Gerald William Heaney (January 29, 1918 – June 22, 2010) served for nearly forty years as a United States Circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, from his appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1966 until his full retirement in August 2006. Heaney's career in public service began in 1941, upon graduation from law school. He soon enlisted in the United States Army, volunteered for the United States Rangers, and soon became a second lieutenant in the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Heaney's endurance as a judge was related to his endurance as a Ranger; of the hundreds of members of the Second Ranger Battalion who landed at Normandy on the early hours of D-Day, Heaney was one of only three still on the front lines with the Rangers on VE Day. Between the end of World War II and his appointment to the federal bench, he rewrote the Free State of Bavaria's labor laws, and was a valued political advisor and organizer for several liberal Democratic politicians, including Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Orville Freeman, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter Mondale. As an appellate court judge, Heaney typically favored broad interpretations of the Bill of Rights and civil rights, labor and employment rights statutes.
Personal background
Heaney was born in the farming community of Goodhue, in southeastern Minnesota, on January 29, 1918. He was one of seven children of a butcher (William J. Heaney) and his wife (Johanna (Ryan) Heaney). Heaney's involvement in political campaigns began with the 1928 presidential election, when, as a ten-year-old, he assisted in posting campaign signs for New York Governor and Democratic Nominee Al Smith. Heaney came of age during the Great Depression. He attended the College (now University) of St. Thomas, then transferred to the University of Minnesota, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Law degree in 1939. Upon graduation he enrolled in the University of Minnesota Law School. Heaney received his Bachelor of Laws in 1941, and then worked in the securities division of the Minnesota Department of Commerce. However, his legal career was soon interrupted by the United States' entry into World War II.
Service in World War II
In 1942, at age 24, Heaney enlisted. After the United States Marines rejected him due to color blindness, he enlisted as a private in the United States Army. He then volunteered for the United States Rangers, and would soon be commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company C of the Second Ranger Battalion, then in intense training to serve as a spearhead in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of western Europe.
Organizers of Operation Overlord decided that Ranger Company C would constitute Ranger "Task Force B". Unlike Ranger Task Force A (which scaled Pointe du Hoc, as depicted in The Longest Day) and Ranger Task Force C (which landed in Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach as depicted at the outset of Saving Private Ryan), the story of Task Force B on D-Day is lesser-known. In the first minutes of the invasion's amphibious landing, Task Force B disembarked in "Charlie" sector of Omaha Beach. That sector was located at Omaha Beach's far western end, where the beach abruptly terminates in a rocky promontory of 100-foot cliffs called Pointe de la Percee. The Task Force's mission included taking out the four German pillboxes at the top of the cliffs, as part of coordinated actions with Rangers' efforts to take the Vierville draw (to the east) and Pointe du Hoc (to the west).
In a Library of Congress oral history interview conducted by Congressman James Oberstar, Heaney recounted the first moments of the battle: "At 6:30 we arrived close to the beach. We could not quite get into the beach because of the obstacles that the Germans had placed under water and also had proximity bombs that would blow up ships. They were having trouble getting the vessels in, so they could not get to the beach, but they got into relatively shallow water. And the door went down on the landing craft, and the captain stood up and said, everyone ashore, and he was cut down by gunfire. And the first lieutenant stood up and said, everyone ashore, and he was cut down by gunfire. And then that left me, Second Lieutenant Gerald Heaney, in charge, and I looked up and said, we are not going out that door; everybody over the side." Unfortunately, the landing craft had stopped in water over the heads of the soldiers, most of whom were burdened down by packs and equipment. Only by cutting loose their equipment and then swimming to shore could most of them avoid drowning.