Roughly 2,936 nautical miles separate the northern tip of Long Beach Island from the southwest coast of England, where nearly 8 decades ago the American military lost 749 of its finest as part of a top-secret naval training to prepare the Army and Navy forces for the D-Day invasion 39 days later.

On April 28, time and space separating the events of 78 years earlier was erased as Coast Guard Station Barnegat Light led the 34th annual national commemoration of Exercise Tiger.