He served in D-Day and remembers Battle of the Bulge. But those weren't the main memories on his mind as one World War II veteran from Gettysburg toured Washington, D.C.

In fact, the memories Roger Moore can’t erase from his mind come from an exercise many people don’t even know exited. It was one very early morning at the end of April 1944.

"Seen the men in the water, 650 of them drownded you know," Moore said.

The number of dead was even higher than that. It was a training exercise for D-Day known as Operation Tiger. Moore was on a landing ship traveling in a group when German torpedoes found them.

"They hit the boat in front of me, hit the boat behind, sunk them," Moore said.

The memories of that deadly morning were strong in Moore's mind at the World War II memorial. But they were also in his thoughts the day before at the Aberdeen Airport. In fact, hardly a day goes by when he can’t see those people struggling in the water.

"Think about something like that all the time, you know. It's hard to ware it away, hard to forget," Moore said.

If you fast forward through his war stories from there, you hear of him out running multiple ambushes and sniper fire.

"I've seen a lot of, lot of war. But I made it. And I tell you if I had to, I'd go through it again to protect the United States," Moore said.

Even if it yields painful memories of an early morning mission so few people even know existed.