Bethel native honored for D-Day valor
Joseph Vaghi’s military portrait adorns a banner on the French coast
BETHEL — Joseph Vaghi was among the first Americans to hit the shore of Omaha Beach, making his way to the “Easy Red” part of the beach during the D-Day invasion 75 years ago.
He had to go 300 yards — a long way to go — especially with shells exploding around them. Men were being hit, falling and screaming. The scent of gunpowder was in the air.
“There was only one thing to do and that was to keep going,” Vaghi, a Bethel native, said in Ken Burns’ 2007 documentary, “The War.” Vaghi died in 2012 at the age of 92 in the Washington, D.C., area where he moved after the war and started his family.
Vaghi’s latest recognition comes with his inclusion in the Portraits of D-Day exhibit and his picture will flutter on a banner along the French coast with images of a 1,000 other American and commonwealth soldiers and Normandy resistance fighters who fought for liberation.
Put on by the D-Day Committee to mark the 75th anniversary, the exhibit’s banners will float above 48 municipalities along the French coast from April to September.
Just last month, Joseph
Vaghi III was pleasantly surprised to open an email from his brother to see a photo of the banner in Normandy with a picture of his father in his Navy uniform from World War II.
From the geolocator on the photo, he was able to determine the banner hangs by the section of beach his father held during the D-Day invasion.
“I’m sure my father’s smiling down and is proud of that,” Joseph Vaghi III said. “I know we are.”
He said he had no idea his father was going to be selected, especially considering the thousands of men who served there. There were about 150,000 British, Canadian and American men involved, with an estimated 3,400 killed or missing during the invasion.
As beachmaster for the C-8 platoon, one of nine platoons in the 6th Naval Beach Battalion sent in to secure the western part of Omaha Beach, it was Vaghi’s responsibility to get men, vehicles and materials ashore during the invasion using flags, blinkers and a megaphone. He then had to get the prisoners of war and wounded off the beach after.
“In my particular platoon, God was good and we didn’t lose a single man in the landing, and we went in early,” he said in the documentary video, adding he had 43 men.
At 23, Vaghi was the youngest beachmaster. “He turned 24 on that beach on June 27th,” his son said.
He joined the Navy in June 1942, graduated in December from Providence College, where he attended on a football scholarship. He then went to Notre Dame University for midshipman school, graduating in 1943, and continuing his training before arriving overseas in January 1944.
He was the third oldest of nine children and one of six boys — all of whom served in the war.
Vaghi displayed countless heroic acts in his role, many of which he brushed off as just doing his job, his son said.
An explosive went off at one point during the invasion, knocking him unconscious. When he came to, his clothes were on fire. He extinguished the flames and rushed to a Jeep near the blaze and removed the cans of gasoline from the vehicle to prevent more explosions.
That brave act earned him the Bronze Star. His actions led to a number of other accolades, including the Croix de Guerre, which France awards to foreign military allies for acts of heroism involving combat with the enemy.
He represented the Navy at the 50th anniversary of VE Day and received personal letters from actor Tom Hanks and other celebrities following the release of “Saving Private Ryan.”
Joseph Vaghi III said his father only started speaking about the war later in life, generally after he started having reunions with his battalion. Even as he heard stories, his father didn’t discuss the horrors of what he saw.
He does go into some of that in the documentary though. In the moment, he said you continued doing your job and it was in the subdued moments outside of combat when it would catch up to him.
“I cried a few times to be sure, but it was only because of things I saw,” he said. “Kids were dying and wanted help. You did what you could for them and they would expire. Those things you never forget.”
He said his father would often say the training the Navy did was extremely important. They started while in Florida, practicing maneuvers and other training, and continued up the U.S. coast and then once they got to England six months before the actual invasion.
“I had no fear,” Vaghi said in the documentary interview. “We knew what to do and we were ready.”
This was a stark contrast to the fear he felt before the Battle of Okinawa because of his experience in Normandy.
“He was a remarkable person, just a warm, generous person,” Joseph Vaghi III said. “To me, it’s impossible to comprehend what he did. He was just brave.”