COLUMBUS - Billy Myers was one of the Americans to storm Normandy Beach in 1944, but didn’t talk about his service for decades after returning home.

The words came pouring out of the World War II veteran Wednesday though, during a guided tour of the National Infantry Museum.

Myers said many of the boats that morning landed too far from French shore; many soldiers drowned before they even entered battle to drive the Germans back from the coast.

“You walked on the dead” to get to the shore, Myers recalled. “I never said anything about the war for 40 years. I don’t know, my mind just shut down.”

Myers was one of about 40 local veterans - from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and other wars - on a specially arranged free guided tour of the museum on Veterans Day.

West Point-based construction company Batson-Cook chartered an honor bus and took veterans from LaGrange, West Point, and Lanett and Valley, Ala., to the museum. Batson-Cook built the museum and soldier’s center in conjunction with the Army.

Veterans spent the morning touring the museum, seeing a film in the IMAX theater and having a private lunch, which included a slide presentation on construction. Veterans also toured the “World War II Street,” original barracks and buildings from the time period moved from adjacent Fort Benning.

Planning for the museum began in 1998. A parade field was dedicated in March, and dedication of the museum was in June.

For most of the local veterans, it was their first visit to the museum.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Lee Morkis, an Army veteran from 1974 to 2004.

The group received the royal treatment. As the charter bus pulled up under lead-gray skies and brisk winds, the current class of soldiers in basic training at Fort Benning stood as an honor guard, saluting the group members as they walked in.

Repeating the infantry motto, “Follow me,” the group took in the exhibits, including “The Last 100 Yards,” a ramp with displays and sounds of U.S. conflicts from the Revolutionary War to today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ramp even includes a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that Batson-Cook CEO Paul Meadows said was brought in before walls and a roof were framed. It was so big and heavy that construction crews moved it in by crane and worked around it.

Tom Westbrook was one of several veterans from First Presbyterian Church in LaGrange to take part in the tour.

“It’s very well done,” he said.

Charlie Ball, an Army veteran and Batson-Cook employee, worked as a liaison between the Army and his construction company. He said the parade field dedication was one of the most emotional events he’s witnessed. Soil from battles and wars across the world, from America’s own Civil War to Iraq, were brought to Columbus and spread on the field. When Army basic training classes graduate on the parade field, they walk on the sacred soil of former battles.

The veterans were visited during lunch by retired Maj. Gen. Jerry White, who was responsible for the museum’s creation, and Bo Callaway, a familiar name to most in West Georgia and former Army secretary.

“We have a building full of veterans today, which is exactly what we wanted to see happen here,” White said. “This whole building is about you, to say thank you.”

Callaway echoed White’s appreciation and said he was “glad to see veterans being appreciated.”

“God bless every one of you and all our soldiers who are out there tonight,” White said.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.