On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Harold Shebeck, an Army captain in the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, crash landed in the craft that was taking his unit to battle.
As a logistics officer, and later as a security and intelligence officer, Shebeck had already served in major battles of the war, and after D-Day, he would see service at the Battle of the Bulge and the crossing into Germany.
Shebeck, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, died June 9.
The longtime Richfield resident was 92.
During the course of the war, Shebeck served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany. He weathered sniper fire in Normandy and artillery barrages during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
His son, Bob of Minnetonka, said his father was a laid-back person, having taken a nap during the glider ride from Britain to France.
"How could you do that?" asked his son. "'Well, there was nothing I could do about it up in the air,' replied Shebeck. "Once we got on land, we were not going to get any sleep."
His glider's occupants weathered the crash-landing, although the pilot sheered off the wheels of the craft on the region's hedgerows.
Shebeck always paid attention to detail and was a fine storyteller, resulting in his experiences being retold in several books and publications, said his son. He was also a speaker at Fort Snelling's World War II History Roundtable.
Shebeck prompted chuckles with the tale about an unworldly U.S. sergeant. Amid the chaos of D-Day, a Frenchman appeared, telling the soldiers of a town where they could get food and shelter, not long abandoned by the Germans.
"My father told the sergeant to check it out," and when the sergeant returned, he reported the "most amazing thing," said his son. "The people all spoke French, even the little children can speak French."
Shebeck was assigned to handle the dead of both sides of the war. Months later, he was assigned to find German infiltrators in U.S. uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge.
He later served in Germany, returning to France to serve in the administration of two prisoner of war camps in Dijon.
He was awarded a Bronze Star and wore the Combat Infantryman Badge.
The Hillsboro, Wis., native was a graduate of Wisconsin's Ripon College, where he received his commission as an Army officer in 1937.
In the late 1930s, he was a teacher, coach and principal of a high school in Bison, S. D., before being called to active duty in 1941.
Early in the war, he served on Gen. Omar Bradley's staff in the United States.
He moved to Richfield in 1951. In civilian life, he was a claims examiner for the Social Security Administration and served in the Reserves, specializing in intelligence and national security.
He retired from the military in 1965 and the Social Security Administration in 1976.
His son said a visit to Normandy with his family in 1996 was a "high point" of his life.
"Through his knowledge of the area and his wonderful memory, we got within a half-mile of where his glider crash landed."
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife of 66 years, Ethel of Edina; daughter, Karen Allard of Woodbury; and five grandchildren,
Services have been held.
