SOUTHWEST : Trip Gives Cadet a New View of D-Day

To 17-year-old Charles Butler, generations removed from World War II, D-day was something that lived only on a page in a history book.

But after touring England earlier this month and taking part in events commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-day, Butler says the massive military offensive mounted by Allied forces on June 6, 1944, lives in him now.

“A lot of people lost their family and friends,” said Butler, a Southwest Los Angeles resident and Hamilton High student. “They stood around me crying. . . . It’s very real for them, like it happened yesterday.”

Butler was one of 24 ROTC naval cadets from the American Southwest chosen by ROTC officials to make the two-week trip abroad earlier this month.

The group traveled to several English ports, saw President Clinton and French President Francois Mitterand at D-day events and heard testimonies--many of them eyewitness accounts of D-day--by veterans and civilians from Canada, France and other countries.

One veteran told Butler he parachuted to the wrong spot, about 20 miles north of the appointed place on Normandy beach.

“But he said it turned out good, because he wound up fighting and making a difference anyway,” Butler said.

And while the cadets performed military drills for such royalty as the Queen Mother and Prince Philip, they were getting the red-carpet treatment from the British.

“We were treated like royalty,” said Butler, the only African American in his group. “They saw us as diplomatic guests, even though we’re young. It was kind of a shock to come back here and be treated like a kid again.”

Butler and the cadets stayed on the Bristol, a British destroyer, and toured Southampton and London. He visited the Tower of London, the Crown Jewels and the room where Dwight Eisenhower mapped out D-day strategies with other military commanders.

But Butler said the most enduring experience will be honoring D-day.

“If it wasn’t for D-day,” he said, “the Germans might have won the war. And the world would be a very different place today.”