LOUISVILLE, Ky. — 97-year-old Herb Raderer is taking a victory lap. 

He’s one of eleven World War II veterans being honored on the anniversary of D-Day with a ride around in a Jeep from the World War II time period. 

The veterans being honored were between 96 and 105 years old. The Honor Flight Bluegrass and Kilroy Chapter of Military Vehicle Preservation Association hosted the D-Day anniversary event for the veterans.

Raderer is riding shotgun in this four-seater, which differs from how he got around when he was serving. 

“I don’t think our commanding officer even had a Jeep. There wasn’t a whole lot of roads and stuff to drive on when we were there,” Raderer said. 

On June 6, 1944, The Army veteran was stationed in the Pacific Rim as a combat engineer. 

“Really, it was the end of the world over in their part, but we were still fighting pretty much over in the Pacific,” Raderer recalled.

Despite not feeling the direct impacts from D-Day immediately, the invasion event gave Raderer hope. 

“Of course, D-Day meant the end of the fighting over there, which would save us a lot of lives. It really means a lot to us that even though we were fighting a war of our own over in the Pacific, it was still something to see the end of the war over there, knowing sooner or later it was going to happen in the Pacific and we’d be getting home ourselves,” Raderer. 

The father of three was accompanied by his son Sam, who was happy to his father honored. 

“To see him kind of light up because he enjoys this, and it’s good. And, you know, he’s 97, he’ll be 98 in September, knowing full well that you might not always have this opportunity so it’s pretty cool,” Sam Raderer said. 

Herb would like people to know that the U.S. would not be the same if Allied Forces didn’t band together to make the D-Day invasion a reality.

“If we hadn’t won in Europe, we would’ve had a hard time winning in the Pacific. I had a guy in the country come up to us and say ‘thank you, you’re the reason we’re not speaking Japanese,’” Herb said.