sometimes they would be in worse shape than the men they was trying to take care of. we all had what we called a buddy and we knew that that buddy would give his life for us and vice versa. reporter: onofrio zicari remembers the orders. the officers were saying, let s go in, man. we got to i can t even get up, for god s sakes. i mean, it was just fire over your heads all the time. reporter: vincent unger, second class signalman in the navy. the water was from an orange to a deep red for miles, 20 miles down the coast. reporter: more than 4,000 allied troops were killed, but their brothers would prevail. when you go back to normandy, i m sure you ll be thinking of some of those brothers you lost. yep. that s right. reporter: what does this trip mean to you? well, it s my last trip here, i expect, because of my age.
english time. reporter: that would be all he wrote for five harrowing days. i didn t have time to do any entries. the next one was the 11th. reporter: harold, at 94, drives to airport. he s going back. so is jack claiborne from dyersburg, tennessee. this is me sitting there. reporter: harold himmelsbach was raised in yakima, washington. he s now packing the letters he wrote to his mother just days after d-day. you write, i ll leave all the bloody details to be written to leo. yeah, he s my brother. reporter: your brother? i tell him. reporter: harold with descriptions of war he thought only a brother should hear. vincent unger from orlando, florida. this is my baby, my ship. reporter: vincent going back, too. onofrio zicari, las vegas, nevada. part of the fifth amphibious brigade on d-day. that s our company patch. we wore this on our shoulders, on our jackets. reporter: all of them leaving home again.
i didn t realize the what war was until that day. it was awful. reporter: at 96, he remembers d-day, even the smell. to this day, i have flashbacks. i ll smell diesel oil, right away i ll think of d-day. can t help it. i just can t help it. jack claiborne, dyersburg, tennessee. he was a gunner on that day. seeing all of these boys that was killed and just laying there on the beach. it was just it was just tough for a little old kid to handle. and we were all young. reporter: vincent unger, orlando, florida, in the navy. we were the first on that beach, on utah. terrible sound, from the cannons and the bomb dropping, everything all around us. it was a fire, explosions. reporter: and back on that ship, harold, who woke up at