Navy World War II veteran one of four honored at dedication ceremony

He was proudly acknowledged at a War Memorial ceremony in May for a sculpture dedication that directly represents where he served in World War II.  

In May, 98-year-old World War II veteran Clifford Alvira was one of four members of the Greatest Generation who attended the dedication ceremony for Les Braves II: At Water’s Edge, joining Robert Haffner, Jean Gilbert and George Gitari.   

The Royal Oak resident served in the Navy from 1943-1945. He still remembers the bombs, the bodies and all the men who didn’t make it. Alvira arrived on Omaha Beach, the most heavily defended beach by German forces, at 6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944, forever known as D-Day. Les Braves II is the official world-wide twin of Les Braves in Normandy, France, originally created for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion and sculpted by French artist Anilore Banon. It is a lasting tribute to the western Allies that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day.  

“We were told there’s nothing you can do for the bodies; just go on with your own business,” he said. “It’s not a nice scene. You see an arm here, a leg here.” 

It’s estimated that more than 9,000 allied soldiers were killed or wounded on D-Day.  

Drafted into the Navy, Alvira, the oldest of 10 children to Mexican immigrants, served as a seaman 2nd class. He arrived on D-Day in landing craft tank 542 with 30 other men. His job that day, still a teenager, was to take over for the operator of another landing craft, in the event he was killed.  

“Our job was to land the guys on the beach,” Alvira said. “Once we hit the beach, then we heard all of the fireworks. Everything was timed. The planes came over first and bombed the beaches, then we arrived.” 

As he approached the beach, he remembers it being foggy and seeing bullet tracers, bombings and plenty of planes. He notes that what made Omaha Beach so dangerous was that once his unit arrived, the plan was for reimbursements of supplies to arrive, something that never happened.  

“We ended up with 100 tons of supplies, not 2,400,” he recalled.  

With nearly 80 years of perspective since that day, Alvira said the significance of D-Day was that Allied forces were the keys that opened up the passage for others to get to Germany. 

“If we would’ve lost at Normandy, we’d all be speaking German,” he noted.  

Altogether, Alvira was in Europe from January to June 1944.  

*This story originally was published in the September-October 2023 edition of Live Inspired Magazine, a War Memorial publication.