Harold Beal was born in October 1925. He had two brothers and three sisters. He was driving a truck by the time he was 12 years old. His father was a lobsterman. They would ship lobsters all over the country and to Europe. He was four years old when the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s] started. His father fished and brought home lobsters. They had a garden behind the house. He was selling fish when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. A year later in December 1942, he joined the Navy.

Harold Beal wanted to go into the Navy because he got around his father’s boat quite well. He was in the Navy for four years and was on a ship once. He got out of boot camp in February 1943. He wanted to be in the amphibious force to be a gunner. He was sent to Norfolk [Annotator’s Note: Norfolk, Virginia] for gunnery school and then went to Florida to train on LCVPs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. He learned how to take care of the guns. He went to boot camp in Newport, Rhode Island and was sent to Europe in 1944. They lived in a ferry boat all summer. They stayed on the beach all summer because Germany had Cherbourg [Annotator’s Note: Cherbourg, France]. He returned home on a ship that turned into a hospital ship. He was given a 30-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and then he was sent to New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He installed guns on liberty ships [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ships]. They lived in a private home. He was there right after Germany surrendered. He was discharged on 8 March 1946.

Harold Beal thought the English were nice people. They would travel up and down the coast to practice making landings. In May 1944, he had to find an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] to cross the Channel [Annotator’s Note: English Channel]. When they got into the Channel, they were told they were headed to the invasion of France [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They were shelling the shore. They thought it would be a piece of cake. The Germans had gone inland and then came back through tunnels they had filled with guns. They saw a German 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. They could see the guns going off. The coxswain [Annotator's Note: person in charge of a small boat and its crew] was trained to run over people in the water to keep the boat from tipping. Beal had to swim back to the troopship. They kept their boats inside the breakwater. Beal had washed up on the beach. He had to find his crew the next day. His crew was on shuttle work. They took prisoners and the wounded out. They had to live on their boat. He was there for three weeks. Beal had a German officer with him. The German people did what they had to do because if not, Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] would do away with them. Beal had the officer for six weeks. The prisoners were usually different each day. He had some German children from the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men] as prisoners.

Harold Beal remembers there was a lot of noise. He did not go a minute without hearing some sort of blast. [Annotator's Note: Beal is referring to D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] They had air superiority. Some of the boats did not have guns on them. Beal had a 45 side arm [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol], though he was a rifleman. He could not shoot at anything. Everyone in front of him was Americans and Allied troops. Beal’s first LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] was hit by an 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] that was on shore. They kept the boats in a V formation as they moved back and forth. He jumped off the boat and landed in red water [Annotator’s Note: the water was full of blood]. He has talked to many children about his experiences. They lost 10 thousand men. [Annotator’s Note: Beal gets emotional discussing the loss of life.] One battleship put its nose right on the beach and fired on the big guns and took them out. The paratroopers had a hard time as well. None of them landed in the right places.

Harold Beal remembers the paratroopers could not do much for them on the beach, but by the end of the day, they were up over the hill. [Annotator's Note: Beal is referring to D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] There was one area in the water that was filled with mines. One day Beal saw a tank on the LCM [Annotator’s Note: Landing Craft Mechanized]. He went to go look at the tank and his leg slipped and went between the boats. His leg got badly jammed. He had to go in an ambulance to the hospital. After about three weeks, he was sent back to the beach. In 1950, he had to have surgery on his leg because he started to get an infection. He was not called because of his leg and his PTSD [Annotator's Note: post-traumatic stress disorder; a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed]. Beal volunteered for the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] when he was in New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. Beal met Andrew Jackson Higgins [Annotator’s Note: an American businessman and boatbuilder who founded Higgins Industries, the New Orleans-based manufacturer of Higgins boats]. He liked the music there. He had Christmas dinner with Higgins.

Harold Beal did not want to stay in the Navy. He had PTSD [Annotator's Note: post-traumatic stress disorder; a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed]. He wanted to get home. His father had the lobster business. He would drive lobsters to Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He would get 300 dollars for delivering to Boston. He drove an oil truck for two or three years. He had a taxi business. He started driving buses to and from Boston. He delivered papers while driving the bus. He drove for almost 50 years.

Harold Beal is glad he served and would do it again. Somebody must take care of the country. When he talks to children, he encourages them to go into the service. The main thing he wants to impress on them is the value of freedom. [Annotator’s Note: Beal gets emotional.] He stayed with his mother a lot. She took care of him. He always gave stuff away and took care of people. He has a good pension. He got a 100 percent disability for his leg [Annotator’s Note: he was wounded during the war]. [Annotator’s Note: Beal talks about his wives.] War is why we are where we are at today. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] knew the war was coming. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was going to rule the world. When Pearl Harbor happened [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], the whole country came together to win the war. The war saved the people from the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. He has been to the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] four times.