Donald Schoo stormed Omaha Beach at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Upon his arrival at the beach, he recalled thinking, “This must be what hell looks like.” Schoo said the beach was nothing but fire and brimstone.

A few months earlier in the Pacific, Foster Looney was piloting his SB2C Curtis Helldiver dive bomber to attack a Japanese target. He said all he could see were trees. The only way he was able to locate his target was when the enemy started shooting at his plane.

These two World War II veterans told their heroic stories at the DeKalb Public Library Tuesday night, celebrating Veteran’s Day.

Schoo quit school and was drafted into the Army in 1943 when he was 18. He was trained as a machine gunner in Gen. George Patton’s Army. Schoo went to camp and said it was only three days before they started training for the invasion of Normandy.

When Schoo landed on the beach, he said they must have only traveled 10 yards before their vehicle hit a land mine. He knew that the invasion would not be easy by any means. They spent three days on the beach before moving on.

On Dec. 16, 1944, Schoo and his men fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Schoo remembers how awful the conditions were with blowing snow and temperatures down to 15 below zero. He said the American troops were still in their summer clothes because the winter uniforms hadn’t reached them.

“1944 was not a good year for me,” Schoo said while laughing. “They threw everything at us but Hitler himself. The S.S. was nothing but a bunch of thieves and criminals. We’d whip them every time.”

Schoo said the saddest part of the war was when he was at Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar, Germany. He and his friend John were delivering supplies to the camp and were in the third truck of a convoy entering Buchenwald.

As soon as they got 15 yards past the front gates, they were shocked at what they saw and smelled, Schoo said.

“We got sick instantly,” Schoo said. “I’m hanging out one door and he was hanging out the other door.”

The camp had run out of fuel, so instead of burning the deceased people, the bodies were lining the streets. Schoo said there were 300 people living in barracks made for 50.

Schoo came back to his captain and told him he was never going back to Buchenwald again. The captain then visited the camp. When he returned, he told Schoo he had made the right decision.

He said Patton took the mayor of Weimar along with his wife and daughter to the camp to show them what had happened there. After their visit, all three committed suicide.

After hearing Schoo’s story, Looney said he was glad that he was in the Navy and not the Army.

Looney was a pilot stationed on the USS Hornet. He enlisted in the Navy when he was 20 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

When in bombing formation, Looney was at the tail end of the six-man team. This was not the best place to be, he said, because the last plane usually took on the most damage. Instead of diving down slowly and releasing his bombs, he devised a new plan.

Looney dove down on his targets at top speed to avoid taking on damage. He said his accuracy was just as good as other pilots.

Dee Coover, DeKalb Public Library director, said it’s important for everyone to learn about the past, especially when it comes to events like World War II. She said demonstrations of pride are important, but to hear these two veterans speak is the “real deal.”