Charles D . W . Canham Major General Charles Draper William Canham ( January 26 , 1901 - August 21 , 1963 ) was the commander of the 29th Infantry Division ' s 116th Infantry Regiment , which landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy , France on D - Day , June 6 , 1944 . Biography . Canham joined the Army on May 23 , 1919 . In 1921 , as a sergeant , Canham took a course in the Army ' s first preparatory school to allow soldiers from the ranks to attend the United States Military Academy . He was chosen and graduated from West Point in 1926 . Prior to World War II , he served in the Philippines and Shanghai and was one of the purchasers of the Shanghai Bowl . During these years he acquired a reputation as a strict disciplinarian and superb leader of troops . World War II . In 1942 , as a colonel , he took command of the 116th Infantry Regiment shortly before it sailed for England . Canham ' s 116th Infantry , alongside the 1st Infantry Division ' s 16th Infantry Regiment , was chosen as the first to land at Omaha beach on D - Day . The opening scene of the movie " Saving Private Ryan " depicts the conditions under which Canham ' s regiment landed on the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach along with one company of Army Rangers . Shortly after hitting the beach , Canham was shot through the wrist , refusing evacuation , he moved his men off Omaha and inland . Sergeant Bob Slaughter ( D Company , 116th ) remembers Canham screaming at soldiers to move off the beach and go kill Germans . Slaughter remembers him yelling at one lieutenant hiding in a pillbox from a German mortar barrage , " Get your ass out of there and show some leadership ! " . Don McCarthy ( Headquarters Company , 116th ) remembers seeing Canham walking upright along the beach in the face of enemy fire , " I got the hell out of there and moved forward . I was more afraid of Colonel Canham than I was of the Germans . " For his actions on Omaha Beach , and the fighting to take Saint Lô , he received the United States ' second highest award for valor in combat , the Distinguished Service Cross . Soon afterwards Canham was promoted to Brigadier General and was named as the Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division . It was in this capacity during the surrender of the German garrison at the Port of Brest ( see Battle for Brest ) that Canham unknowingly gave the 8th Infantry Division its motto . Upon entering the headquarters of Generalleutnant ( Lieutenant General ) Hermann - Bernhard Ramcke , a famed leader of German paratroops , Ramcke demanded to know the lower ranking Canham ' s credentials as a condition of surrender . Unruffled , Canham pointed to the dirty and tired American soldiers he had brought with him to witness the surrender and said , " These are my credentials . " The account of this event , which was reported in the New York Times , saw in this spontaneous statement of a combat leader the greatest tribute ever paid to the real power of the American Army , the individual soldier . By the end of World War II , Canham had earned every award for valor less the Medal of Honor from the United States . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order by General Bernard L . Montgomery of the British Army and several awards for valor from France . After the war , Canham was Assistant Division Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and later became commanding general of the 82nd . He was also the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division and the commanding general of XI Corps . Later life . Canham retired from the Army in 1960 with 41 years of service . He died on August 21 , 1963 at Walter Reed General Hospital aged 62 years and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery .