Todd P. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, August 5, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 695

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TODDP. MITH 5,2004 at me and he had blood up to here [indicates]. He took a scalpel or something and h poked me and asked, "Does that hurt?" I said, "It's hurts." He said, 'You've got appendicitis." I thought, "Well, they're going to operate right now." They gave me a bed in one of the evacuation tents. This was while the invasion was still underway. There was a young man in the bed next to me who was in total shock. In World War I they called it, I don't know, battle fatigue or whatever. He didn't know where he was or what happened. This nurse said, "Will you kind of look after him while you're awake?" I said, "Yes, I'll be glad to." He kept wanting cigarettes all the time but I couldn't give him one. I really felt sorry for him. He couldn't have been more than nineteen. The pain in my side began to ease up a little bit. So a doctor came by the next day. There was an awful lot of racket on the beach. They were bombing it and everything else. He said, "Well, it looks like you're going to make it all right. If you want to leave, you can leave." I got up from the bed and went to one of these replacement depots that they had helmets and rifles and everything else. He said, "Who are you with?" I said, "I was with the 90th Division." He said, "Take whatever you want." So I took an Ml and a helmet and I finally found my unit. They were up there in the trees. Everybody was screwed up. We had the 82nd Airborne. They had two As back to back (for an insignia patch). We had the Rangers. We had everybody all mixed up. The Rangers had gone in first. One of the Rangers came up to me after we got settled and he had a German with him. The German was in uniform and had black boots on him. I thought, "What's this guy doing here?" He said, "This guy is my buddy." I said, "How did that work out?" He said, "He laid on top of me all night long to protect me from the shelling." I thought, "That was 12