Paratroops of the 101st Airborne Division march to the airfield on June 5, 1944, to board the plane that will take them to Normandy, France.

A "stick," or planeload, of 101st paratroops boards their plane to Normandy. There were 12 to 15 men in each stick.

Men of the 439th Troop Carrier Group prepare for takeoff.

Pvt. Dick Knudson surveys Exeter Airfield before boarding his plane on D-Night.

Eisenhower wrote a letter exhorting D-Day troops to victory, which was distributed to the 101st Airborne paratroops before they took off on June 5.

Faces blackened, a group of men from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, prepare for takeoff.

Paratroops of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment landed in or near Carentan, France, a small town just two miles from a German battery.

American paratroops tour Carentan in a captured German Kübelwagen.