HONOLULU (KHON2) -- 80 years ago, an allied offensive called Operation Overload turned the tide of WWII. Today, we know that battle as D-Day.
In 1940, Daniel Lau's eyes were firmly fixed on home plate. The University of Hawaii athlete had just been drafted to play professionally on the mainland but Daniel never made it to training camp because another draft took precedence: the selective service.
Lau spent the next year at Schofield Barracks in the 298th Hawaiian Regiment. Suddenly on Sunday morning in December, everything changed.
"It was eight in the morning, they were all asleep. They got up and tried to get to base," explained Daniel's son, Jeffrey Lau. "The scene was total chaos. All these ships were burning, huge plumes of smoke."
With war not declared, Damiel immediately volunteered for the Army Air Corps. He was transferred to Pennsylvania to train on P-51 Mustangs.
In the spring of 1944, the army's secret operation needed infantry. So Daniel traded his wings for combat boots and a rifle.
"He was an athlete and they needed guys who could run in and throw grenades," Jeffrey added.
It was called D-Day, the departure of land, sea and air forces of America, Canada and the United Kingdom, which was the largest military offensive of the war.
According to Jeffrey, Daniel never talked about the battle scene because "it was nightmare-ish."
Over the next six months, Daniel's regiment marched through the Belgian forest to the eastern border, where the Germans launched their last offensive, called The Battle of the Bulge, which took tremendous allied casualties.
Daniel and two others took refuge in a farmhouse basement.
"An 88-round came right through the basement window, the other two guys were killed," Jeffrey said. "He was the only one to survive."
At war's end, Daniel returned home knowing his injuries crushed any major league ambitions. So he turned from baseball to business.
With fellow Army officer Hiram Fong and others, he founded Finance Factors, Finance Enterprise, Finance Realty, and Finance Insurance.
As the D-Day anniversary approaches, the Lau family toasts its illustrious ancestor and the example he set for future generations.
"It's a great honor to have a relative in WWII during D-Day," said Russell Lau, Daniel's son. "I actually got to see the Normandy beaches and it's a moving place. I don't think I'd like to have been on Omaha Beach."
Before his death in 2020, 101-year-old Daniel Lau returned to Normandy for one last aloha to the army buddies he saw march into history.
For us, it is a reminder that freedom, though fragile, is a fundamental and imperative precept worth fighting for.