PRESS: Group of South Dakotans experience Normandy

Group of South Dakotans experience Normandy

Posted on June 6, 2019 by – Local News

WATERTOWN, S.D. (KXLG) – Three South Dakota men just returned home this week from Normandy, France where they participated in a GORUCK challenge. The GORUCK company promotes its brand of clothing by organizing and sponsoring GORUCK challenges. The events are based on Special Forces training exercises.
The three South Dakota men who made up the four-man team were Madison Dentist Dr. Troy Keyes (Kize), Sioux Falls Pastor Jared Rakness, and Sioux Falls Deputy Sheriff Corey Stanley. A fourth team member was Vermont Dentist Dr. Ryan Goslin.Dr. Keyes said the 50-mile hike was done carrying 20-pound weighted rucksacks along the same path taken by the advancing allied landing forces at Normandy.
“We walked from Pointe-Du-Hoc to Omaha Beach through wheat fields and poppy fields…and you imagine just what our guys had to go through to get up on that shore. You look up at those cliffs and you think about the rangers that had to scale those cliffs at Pointe-Du-Hoc, with the machine guns and the grenades coming down on top of them; I still don’t know how they did it.” – Dr. Troy Keyes of South Dakota, who traveled to Normandy, France to participate in the challenge.

The three South Dakota men, who are all originally from Watertown, arrived back home on Tuesday. At the memorial site in Bedford, Virginia there are 4,414 names enshrined in bronze plaques representing every allied soldier, sailor, airman and coast guardsman who died on D-Day.

Read the original story here.

by GORUCK

Founded by a Green Beret, GORUCK is an American brand with Special Forces roots. Excellence, toughness, and adaptability are the pillars of our way of life.

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