Frank DeVita joined the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II thinking his job would be to protect the American coast. But his war service would be much different than expected when the Navy decided to use Coast Guard personnel the responsibility of manning many of the landing crafts used during invasions.

DeVita was assigned to a Higgins boat headed for Omaha Beach in the early hours of D-Day, June 6, 1944. And it was his job to drop the ramp, knowing full well that many of the soldiers on his boat would be killed within seconds.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," DeVita describes what he experienced moment-by-moment in the horror of that first wave at Omaha Beach, how American ships helped the soldiers advance up the beach and the bluffs, and his role in recovering the bodies of America's fallen heroes that day.

DeVita also describes his service in the Pacific during the time of the Battle of Okinawa and the grave danger American vessels faced from Japanese kamikaze pilots.