Note: Scroll to the bottom of this article to see a video of George talking about his D-Day experiences and to send him a birthday greeting.

On April 17, 2025, East Flat Rock resident George Sarros will celebrate his 100th birthday.

Over the course of his 100 years, George has seen the world transformed by war, peace, tragedy, and triumph. A man of quiet humility and remarkable strength, he stands as one of the last living witnesses to D-Day, the momentous Allied invasion that changed the course of World War II. His legacy, however, extends far beyond that fateful day in June 1944. George’s story is one of family, service, love, and resilience during a long and remarkable life well-lived.

From Chicago’s West Side to the World Stage

George Sarros was born on the west side of Chicago on April 17, 1925. The son of Greek immigrants, he grew up during the Great Depression with his mom and dad, a brother Jimmy, and two sisters, Virginia (Ginny) and Mary. He also had an older sister, Christine, who died before George was born. His parents ran a corner confectionary shop on Cicero and Chicago Avenues that sold ice cream, candy, and peanuts among other things. It was truly a family business and George and his siblings helped out around the store when not in school.

George, a typical American kid, loved playing baseball, ice skating, and bowling. “I got lucky and shot a 300 once,” he recalls with a laugh. He was a fan of the Cubs. His older brother liked the White Sox. He remembers Ginny had a beautiful singing voice. Life was good for a young boy despite the economic hardships caused by the Great Depression. “Growing up in those days was nice. I enjoyed every moment. Not all the pressure we have today." George pauses for a moment and adds, “It was a good childhood.”

As a child, George was happily unaware of the growing turmoil in other parts of the world that would soon find its way to the shores of America. But before George could graduate from high school, history called and changed George Sarros’s life in dramatic ways a young boy growing up on Chicago’s west side could never have imagined.

Drafted into History

GEorge Sarros, Motor Machinist Mate Third Class in the US Navy, 1943

In 1943, at just 18 years old, George was drafted into the military. "I came home from school one day, and my mother handed me the envelope from the draft board." George dutifully reported to the board office and was told that he was headed for the Army. Not excited about all the walking required of an infantryman, George showed the officer an article detailing President Roosevelt’s promise that high school seniors within six months of graduating would not be drafted. The officer was not impressed, as George recalls. “He read it and said, ‘What are you trying to do? Dodge the draft?”

George assured the officer he was not. The newspaper clipping, however, did soften the officer’s tone enough to get George out of the Army. “He asked me, ‘Where do you want to go?’” George – who grew up in the city and had never seen the ocean – had a ready reply. The officer punched “Navy” as requested, and an 18-year-old, 125-pound kid from Chicago was ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

George was sent first to Farragut, Idaho, for basic training with thousands of other new recruits. “It was a great experience. All those guys were 18 or 19 years old.” From landlocked Idaho, George was sent to a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, where he trained to become a motor machinist mate third class. Finally, he was sent to New Orleans, where he was assigned to the ship that would be his home for the duration of the war.

George’s new home was LST-515, which had just been built in Seneca, Illinois and then sailed down the Mississippi River to enter active service. LSTs - Landing Ship, Tanks – were designed to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto beaches with no docks or piers. It was a capability that would ultimately become critical to the success of the war effort in Europe and provide George with an eyewitness view of one of history’s most famous military campaigns.

George worked in the engine room and was charged with starting and monitoring the ship’s twin diesel engines. There was a fire during the ship’s shakedown cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and George worried that it might be a bad omen. It was not. “She was safe. You kept us safe all the time.”

LST-515 sailed around the Florida peninsula and then headed up the east coast. The ship stopped in New York City and George had one last chance to see his mother. “I had a 70-hour pass. My mother flew from Chicago to New York. I spent two days with my mom and then said goodbye to her.” From there, the ship sailed to Nova Scotia, where it joined up with other ships to form a convoy headed for Europe. George recalls some rough seas during the crossing. “The swells were high. A lot of guys got seasick.” And unbeknownst to George at the time, LST-515 was packed to the gills with live ammunition – a floating bomb in an ocean full of German U-boats.

On George’s 19th birthday, LST-515 reached the coast of Ireland and then proceeded to Southampton in England to prepare for its upcoming role in the invasion of France. Before that fateful day, however, George and his shipmates were to come under enemy fire for the first time and witness the tragic cost and consequences of war.

The Tragedy Before D-Day

Before the invasion of Normandy, George and his crew participated in Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the D-Day landings held at Slapton Sands, England. LST-515 and several other ships set out as part of a convoy that included eight LSTs. Then, in the very early hours of April 28, German E-boats, fast attack craft, intercepted the training mission.

Shortly after midnight, George was called to general quarters and ran topside to man his position at a 40mm gun on the ship’s starboard side. The situation was deemed secure after a few minutes, and George headed back to his bunk – but not for long. “It wasn’t 10 minutes later that we were called back to general quarters.” George scrambled to his gun and watched in horror as two of the LSTs in the convoy were hit by German torpedoes. “As I looked out to the back, I saw an explosion and then a minute later I saw another explosion. LST 289 was the first ship that got torpedoed. She got torpedoed in the fantail. The next one was ship 531. She got two torpedoes in midsection, and she completely sank.”

LST 515 turned back to pick up survivors, and as it did so, it came under attack by one of the German E-boats. George and the other gunners were ordered to hold their fire until the attacking craft was closer. Finally, the order to fire came, and during the ensuing firefight, a torpedo from the attacking craft passed across the bow of George’s ship. “If they’d hit us, we’d all be gone,” George remembers. “We were fortunate. We shot them up and they left us alone. Then we went to start picking up survivors.”

Although all the surviving LSTs had been ordered to head for the beach and safety, George’s captain did not comply. “Our captain, Lieutenant Commander Doyle, refused to land. He said, 'We're going to go help.' And we did."

LST-515 launched its Higgins boats – normally used for amphibious landings – to pick up sailors and marines thrown into the ocean. Survivors—soaked, shivering, and sometimes covered in oil—were pulled from the frigid 42-degree water. "We yelled, 'Hang on, mate, we’re coming!', George recalls. “There were bodies everywhere. The oil on the water was on fire. We heard guys screaming in the dark."

George vividly remembers one soldier placed on their medical table. "We tried everything to save him. He had a picture in his wallet—his wife and children. It broke our hearts.” The attack left 749 Americans dead—more than were killed at Utah Beach on D-Day itself. "Those guys never got a chance," says George.

June 6, 1944: D-Day

Just over a month later, LST-515 was ordered into the battle they had been training for. The weather leading up to the invasion was dreadful, but on June 6, it cleared just enough. The flotilla set out late at night under cover of darkness. The trip across the English Channel to the beaches of France was an anxious time. "We were all worried whether we were going to make it or not.” A reasonable concern for sailors on an LST, which its crew grimly joked stood for “Large Slow Target.”

As LST-515 approached the French coast, George recalled that the sea was full of vessels. Two nearby battleships pounded German defenses on the shore. "We stayed far out, but I could see the transport ships—guys climbing down into little boats, circling and waiting for their time to hit the beach. The roar from the guns shook everything."

At around 1 p.m., LST-515 received its signal to land. He describes what he saw from the deck of his ship once it landed on Omaha Beach.

“All the LSTs got in. We were lucky. We were topside and we thought everything was going to be calm. The next thing we heard was general quarters. We looked up and a German plane was coming down to strafe us and before we knew it, one of our pilots got on his tail and blew him out of the sky.

Then as we looked up in the sky, you never saw so many bombers in the world. They were shooting at our planes and one of them bombers got hit. The wing was completely gone, and we were all yelling, ‘Bail out! Bail out!’ and watched them bail out with their parachutes. Where they landed, I have no idea.”

LST-515 Unloading injured soldiers to Ambulances in England

LST-515’s mission was to unload equipment and help evacuate the wounded. Mines in the water posed a major threat, but the beach had largely been secured thanks to the relentless shelling by battleships and bombers. The bow doors opened, and the LST’s tank deck filled with stretchers. George recalls there was room for 400-500 stretchers. Ambulances rolled in. Paratroopers who had landed behind enemy lines were brought back. In the ensuing weeks, George and his shipmates made over 60 crossings to deliver supplies and return with wounded soldiers headed for hospitals in England. They also ferried German prisoners back to England.

Despite the constant threat of attack during those crossings, LST-515 never had a sailor killed or wounded. “We were lucky,” says George 80 years later. “Really lucky.” In recognition of his service, the Navy awarded George several honors, including the World War II Victory Medal.

A Life in Service

George’s Navy career continued well beyond D-Day. When the war in Europe ended in May of 1945, he was nearly sent to the Pacific theater, but the war there ended before his orders came through. He eventually returned to Norfolk, Virginia, where he was serendipitously reunited with his brother Jimmy, who had served in the Coast Guard and was recovering from an arm injury in a hospital there.

George remained on duty for a few more months, even spending time at the naval base in Cuba before finally receiving his discharge orders. He sailed to Charleston and then took a train from Charleston back to Chicago. He arrived home with a duffel bag and a heavy heart however - his father had died while he was overseas. “It was Christmas time (1944) when they told me the Executive Officer wanted to see me. I had a bad feeling.” Upon hearing the news, George asked if he could go back home, but that was not possible.

After the war, George returned to finish high school. When he arrived at the school office and explained who he was and where he’d been, they simply handed George his diploma on the spot. It was 1946 and George was a 21-year-old war veteran and a high school graduate.

George lived in the Chicago area for a few years, working as a driver for a while and later as a bartender when he met his future wife, Enrica, at a bowling alley in Skokie, Illinois. Enrica – George calls her Ricky – was a nurse and she captured his heart. Unfortunately, she was leaving to work in Hawaii for a year and George wasn’t ready to leave his hometown. Despite the separation, the couple maintained a long-distance relationship and when she returned during the holidays for a visit, she told George how much she enjoyed the islands. “She told me, ‘I love it and that’s where we are going to get married.’ So that’s what I did,” George recounts with a sly smile. He was 35 years old.

The couple lived in Hawaii for five years before moving back to Burbank, California, where George worked with the Post Office for 20 years. During that time, the couple adopted and raised two brothers, David and Terry. After George retired from the postal service, the couple moved to Brookings, Oregon and lived there for several years. But Brookings was a small town and the couple worried about the available medical services for an an aging couple. Ricky found a list of best places to live in the Rand McNally Almanac and circled one of the top listings – Brevard, NC.

The couple decided to move to North Carolina and traveled across the country during the 9/11 crisis of 2001. When they could not find a home they liked in Brevard, they ventured a little further east and finally found their future home in East Flat Rock. The couple were very happy in their new home. “The people here are just great,” says George. “Everybody is so nice.”

Sadly, Ricky’s health deteriorated, and she passed away at Elizabeth House in Flat Rock in 2007. Here last words to George were, “There’s my sweetheart.”

Honored by France

GEorge being congratulated after receiving the French Légion d’Honneur

Despite the loss of his wife, George remained active and even returned to France for the D-Day Celebrations in 2019 and 2023. The 2019 celebration was the 75th anniversary of the invasion and was attended by Queen Elizabeth II, President Macron of France, and Donald Trump, as well as 14 other heads of state. In 2023, George age 98, returned to France as a guest of the Best Defense Foundation.

In 2022, at the age of 97, George Sarros was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by the Consul General of France in recognition of his participation in the liberation of France. The ceremony was held in Brevard at the Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas, which had alerted the Consul to George’s role during the war. True to his humble nature, George took the extraordinary award in stride. "I don't feel worthy of all this."

Legacy and Reflection

George Sarros never sought attention for his service. “After the war was over, I didn’t think about it at all.” As one of the country’s rapidly declining number of WWII veterans, however, George has become a living link to a pivotal moment in his country’s history. Because of his service and the service of hundreds of thousands of other young men just like him, George has been deservedly recognized for his sacrifices. He remains a shining example of the virtues that helped create and preserve our republic.

Now, as he approaches 100 years, George has the rare opportunity to reflect on the lessons of a long life that has spanned an entire century. When asked what the secret to such a long life is, George Sarros smiles and replies without hesitation. "To love one another. That’s it. To lift the arms that are weak."

Thank you, George, for lifting our arms when we most needed your help.

Happy 100th Birthday!