For most of us, Saturday will come and go without notice of what happened on that date in June of 1944.

And that’s a pity.

On that date in history, 160,000 allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy in France in a massive effort to defeat Adolph Hitler and the Nazi army.

Local residents who read newspaper accounts of the invasion did so with the knowledge that the Sandhills region played a big role in that pivotal event. The 13,000 paratroopers that dropped behind enemy lines all went through training at one point right here in Richmond County. In Scotland County, the air base at Maxton played a key role in the training of glider pilots that were used in the D-Day assault and other theaters.

The region even provided the answer to the question of if a massive drop like D-Day was even possible. The Army proved it could be done on Dec. 6-7, 1943 when more than 10,000 troops were dropped onto Southern Pines and Aberdeen. It was called the Knollwood Maneuver after the airfield that is now Moore County Airport.

Road networks from Cameron to Rockingham, Eastwood to Laurinburg and Hoffman to Hamlet were closed to civilian traffic from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. and the residents of Moore, Hoke, Scotland and Richmond County were blacked out at the Army’s request.

Today Camp Mackall still plays a major role in our nation’s defense. During it’s hey day during World War II there were 1,750 buildings erected, seven service clubs, two guest houses, three libraries, 16 post exchanges, 12 chapels, a hospital, 65 miles of roads and three 5,000 foot runways, McCall was the headquarters for the U.S. Army Airborne Command, the garrison command and the division headquarters.

Sadly many of those veterans who served there are no longer with us, but their history is.

The stories of some North Carolina veterans are captured in the Military Collection Project of the Archives and Records Section in the State Archives in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

The Military Collection Project seeks materials from North Carolina men and women who served in any branch of the armed forces, U.S. or foreign, active or reserve, in war or peace time. For those who would like to donate, or want to make audio or video recordings of interviews, contact LTC (Ret.) Sion Harrington III at (919) 807-7314 or sion.harrington@ncdcr.gov.

The State Archives cannot accept artifacts, such as uniforms, maps, postcards, etc. The project is actively seeking photographs and records of North Carolina World War I veterans and also compiling a roster.

We can’t stop the hands of time, but we can preserve the history of the men and women who did so much for our country.