ABOUT ABOVE OMAHA
Some stories wait eighty years to be told correctly.
This is one of them.On June 6th 1944 the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy as part of the largest military invasion in human history. They managed the barrage balloons that protected the Allied forces from enemy aircraft. They performed their mission under direct fire with skill, courage, and discipline that met every standard the United States Army required of its soldiers.
They were the only all-Black unit to participate in the D-Day invasion.
They came home. And America forgot them.
Not all at once and not through any single act of erasure — but through the accumulated weight of a cultural narrative that had already decided who the heroes of D-Day were and what they looked like. The films didn't show them. The monuments didn't name them prominently. The history books reduced them to footnotes in someone else's story. And when the men of the 320th tried to tell their families what they had done on that beach, some of those families didn't believe them. The erasure was so complete it made eyewitnesses doubt whether their own testimony was worth sharing.
So they stopped talking. They carried it alone. They grew old. They died. And the story went with them into silence.
Above Omaha exists because that silence is unacceptable.
THIS ISN'T ONLY HISTORY
Right now in 2026 the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion has been nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor. The vote is pending. Last year Waverly Woodson — their medic, who treated hundreds of wounded soldiers on the beach while bleeding himself — received the Distinguished Service Cross. Posthumously. Eighty years after he earned it before breakfast on June 6th 1944.
The story of the 320th is not a closed chapter waiting to be rediscovered. It is an active, living narrative whose final pages are being written in real time. Above Omaha is here to document every word.
Every week this publication goes deep on one specific element of the 320th's story — the men, the mission, the balloons above Omaha Beach, the Jim Crow Army that deployed them, the Britain that treated them with more dignity than their own country did, the France that remembers what America forgot, and the long fight for recognition that is still being waged today.
FROM THE EDITOR
My name is Michael Bennett. I am a writer, producer, U.S. Air Force veteran, and the founder of 727 Squared Entertainment. I hold a BA in Journalism from California State University Northridge and a Certificate in Feature Film Writing from UCLA. I bring both the discipline of a trained journalist and the craft of a formally trained screenwriter to everything Above Omaha publishes.
I learned about the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion the way the best stories find you — through family. A distant relative served in the unit. His own family, the people who loved him, knew almost nothing about his service. They had no military tradition. His participation in the D-Day invasion was a detail that had gotten lost somewhere between then and now.
I am a veteran. My father served. My grandfather served in World War II. My uncle served. I was born into military life and I have spent my adult life as a student of military history. So when I heard the name of the 320th for the first time I understood immediately what that family didn't know they were sitting on.
I have spent years researching the 320th's story. I am developing Barrage, a feature film about the unit that has received recognition from the Austin Film Festival, the Big Apple Film Festival, and the LA International Film Festival. I have worked with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans in assembling materials and documentation about the unit's service.
Above Omaha is the publication I created because this story cannot wait for a film to tell it. The Congressional Medal of Honor vote is happening now. The families of 320th members are alive now. The French and British communities that remember these men are accessible now. The historical record needs to be set straight now.
I am not a detached observer of this story. I am someone with a personal, familial, and creative stake in making sure the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion receives the recognition they have been owed for eighty years. Above Omaha is my commitment to that mission in public, in writing, every week, until the last chapter is written correctly.
THE MOMENT WE”RE IN
The 80th anniversary of D-Day passed in 2024. The Congressional Medal of Honor nomination was filed in July 2025. Waverly Woodson's Distinguished Service Cross was awarded posthumously last year. Bill Dabney — believed to be the youngest member of the 320th, who volunteered at seventeen to escape Jim Crow Virginia — received the French Legion of Merit in 2009 at age 85, standing alongside Barack Obama and Tom Hanks at a ceremony in France that most Americans never heard about.
These men are finally, imperfectly, incompletely being recognized. Above Omaha exists to make sure that recognition is complete, accurate, and permanent. Not a footnote. Not a feel-good sidebar to someone else's D-Day story. The full truth of what the 320th did, what was done to their memory, and what this country owes them.
JOIN THE CHRONICLE
Above Omaha publishes every week. Each issue covers one specific element of the 320th's story with the depth, precision, and respect it deserves. If you believe this story matters — if you believe the men who held those balloons above Omaha Beach on June 6th 1944 deserve to be known by name — subscribe below and become part of the community that makes sure they are.
The story isn’t finished yet. And neither are we.
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SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Michael Bennett is available for speaking engagements at universities, colleges, museums, cultural institutions, military organizations, and corporate events. Drawing on years of research, a personal family connection to the unit, and a formally developed lecture program, Michael brings the story of the 320th to life for audiences of all backgrounds with the depth of a historian, the precision of a trained journalist, and the narrative craft of a professional screenwriter.
Current lecture programs include —
Above Omaha: The Untold Story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion and the D-Day Invasion — a comprehensive examination of the unit's formation, training, D-Day mission, and postwar legacy including the pending Congressional Medal of Honor nomination.
Valor and Resistance: Black Military Service, Jim Crow America, and the Fight for Recognition — a broader examination of the Black military experience in World War II using the 320th as the primary lens.
The Story Behind The Story: Developing Barrage and the Journey From Family History to Festival Recognition — a program specifically designed for film schools, journalism programs, and creative writing departments examining the research and development process behind an award-recognized screenplay.
To inquire about booking a speaking engagement contact Michael directly at — [email protected].