D-Day 2024: 100-year-old Bradenton Veteran reflects on 80th anniversary
NORMANDY - Reflection brings emotion on the very sands where Cosmo Uttero nearly died 80 years ago. The 100-year-old Bradenton veteran willfully harkens back to his days as a wide-eyed teenager who dropped out of high school his junior year to support Allied forces that were losing in Europe.
Barely a year later, he found himself in the middle of one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the world, fighting for his life. He was among the first wave of American soldiers to storm the beaches of Normandy for an amphibious invasion into German-occupied France.
He told FOX 13's Mark Wilson he had the shock of his life when he landed and remembers like it was yesterday.
READ: D-Day 2024: 80th anniversary is personal for FOX 13's Mark Wilson
"It's the first time I'd seen dead people floating around before," Uttero said.
An infantry soldier in the 29th Division, 175th Regiment, his Higgins landing craft stopped just short of the beach which plunged him into water deeper than he'd expected. He ditched everything on him, including his weapon, just to keep from drowning.
"I kept thinking, what is it like to die, you know? Is it gonna happen to me?" he said.
Then came the hail of gunfire. His bad day had just gotten worse when he realized he'd lost his rifle to keep from drowning. But what happened next is something no soldier would ever forget. Sadly, there were plenty of rifles to be found on the beach.
"Another fellow had fallen, so he didn't need it. So I picked up (his rifle) and headed for shore," he told FOX 13.
The 175th Regiment suffered 3,720 casualties on June 7, 1944, and Cosmo Uttero was one of only three men in his unit not to be injured or killed. But once he and his comrades took the beach, securing northern France in the following weeks, it changed the course of the war, putting Germany on its heels. German forces surrendered less than a year later.
"I don't think the youth of today realize what we did. I speak to some of them, they don't even know what the war was all about," Uttero told FOX 13.
He admits that is a little frustrating.
But Cosmo's next order was the one that changed his life. While sweeping German houses for soldiers and arms when he met Erika, a German woman who captured his heart. Later, his engagement photo was a favorite of the soldiers he'd been guarding. One of them, a German prisoner, surprised him with a gift: a colored pencil sketch, which is now one of his prized possessions.
Cosmo and Erika Uttero were married more than 50 years before she passed away, but not after giving him eight children and ten grandchildren.
"I've had a good life," Cosmo told Mark Wilson with a wry smile as he reflected on his bride and family.
Cosmo Uttero is also a Knight. He was awarded the Legion of Honor award, France's highest civilian award, by the Consulate General of France in 2016. But one last target remained: that high school diploma he missed out on. Cosmo finally earned it in 2021, 78 years later.
Cosmo had been planning on attending the Normandy 80th anniversary celebrations, but wasn't up for the rigors of international travel. So these days, Cosmo spends his afternoons greeting neighbors in Bradenton and swapping stories. And no one on the street has any quite like his.
"I hope that history will say we did a good job," he said proudly.
For more on D-Day, click here.
NOTE: FOX 13's Mark Wilson is also reporting from Normandy, France covering a handful of local veterans involved in the celebrations so stay tuned for more coverage and live reports throughout the week.
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