“I Came Off in Waist-Deep Water."
Image description: a 1940s sepia-toned photograph of a young John Bistrica, a white man wearing an Army uniform.
With John Bistrica, Army
Rifles and rations beyond the beach.
Ep 3: Nov. 18 2019
Army Private 1st Class John Bistrica was in the 1st Infantry Division –nicknamed “Big Red One” – on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. His story balances watchful anticipation and fierce action as he moves from Youngstown, Ohio to stateside base camps, then to the D-Day beaches and into Normandy, finding both feast and famine along the way.
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Juuni Ramocan was our excellent on-site engineer with John for this episode. Deanna McGovern did our vocals for Mae West. Thank you to John's son, Joe, for all of his help.
Behind The Episode:
This audio clip is available with captions on Instagram.
Find a gallery of images from John and documents about this episode at ServicePodcast.org.
Read the transcript from John's interview with the World War 2 museum in New Orleans.
Hear a story short story clip of John's run-in with the Andrews Sisters at a USO show
Hear the song - Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! - that John so loves.
Read about the history of the Ration D Bar on Hersey and Business Insider.
Curious about Yorkshire Pudding? Try your hand at John's favorite overseas discovery in this recipe by our friend J. Kenji López-Alt over at Serious Eats.
Read about the 1st Infantry Division, weaponry, and landing crafts that went in on D-Day, from History On The Net.
Watch a video from 2014 of John sharing his story (including details about the medals and citations) at the First Division Museum at Cantigny.
Image description: A photo chart of John’s commendations, as he describes in the accompanying video.
A glorious clip of the Andrews Sisters