Fifty Valencia High School choir students visited France and sang at the Mont-Saint-Michel Cathedral this summer. The highlight of the trip was singing at the Normandy American Cemetery Memorial.

At the Memorial the choir was asked to sing a song by an older gentleman, the students obliged. The gentleman was Reid Clanton, a 98-year-old WWII veteran. Clanton arrived at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and fought and survived the Battle of the Bulge.

Clanton is a war hero, a Bronze Medal recipient and a living legend.

On D-Day Allied Forces launched the largest military invasion by land, air and sea in history to retake Northwest Europe from Nazi forces. More than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily-fortified French coastline. The cost in lives was high, with more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers killed or wounded.

Pfc. Reid Clanton enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18 years old, May 19, 1943. His first combat assignment in a forward artillery observer team with the 29th Infantry Division landed him on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He survived to continue fighting through France, Belgium and Germany, including the liberation of France in Saint-Lo and Brest.

Overall, Clanton spent more than 250 days in combat across France, Belgium and Germany, with more than 90 in direct combat in France.

The students are forever changed and inspired by being able to sing for, and meet with an American who truly is living history.