100-year-old D-Day veteran recounts his life, service for West View church senior lunch crowd

On Dec. 7, 1941, 16-year-old Warren Goss was told to get to Mount Royal Boulevard and sell newspapers.

Goss, a dyslexic, grade school dropout who grew up with six siblings on a chicken farm in Shaler, didn’t understand the headline of the day.

“I was hollering, ‘Extra paper, bomb Pearl Harbor.’ I didn’t even know what Pearl Harbor was,” he said. “And I didn’t know why so many people were stopping by to buy a paper and give me a quarter and not even ask for change. I thought, boy, this is a money maker.

“The people were really excited about this. I couldn’t understand why, because I never heard of Japan and I never heard of Pearl Harbor. I had no idea what was going on,” he said.

“As I grew older, I soon found out.”

Goss got drafted into the Army after turning 18 in 1943, and he wasn’t selling newspapers on June 6, 1944.

He was at Utah Beach in Normandy, France on another notable date in World War II — D-Day.

Goss, 100, who now lives in Ohio Township, spoke of his life and service during the monthly senior lunch at St. Athanasius in West View on Wednesday, Oct. 15. He was invited by friends Bob and Bobbie Walter, of West View.

With the help of his nephew, Glenn, of West Deer, Goss held the room’s rapt attention for nearly 90 minutes.

“He never has enough time to get the whole story in,” Glenn said. “It’s just amazing what Warren has gone through.”

Goss recalled being in England when the troops were called into a warehouse.

He and the others were told if they volunteered for a special brigade, they’d be one of the first to be in France, and most probably wouldn’t come back.

“That room emptied out about 45%,” he said. “But I volunteered for that. I was 18 years old and didn’t know what I was doing.”

They trained for almost a year. And they were taught not to make friends.

On the day of the invasion, Goss said they got within sight of the beach, but could not see it. The Germans, however, could see them.

“They can train you for everything that happens. But they can’t train you for what happens,” he said. “Some things you can’t just train for.”

Goss was one of 100 to 150 World War II veterans who returned to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of the invasion in 2024.

When Goss went back again this year in June, he met one of two sisters, Simone, who, about a week after D-Day, had helped him avoid German soldiers by hiding in the hay loft of their barn in Foucarville in northwestern France.

“This is the girl that saved my life. They were my angels,” he said. “Honest to God: I believe in angels a lot.”

Goss has been to Normandy six times. On his first trip with his family in the 1980s, he said they took a blanket and had a picnic on Utah Beach.

“It helped change my life,” he said. “I had such a feeling for those people, a hatred for them so bad. I wanted to see every German dead.

“My whole body changed when I got there on that beach. I looked at the beach, it was cleaned up and there was nobody fighting there. I seen boys and girls walking down through there holding hands.

”You know, that’s life. That’s what life’s all about.”

After Normandy, Goss fought across central France, in the Battle of the Bulge during the winter of 1944-45, and in central Germany, ending the war in Frankfurt. He was home on leave when the Japanese surrendered on Aug. 14, 1945, bringing World War II to an end.

Without an education, Goss couldn’t find a job after the war, so he started his own homebuilding business, which he retired from after 32 years.

And despite, as he said, flunking first and second grades and often playing hooky from school, Goss received an honorary degree from Shaler Area in 2017 and a medal of honor from Duquesne University at the 2024 winter commencement.

He ran his business with his wife of 74 years, Mary Goss, who died on Sept. 18, 2024. They have two daughters, two grandchildren and one great grandchild with another on the way.

Goss and his wife met at a barn dance.

“I loved that girl so much it was unbelievable,” Goss said.

As she was dying at home, Goss said Mary moved her fingers and told him, “Warren, we’re gonna dance again.”