Bernie Nider was born and raised on a farm near Plymouth, Nebraska.

After graduating from high school in 1941, he was in North Platte earning money for college when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Before he knew it, the 19-year-old was headed overseas to fight for his country.

It was one of the most important days in world history: June 6th, 1944. 160,000 allied soldiers landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline, and young Bernie Nider was part of the first wave to hit Omaha Beach.

"When we were making the landing, we had to bail the water out with our helmets to keep afloat," Nider says. "So that kept us pretty busy."

The D-Day cost was high, as more than 9,000 allied soldiers were killed or wounded that first day. "It was really pretty terrible. Some of my best buddies, I never saw them again," Nider says.

But Staff Sergeant Nider was one of the more than 100,000 soldiers that began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.

Bernie came back to the United States after the war and raised five children with his wife Mary Lou.

"I've always been tremendously proud of my Dad," Nider's daughter Laurie Glenn says. "He is our hero, we owe our lives to him, and people now don't realize how important that one day was to the war in Europe. It was a turning point and he was part of it, and he was infantry and they're the ones that won the war," Glenn says.

Bernie's oldest grandchild Andy Glenn has always idolized his grandpa. "It's always been a big source of pride for me that my earliest memories of my grandpa were hearing what he did in that war. It's a very happy and comforting feeling to know that he was a part of it," Glenn says.

And when it comes to the pride in having served America, it's hard for the 84-year-old veteran himself to put it all into words, "Very proud."

After the war, Bernie came back to Nebraska and earned a degree from UNL. He then went on to work as a civil engineer until he was 79-years-old. He retired just 5 years ago.

To Bernie and all of his fellow war veterans, thank you for your service to our country.