ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Joe Grossman and Ziggy Weinthal, both of the Heather Heights in Pittsford, are on their way to Normandy, France to represent Rochester at the D-Day remembrance in two weeks.

The veterans got a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and Patriot Guard escort to the airport.

“Hey guys!” Grossman said to us when he got out his his car on the departure ramp. “How did you guys get here so fast?”

Before Grossman and Weinthal arrived, News10NBC Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean met them at their home. The interview drew a crowd.

“I’m very honored. I’m very honored to go,” Weinthal said.
 
“I am honored that I was asked,” Grossman said. “And I was even more honored that they accepted me!”

Grossman is 97 years old.

He was a seaman first class in the war, a gunner on a ship in the Atlantic. His brother was a prisoner of war in Germany and his brother-in-law was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. Weinthal is 95.

He fled Germany as a child, enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17, and was an MP in occupied-Austria. In 1940, Weinthal’s father was a prisoner camp in Germany but was ordered released by Hermann Goring, the second highest ranking Nazi, because he served in the German army in World War I.

The family escaped to the United State and six years later, Ziggy was back, serving in post-war Europe.

Weinthal and Grossman were selected to go to Normandy, as June 6 marks 80 years since the historic invasion. They are part of the Greatest Generations Foundation and will be paired with a Vietnam veteran.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Who do you think you’re going to think of when you’re there?”
Ziggy Weinthal, Army, Navy veteran: “All the lives that were lost.”

Berkeley Brean: “What do you think you’re going to feel like when you get there?”
Joe Grossman, Navy veteran: “I don’t know. It’s going to be a mixed emotion. I had a brother that was a prisoner of war for a couple of years. I lost a brother in law at the Bulge. So It’s history. And I’m not going to be alone in my feelings. And let’s hope it’s not ever repeated.”

It’s a long trip.

Weinthal and Grossman fly to New York City, they get on the Queen Mary, go across the Atlantic to England, spend a couple of days there and then take a ferry to Normandy in time for the remembrance on June 6th.