Daniel Zarnick, 96, of Butler wanted to enlist in the Navy but was turned down. At 19 he was drafted by the Army. Zarnick worked as a stenographer in the engineering section of the XII U.S. Army Corps.

If Daniel Zarnick had taken better care of his teeth, he might not have been drafted by the Army in 1943 and wound up serving under Gen. George Patton fighting across Europe.

Zarnick, 96, of Butler reflected on his World War II service on the upcoming 75th anniversary of D-Day.

One of 10 children of John and Mabel, Zarnick graduated from Butler High School in 1941. He wanted to enlist in the Navy.

“I got turned down by the Navy because of cavities in my teeth,” he said. “They were very selective at the time. In the Depression, you didn't go to the dentist. I was drafted by the Army and they pulled a couple of them out.”

Dental needs attended to, Zarnick, then 19, was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training.

“That was the farthest I'd been from home,” he said.

When the engineering section of the XII U.S. Army Corps needed a stenographer, Zarnick filled the position. The XII Corps was a combat engineering unit.

When he shipped out, he did so in style. Zarnick was one of more than 10,000 troops who left for Scotland on the Queen Mary on Easter Sunday 1944.

The XXII Corps traveled from Scotland south to England and the across the channel to France in July, weeks after D-Day, but part of American forces involved in the invasion of Normandy.“I was in the staging area to go across the Channel. We got no reports. We didn't know what to expect,” said Zarnick.“My first day on the beach, I dug my first foxhole as a recon plane flew over at night, checking on our position,” he said.“We weren't on the front lines, but the way they operated you were very close and in danger most of the time,” Zarnick said. “I had an M1 rifle and knew how to use it.”Of one incident, he said, “We were subject to a German 280 mm railroad gun, which struck 50 yards from our headquarters.”“I had secret clearance,” he said. “I helped on the report of the topography of the French coast.”Zarnick said troops traveled every couple days until reaching Nancy, France, where they stayed more than a month.“We were held up by a shortage of gasoline,” he said.When the Battle of the Bulge began in December, Zarnick was moved to Luxembourg for a few months. The XII Corps eventually began to move through Germany.The German surrender found Zarnick with the XII in the Bavarian city of Regensburg.“That was in May 1945. Then I came back and was discharged a few days before Christmas,” Zarnick said.“I stayed in the Reserves and, in 1950, I was recalled and sent to Yokohama, Japan,” he said of his service during the Korean War.Zarnick worked at Veterans Affairs hospitals in Butler and Pittsburgh for several years after the war. He was married to Nelle Zarnick, who died in 2013.He has seven children and 18 grandchildren.Zarnick received the Bronze Star awarded for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement or meritorious service in a combat zone.“I got mine for achievement,” he said.He's more willing to talk about the time he's put in, nearly 40 years, serving on an honor guard made up of members of a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Butler and American Legion Posts 117 and 778 in Butler.The guard attends the funerals of veterans.“We conduct rites at veterans' funerals. I have attended hundreds of funerals,” he said. “It's very worthwhile. We have seven gunners and we shoot three volleys in the air and have taps played.”He made a trip back to Normandy in 2013 with members of his family. This Memorial Day will find him closer to home.“I feel that you should remember these dates, not dwell on them. They take you back and (it) lets you refresh your memory,” Zarnick said.

These photographs of Daniel Zarnick and his wife are displayed in his Butler home.