From Normandy to Westport: Veteran Recalls War

Fresh out of college and just married, Tracy Sugarman co-piloted a team of soldiers in the D-Day invasion during World War II. All of them were seasick from spending hours on the English Channel. When they landed at Utah Beach, the air stunk of exploded ships as young men charged the German fortifications.

“Nobody was very old, when I think about it. The old man, the captain, couldn’t have been more than 30,” Sugarman recalled. “My crews, the kids I took to the beach, were 18, 19, 20, 21. They looked up to me to take care of them. Christ, I didn’t know which pair of pants to put on. But that’s what the role was. People were put into jobs and told ‘learn what you got to learn, do what you got to do because it’s important.'”

A Westport resident for 61 years, Sugarman is this year’s grand marshal for the Memorial Day parade on Monday. He’s humbled to lead the parade, but he had to borrow a uniform since he got rid of his when the war ended.

“I’ve seen a lot of the [Westport parades],” he said. “I’ve marched in them. The kids have marched in them. My grandchildren have come to watch them. It’s just part of the seam of Westport. I love it. “

After the war, Sugarman, now 89, became a prolific illustrator, a budding novelist and a Civil Rights activist. His work has won him accolades from all over the country. He’s not afraid to speak his mind, either.

“I haven’t felt many wars have been that necessary since [World War II],” he said. “It has nothing to do with the guys that go to fight them. They’re admirable, really. We elect our officials to lead us, and I’d like to think they’re thoughtful about it. I don’t think they’ve always been thoughtful about it.”

As a junior studying art at Syracuse University, Sugarman enlisted in the Navy with a friend immediately after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. While the Army and Air Force reserves were called up to war soon after, Sugarman wasn’t called in until the day after he graduated. He spent months training in the United States, got married to his college sweetheart, and then went to England on the Queen Mary to prepare for the invasion.

For months, they trained endlessly by staging mock invasions of British beaches. Eventually, the order was given, but the attack had to be called off for a day due to poor weather. When the attack happened, the fighting at Utah Beach was far less bloody than nearby Omaha Beach. Approximately 3,000 people died there.

“They almost didn’t take that beach,” he said. “Why they ever picked that site I’ll never know.”

The buddy Sugarman enlisted with didn’t survive the war.

Part of the duties of grand marshal is to deliver a speech at the end of the parade from Veterans Park in front of Town Hall. Sugarman already has it prepared, said the general theme will be looking backward at the wars of the past and looking at the future with today’s youth. He recently went to the park and looked at the Honor Roll of those who served.

“When I looked at the war memorial, and the Doughboy [monument], and the names on the wall, I was just very moved,” he said. “Thousands of Westporters. A lot of people paid a lot of dues.”

The Memorial Day parade begins on May 30 at 9 a.m. from Saugatuck Elementary School. It will wind through Riverside Avenue, the Post Road East and end at Town Hall on Myrtle Avenue with a ceremony. The Discovery Channel conducted a compelling audio interview with Sugarman that can be listened to here.