Veteran says faith got him through D-Day duties at Normandy

Published: 2004-06-03

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The beaches of Normandy, France, seem a long way from Bethel, Conn., but many of the lessons about life that Joseph P. Vaghi Jr. learned in his home town probably prepared him to take part in the D-Day landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Vaghi's family and his Catholic faith have always been central to his life. Vaghi joined the Navy and was commissioned an ensign. He completed a degree in philosophy at Providence College in Rhode Island and went to midshipman's school at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He was assigned to duty as a platoon commander with the Naval Amphibious Forces. First he trained along the Atlantic seaboard, then on the coast of England. "We knew a good deal about what we were going into. We were so well-prepared," he told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese. Vaghi, who will turn 84 June 27, received a special assignment -- to be a beach master in the Normandy invasion. "My job was that of a traffic cop, on a very heavily trafficked intersection, with everything coming from every direction," he said.

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