On this day, 81 years ago, tens of thousands of young men from ordinary backgrounds hit the beaches of Normandy and faced the most intense fire any group of attackers has ever faced in the history of modern warfare.

However, not all of the men who hit the beach that day came from ordinary backgrounds, and not all of them were young.

At the age of 56, Brigadier General Teddy Roosevelt Jr. was the oldest soldier to hit the beach during Operation Overlord, the codename for the largest military maneuver in the history of warfare, the Allied invasion of Europe. As his name suggests, he didn’t come from an ordinary background either. Instead, he was the son of the “Rough Rider” himself, Teddy Roosevelt.

A position, along with his rank, that conferred upon him tremendous status and privilege a

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