With two Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star to his credit, Milt Staley might have a hard time convincing people he's not a hero. Staley's light weapons platoon landed on Utah Beach only a few hours after the initial D-Day assault, and corpses littered the beach as German snipers and enemy artillery continued to attack U.S. and Allied troops.Although Staley was not injured in the amphibious landing, he was wounded by enemy mortar shrapnel six days later and wounded again by either mortar or grenade shrapnel during the fierce Battle of the Bulge.But the 88-year-old, a Redding, Calif. resident since 1970 and a charter member of the Shasta County chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, does his best to downplay his wartime heroics."I was just one of a million guys doing his job," Staley said.Bill Philen, commander of the Purple Heart chapter, says Staley's modesty is typical of World War II-era veterans."Without a doubt" Staley is a full-fledged hero, said Philen, citing his friend's courageous war accomplishments. But, he said, Staley is more than a hero."He's an all-around delightful man," he said.Staley, who turns 89 later this month and spends a lot of time helping the Purple Heart chapter raise money for scholarships and community projects, saw a lot of combat while in the U.S. Army, serving in both the South Pacific and European theaters during World War II."Uncle Sam gave me the tour," he said.He was also onboard the troop carrier SS President Coolidge on Oct. 26, 1942, when it hit two of the U.S. Navy's own mines and sunk near Luganville harbor on the island of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, a South Pacific archipelago. Two men, including the ship's captain, died in the blast.Staley, who says he has no real desire to retrace his steps in Europe because he dug too many foxholes there, recently returned from a trip with a nephew to the South Pacific to revisit the site of his ship's sinking, which has since become a premier spot for scuba divers.It's likely that Staley will be the last of the few survivors of the ship's sinking to revisit it and, as such, he was treated like royalty by the island's tourism officials and others while there, he said.Drafted by the Army in the spring of 1942 after initially being refused enlistment because of poor eyesight, Staley was 23 when he found himself onboard the SS President Coolidge headed for Guadalcanal. The Coolidge had once been a luxurious ocean liner, but was converted to carry Army troops after the Pearl Harbor attack.As the ship entered the mined harbor, Staley said, he first thought the Coolidge had been torpedoed."I was one scared soldier," he said.After it became clear that the Coolidge was not under attack but had run over two mines, its more than 5,300 men, including Staley, were ordered to abandon ship."There were so many people in the passageway that I couldn't get through," Staley recalled.As the ship badly tilted to one side and began to sink, Staley said he eventually was able to climb down a rope ladder and jumped into the harbor's water and swam to shore, cutting his feet on coral as he finally walked to safety.Staley, who spent five months on the island after his ship sunk, contracted malaria and jaundice, and remained in the South Pacific until 1943 when he finally recovered and was sent to Europe, just in time for D-Day.With the 64th anniversary of the historic D-Day invasion being recognized this week, Staley is one of a dwindling number of survivors of that famed battle.The invasion -- the largest air, land and sea operation in history -- saw approximately 155,000 American, British, Canadian and French troops storm the beaches of Normandy, France.Staley's light weapons platoon landed on Utah Beach only a few hours after the initial assault. Staley's brother Vern, who died about two years ago, was with the 101st Airborne Division at the time and was dropped behind the lines at the same beach in the early morning hours of the invasion to help direct fire for a battleship.Milt Staley later earned his Silver Star for gallantry after his company was stopped by an enemy attack near Beckenhun, Germany. There, Staley crawled 50 yards over an open and fire-swept field to a point where he could better observe enemy gun positions and direct accurate mortar fire to destroy them.Born in 1919 in Grand Rapids, Minn., and raised nearby at Swan Lake, he returned to Minnesota after the war, married his childhood sweetheart, Doris, worked as a resident deputy sheriff, began to raise a family and moved to Southern California in 1950.They moved to Shasta County, Calif. after he retired from Philips Norelco following an 18-year career with the company where he was its eight-state western service manager.He and his wife of nearly 53 years, who died in 1988 at age 77, owned Continental Meat in Redding for about eight years until they sold the business in 1980. Their son, James, 61, lives in Redding.Asked for his life's goal, Staley said it has been "to help people and survive as long as I can." And his philosophy? "Live a good life."(Contact Jim Schultz of the Redding Record Searchlight in California at jschultz(at)redding.com.)
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