British Commonwealth and their allies landed on D-Day, according to the National Archives.

To commemorate the event, the public is invited to attend a “Voices of Overlord: Northland Connections to the Great Crusade” at the Chequamegon Bay Veteran’s Center in Ashland starting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Presenters Jason Janecek and Walter Gurske will focus on the Chequamegon Bay veterans who played a role in the “great crusade.”

In the presentation, Gurske and Janecek will highlight Hjalmar “Okie Olkonen, George B. “Chappie” Wood, Walter C. “Bud” Kegel, Elizabeth “Beth” Kegel, and Eugene P. Brinker, and also talk about the USS Bayfield APA-33 and the 179th Fighter Squadron.

According to information they provided, Olkonen, of Ironwood, was in the 82nd Airborne Division. He served as a member of Able Battery, 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion. He had previously served in the Naples sector in Italy before he took part in Operation Elmira, the 82nd‘s phase of the airborne assault on Normandy.

Wood also served in the 82nd Airborne Division. Before serving as a chaplain with the 82nd Airborne’s 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Wood had been minister at Ashland’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. He would go on to earn the distinction of being the only chaplain to make every combat jump of the war, and wrote the “Airborne Prayer,” according to information provided.

Walter Kegel was in the 29th Infantry Division of the US Army. Son of German immigrants, he served as a member of the 234th Engineer Combat Battalion, landing at Omaha Beach. Specially trained as amphibious assault engineers, they were to clear the obstacles for the infantry that followed them onto the shores of France, according to information provided. Beth Farmer had lived in London for the entirety of the war, having endured the hardships of the Blitz in 1940 and the hardships of the years to follow. Working at a war plant in the city, she would meet Private Walter Kegel at the movies, and the two would be engaged before he went to France, according to information provided.

Brinker was in the First Infantry Division of the US Army. Born and raised in Ashland, Brinker had served with the Big Red One in North Africa and Sicily before joining the assault on Normandy. During the landing on Omaha Beach, Private Brinker was killed in action, according to information provided.

The USS Bayfield APA-33 is the only ship in the Navy ever named for Bayfield County. This attack transport served as the command ship for the Utah Beach landings as well as the flagship for the US Coast Guard’s Assault Group O-1, tasked with landing units and supporting operations at Omaha Beach.

Today stationed at Duluth as a component of the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing, the 179th Squadron was operating P38 Lightning fighters from England in June of 1944, and was tasked with providing top cover for landing operations.