An Army reserve member is headed to France to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
Major Adam Proctor will leap into the sky over Normandy to re-enact the parachute jump made by hundreds of thousands of men on June 6, 1944.
More than 9,000 lives were lost that day, but their heroism changed the course of World War II and history, which is why Proctor will make the jump.
"It's a remembrance of a great moment in U.S. history where we did something that we did not have to do: to liberate people on the other side of the world," Proctor said.
After 13 years of active duty, Proctor said the emotions in the air pale in comparison to the feeling of landing safely on the ground and being greeted by French residents, many of whom lived through Nazi occupation.
"You meet people who were children who didn’t have the basic necessities that we have today and that they had at that time, because they were living under (Nazi) occupation," he said.
Proctor said he'll likely return to France next year and the year after that to continue honoring World War II veterans.
