This month we celebrate the service and sacrifice of our World War II veterans as we recognize the anniversary of Operation Overlord, the D-Day Invasion on 6 June 1944. Ordinary Americans from all parts of the country answered the call to free the world from tyranny. Our featured veteran was one of them.
Michael Hubiack was born in Walfsburg, Pennsylvania in 1923 and served in the United States Army. In June 1942, Michael graduated from High School. Now 18, he was drafted into the US Army, and was then sent by train to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for Basic Training. After graduating, Michael traveled to Virginia where he was loaded onto a troop transport ship and sailed to Casablanca, Morocco. The troops would then travel through Northern Africa, again by train, and boarded another ship to a replacement camp on Sicily.
Michael was assigned to the 1st Division, 16th Regiment, G Company. The division was soon loaded onto a boat destined for England. Once there, they began training on landing crafts which would be used to transport the troops assaulting the beaches. Michael and 1st Division were inspected by Churchill and Eisenhower during their training period and were then moved to Southern England and loaded onto transport ships and awaited further orders.
On 6 June 1944, 19-year-old Michael Hubiack and the 1st Division would learn of the invasion of France. Very early in the morning, the troops climbed down rope ladders and loaded onto the Higgins Boats. As the morning haze lifted, they could see a beautiful beach that was littered with large metal obstacles. It was low tide when Michael and G Company landed on Omaha Beach as the first wave of Operation Overlord move ashore. Once the ramp of the Higgins Boat was dropped, they ran up the beach and passed the obstacles. As they got further onto the beach, the German machine guns opened up on the troops.
G Company went as far as they could into a rocky area and set up the 60 mm mortar. Michael was the assistant gunner on one of those 60mm mortars. Once the gunner adjusted the range, they began to fire on the German positions. It was then that the beach started to take German artillery fire and Michael’s mortar location was hit. Everyone in the area was wounded. Michael had shrapnel wounds to his head, hand and back. He laid in the rocks until the heavy fighting had passed. Once it did, a Navy medic began to care for Michael and carried him to a transport ship which took the wounded from Omaha Beach back to England.
Michael spent 3 months in a hospital in Totten, England before being loaded onto a C-47 aircraft for the flight back to the United States. He and other wounded men would recuperate at the famed resort, The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. After Michael recovered from his wounds, he was discharged from the Army. He remembered his homecoming wasn’t anything special because the war was still going on.
After the war, Michael went to school in New York to become a Bulova watch repairman, a profession he maintained for the next 20 years. Michael said that he is grateful for the very good sergeants he had during the war.
For his injuries received on the beach in Normandy, Michael received the Purple Heart. He later became a lifetime member of the Disable American Veterans. In February of 2018, Michael Hubiack passed away in Plains Township, PA.
Michael served his country with honor and contributed to the liberation of Europe. It was his generation, often referred to as the Greatest Generation, who survived the Great Depression and went on to fight a world war on two fronts so that the world could be free and prosperous. We thank him and honor his service by keeping his story alive for future generations to hear and be inspired by.
