Ray Lambert, the Army medic who survived multiple wounds on D-Day and was saluted by a president on the World War II battle’s 75th anniversary, died on Friday. He was 100.
Lambert died at his home in Seven Lakes, North Carolina, with his wife and daughter by his side, said neighbor and friend Dr. Darrell Simpkins. The physician, who accompanied Lambert to France in June 2019, said the veteran succumbed to an aggressive form of facial cancer and congestive heart failure.
“Ray was talking coherently, conversing on the phone, and enjoying visitors until yesterday,” Simpkins wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “He was an amazing man.”
The Alabama native was a medic with 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, part of the Army’s 1st Division – the “Big Red One.” He took part in the Allied invasions of North Africa and Sicily before his war came to an end June 6, 1944, on the sands of Omaha Beach.
Sgt. Lambert was in the first wave of the assault. He was helping a wounded soldier in the heavy surf when a landing craft ramp dropped on him, pushing him to the bottom.