150605-N-QY759-452 UTAH BEACH, France (5 June 2015)

150605-N-QY759-452 UTAH BEACH, France (5 June 2015) This bronze statue is part of the Higgins Boat Monument on Utah Beach, in the background is the memorial of the U.S. Navy in Europe. The Higgins Boat Monument commemorates the Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel, also known as “Higgins Boats,” their crews and boat designer Andrew Jackson Higgins. The monument was dedicated June 6, 2015 after nearly a year of fund-raising by the city of Columbus, Nebraska. Columbus is the hometown of Higgins, who designed the landing craft and whose company built 20,000 watercraft for the U.S. military during World War II. 1,089 were used on D-Day and were vital for getting troops ashore. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class David R. Krigbaum/Released)