Jim Tygart was a World War II veteran who drove a jeep during the D-Day invasion and other campaigns before being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.

The D-Day invasion launched on June 6, 1944. On the next day, Tygart went ashore at Omaha Beach, Normandy. It was in Belgium, after the start of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, that he was wounded.  The explosion, which destroyed his jeep, knocked him to the ground and left him with a serious leg wound. 

Tygart was awarded the Purple Heart and went on to a career as an aircraft instrument mechanic with Douglas Aircraft and later American Airlines. 

He was presented the French Legion of Merit medal by the French Consulate.Jim was 102 when he died May 24, 2022.

As you listen to Jim tell his story you will feel close to the battlefields he experienced, heard on the podcast and oral history website VoicesOfOklahoma.com.