Jack Felton knew that his father, U.S. Navy Signalman 3rd Class Petty Officer Carl Felton, had been present during the D-Day landings in World War II, but he did not know his role until 1998, when he took his father to see “Saving Private Ryan.” As the movie began and the words, “June 6, 1944, Dog Green Sector, Omaha Beach,” flashed onto the screen, Jack recalled his father leaning over to him and whispering, “That’s my beach.”
Carl Felton enlisted in the U.S. Navy in October 1943. As a signalman, he was proficient in flag, light and Morse code communications. When the Allies assaulted the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, he was serving aboard the HMS Ceres, a British cruiser employed as a communications ship off Omaha Beach. Felton and another signalman, using a signal light, relayed messages between the Ceres and other ships. “There were always two people,” Jack explained. “One would be reading the signal, one would be writing it and then they would go inside to tell the captain what the other ships were saying.”
In an interview with the American Veterans Center in 2020, Felton recalled how he and a British sailor ran and ducked on the ship whenever German aircraft flew over. He remembered one of the officers looking up in the sky and yelling, “Doggonit! They keep coming back!” The words helped fortify Felton. “I felt a little more comfortable being afraid after that,” he said.
While aboard ship, Felton stayed in shape with calisthenics. “He would do 250 push-ups a day, 200 sit-ups a day and one-legged squats,” Jack explained. “And he did them into his fifties.” Toward the end of the war, Felton boxed in Golden Gloves amateur boxing competitions, and he continued boxing after returning to the United States. He also used the GI Bill to attend college and subsequently worked for Travelers Insurance.
Although Jack took pride in his father’s service and fitness regimen, he mostly remembered him as a family man. “He came to all my sporting events and to all my children's sporting events, even up to 95 years old,” he said. Jack also recalled his father’s maxim: “‘Follow through with what you’ve committed to.’ He instilled that into us at a young age.”
Felton's wife, Rita, passed away in 1997, after 42 years of marriage. He never remarried. “She was the love of his life,” Jack said.
In 2019, Jack escorted his father to Normandy, France, for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Felton later met with presidents and generals who wanted to honor his service. In 2022, he received the French Legion of Honor medal from President Emmanuel Macron at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. “That medal was his pride and joy,” Jack said.
Felton had originally planned to be buried with Rita in Silver Spring, Maryland. However, when Jack told his father that being buried at Arlington National Cemetery would be an honor, he recalls him saying, without hesitation, “Arlington. I want to go to Arlington.”
On June 24, 2025, Carl’s family and friends gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to bid their final farewells to a father, grandfather and decorated sailor. At the funeral service, one of the honor guard sailors presented Jack with the flag that had been held over his father’s urn. “Dad would have loved to have seen that,” Jack later said. “I felt blessed that, because of him, I was in that situation.”
After Father Sal Criscuolo said several prayers, he led the family to the niche wall where Felton's urn would rest. Jack’s son, Joey, carried his grandfather’s urn to the niche, where Jack asked his wife, daughter and two nephews to place their hands on the urn as a final goodbye. They then collectively passed it to a cemetery representative , who placed the urn in its final resting place.
