AURORA, Colo. — You could drive by Dave Teich’s modest Aurora home a hundred times and have no idea about the man who lives inside.

Well, almost.

On any given day, you’ll find the 90-year-old World War II veteran just taking care of his house.  But spend a minute visiting and he will take you on a journey.

That journey started with the Japanese Imperial Navy’s attack on the United States Naval Base called Pearl Harbor.

“I was angry, and mad,” Teich said. “At the second year of high school I decided I was going to join the Army.”

It was just in time for the Allied invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe.

“On D-24, which would be June 30th, we went back and landed on Utah Beach,” he said.

Teich was “volunteered” to be a medic with the 744th Tank Battalion.

“I looked up at the hedgerow about 20 feet from me and there was a German overlooking me with his rifle, and I said if you’re gonna shoot me, shoot,” Teich said. “I kept patching up this guy and kept looking at the German.  I was scared to death.”

When Teich approached the German, “I crawled up there and looked at him, and he was dead.”

When Teich thinks about his fellow soldiers and pals Leroy Hammit and John Manfield, “I get emotional.  I lost two good buddies,”  he said with tears in his eyes.

“It’s hard.  Sometimes I wonder why not me?  Why him, them?” Then he adds, “just luck.”

When World War II ended in 1945, Teich, decorated war veteran and combat soldier for four years, turned 20 years old.