NEWBURYPORT — Jim Cullen was just 24 years old when he landed on Utah Beach to fight on one of the most important and bloody days of World War II. He is one of the few remaining veterans of D-Day, the invasion of the beach in Normandy, France, that helped the U.S. forces penetrate Europe, reach Berlin and halt the Nazis.
Cullen's role was as a "land sailor" for the Navy. His B Company, which lost four men that day, was attached to the Army and helped secure Utah Beach.
"Not many people know that there were a lot of land sailors in war," Cullen said. "We were on the beach with guns in our hands."
Memories flooded back to the 89-year-old during a ceremony for veterans at Atria Merrimack Place in Newburyport, where a photograph of Cullen, in his 20s, in his Navy garb hung on the senior living facility's brand new "Wall of Honor."
"It's a wonderful idea," Cullen said of the wall. "It brings up some good memories and some not-so-good memories."
After reading a poem about the freedoms Americans enjoy due to the sacrifice of veterans, Atria executive director Donna Burns unveiled the wall, which features 11 framed photographs of veterans who now reside there, including Cullen — who lived for many years in Rowley, Georgetown and Byfield.
With patriotic music playing in the background, Atria residents, veterans and their families took in the black and white photographs of Cullen, Richard Rice, John Grepp, Renee Renaud, Bob Crevo, George Bonneau, John Callahan, Joe Sexton, Al Hillard, Bud Walsh and Lawrence Robillard in their military uniforms, and decades-old memories came flooding back.
"I wouldn't recognize anyone here," said John Callahan, formerly of Newbury, who joined the Navy in 1945 at the age of 18.
Many of the photographs are just like Callahan's — the faces of young men, many just out of high school, some still in high school, who either joined voluntarily or got drafted into the service.
They were faces just like Cpl. Ricky Southers, who has spent seven months serving in Afghanistan and is going back overseas Saturday after a 10-day Thanksgiving break.
The 21-year-old said he was honored to be part of the event at Atria, where his wife works.
"It makes me feel great," Southers said. "They had it a lot harder than we do now, and it makes me appreciate what they have done before us. They gave us the name we have now."
Despite a generational gap, the veterans showed their brotherhood when Southers, along with veterans Renee Renaud and Bud Walsh, folded an American flag and put it on display with the photographs.
"It was great to fold the flag, and I liked the reading about what freedoms we have today," said Walsh, a Navy veteran, who served in the Korean War from 1952 to 1956, and is a retired state police captain.
Burns, who worked on the project for over two months, said the project was a labor of love — a way to say thank-you to the veterans. She had asked Atria's veterans and their families for photographs, which were copied, framed and mounted on the wall. Burns plans to put plaques featuring the veterans' names under the photographs. She said the project is ongoing, and there is plenty of room for more veterans on the wall.
"In the 10 years I have been here (at Atria), this is the proudest moment I have had," Burns said. "We're really honored to have these veterans here — the freedoms we have are because of them."
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