VIDEO: Town Council Honors D-Day Veteran Manny Mello

On Monday, June 6, the Town Council recognized the 67th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied Forces took part in Operation Overlord and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, a turning point in World War II.

To honor one of the few local Aquidneck Island survivors from the D-Day invasion, Town Council President Art Weber presented Middletown resident Manny Mello with a special gift from the town: a tile with the town's official seal, the eight-vane windmill.

The council did not need to pre-arrange for Mello to be at the meeting Monday night. Mello regularly attends nearly all council meetings and workshops, ever the faithful watchdog of local governance and democracy, a right he personally fought to defend nearly 70 years ago.

As anticipated, on Monday night he sat in the second row, his arms crossed and notebook at the ready in his shirt pocket.

When it came time for the Town Council presentation, the gift and recognition seemed to come as complete surprise to Mello, who was speechless.

In World War II, Mello had served in the U.S. Army's 87th Mortar Battalio. A 19-year-old Newport resident at the time, Mello was among those who made it safely onto Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, despite the fact that his Jeep had overturned in the sea after coming off the landing craft and that he did not know how to swim.

"It ended up in a shell hole," Mello recalled after the presentation. "I didn't know how to swim, but a buddy said I had to learn real fast and so I had to doggy paddle it in, and that's what I did. I had to leave the Jeep there in that hole."

Mello noted that he and a Newport buddy, Bob Walling, had trained and served together at Normandy.

"Bob, he passed just before Christmas. He was there too," Mello said.

The D-Day invasion has come to be recognized as the largest amphibious military operation in history and the men and women who served their country during World War II have come to be known throughout the United States as "the Greatest Generation."

Town Council President Art Weber's presentation can be viewed in its entirety in the video in the image gallery.