Rockford area World War II veterans showered with respect, gratitude in US, overseas

Gene Kleindl, of Capron, and Bill Hunter, of Roscoe, received a warm welcome home Tuesday at Finnegan's RV in South Beloit after attending an all-expenses paid, eight-day trip to Normandy, France, and other World War II sites in Europe.

Kleindl, 101, and Hunter, 100, are World War II veterans who were special guests of about a dozen people who made the trip including organizers and history buffs Carl Nuccio of Rockford, Mark Finnegan, owner of Finnegan's RV and co-founder of VetsRoll, and a documentary film crew, Drywater Productions, out of Janesville, Wis.

"I really had a great time," Kleindl said. "The French, they couldn't do enough for you. They had big banquets, lots of food to eat, pictures taken all over the place."

The last time Kleindl was there was nearly 80 years ago during World War II.

On June 8, 1944, known as D-Day+2, Kleindl, a member of the U.S. Army's 90th Infantry, 358th medical regiment, landed on Utah Beach along with other allied forces.

Even after 80 years, Kleindl said he could still recall the horrors of countless bodies on the shoreline.

More: For 101-year-old Rockford WWII veteran, holiday is about remembering friends lost in war

All told, Kleindle participated in at least 12 battles in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

"There was one German fellow we picked up and his foot was just hanging on by I don't know what," Kleindl said. "I looked at his face, and I thought he would be unhappy about that. But he wasn't. The war was over, and he was going to go home."

Kleindl said he was most impressed with the French people, who treated their party with nothing but respect and gratitude.

"The French people, they haven't forgotten," he said. "You have people who lived in that time, and they had their kids, and those kids had their kids and the information was passed down."

Hunter served in the U.S. Navy's Armed Guard as a gunner and signalman on merchant ships. He served on three ships and fought in the South Pacific in WWII. Until last month, he had never been to Normandy.

"We didn't know anything about what was going on with that war over there, and they didn't know what we were doing," he said. "In those days, communication wasn't like it is today. We didn't know anything until we went to a major city and read the newspaper."

He called the Normandy trip, "an opportunity of a lifetime."

"It was 10 times better than I ever thought it would be," Hunter said. "We had a professional tour guide with us all the time, and they were very knowledgeable about all the different sites we visited where the major battles had occurred."

Even though Hunter did not fight in Normandy, he said he felt a connection with those who did.

"I had a lot of friends in different branches of service who were in the invasion of Normandy," he said.

Two of those friends, he said, did not return home.

Once the documentary is produced, Finnegan said the plan is to distribute it through film festivals around the world. He said he hopes it reaches a certain audience.

"We're hoping Generation Z, that age group, will understand how important it is to keep this American history alive and not repeat it," he said.

The trip was sponsored by Beloit philanthropist Diane Hendricks and the Hendricks Family Foundation, ABC Supply, the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation and an anonymous family donation.

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford-area World War II veterans revisit Utah Beach, battle sites