WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — In honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Warner Robins Heritage Society threw an event to celebrate the lives of Central Georgia veterans who served in World War II.
The celebration started at 9:17 a.m., the same time that the official statement announcing the Normandy invasion was released 75 years ago.
"When I found out in January that this was the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I said, 'Oh, we have got to do something,'" says the event's organizer, Karen Sisk.
Sisk knew one Warner Robins native that fought at D-Day and decided to try to find as many as possible throughout Central Georgia.
"I started two years ago," says Sisk. "Since calling into different VFWs and all kinds of organizations, we're up to 50 in Warner Robins that we know of."
13 of those veterans were in attendance on Thursday at the Museum of Aviation. After a presenting of the color guard, Sisk acknowledged each veteran's life and their service.
"This has made me feel good," says WWII veteran Crawford Hicks. "This helps people to understand what we did better."
Hicks served in the Air Corps and Air Force for 24 years. During WWII, Hicks was a prisoner of war at a Nazi POW camp in Germany for 11 months before he was rescued.
His experience is one of many dramatized in the 1963 film, "The Great Escape."
"I'm honored. I'm really honored. It's so nice of everybody," says Hicks. "I appreciate that very much. I'm just a survivor, that's all I am."
The event was followed with a luncheon for the veterans and their families.
The Warner Robins Heritage Society is an organization dedicated to preserving and remembering the history of Warner Robins.