AI-assisted summary
Sandy and his childhood friend served on a gunner boat, drawing enemy fire away from landing troops.
Honored at a Florida Panthers hockey game, Sandy humbly acknowledged the applause but emphasized that the true heroes were those who didn't return.
As one of the few remaining D-Day veterans, Sandy's son hopes to celebrate his upcoming 100th birthday with another fishing trip.
How do you carry a shard of everybody wants a glimpse of, a memory everyone craves?
Edward Sandy and his friend Spero Mihilas shared one such memory but bore it differently.
Friends since their Depression-era childhood in upstate New York, they enlisted together in the Navy in 1943, Sandy at just 17. A year later — June 6, 1944 — they found themselves on the same gunner boat off the coast of