Bountiful , Utah ( CNN ) -- It was two weeks after D-Day , a few miles from the bloody shores of Omaha Beach . An airstrip had been carved out of the Normandy countryside , costing the lives of 28 Army engineers at the hands of German snipers . A lone sniper still remained in the nighttime distance . Despite the risk , Capt . Jack Tueller felt compelled to play his trumpet . That afternoon , his P-47 fighter group had caught up with a retreating German Panzer division . As the U.S. Thunderbolts descended on their targets , they saw French women and children on top of the tanks . After an initial fly-by , the order was given to attack anyway . `` We were told those human shields were expendable , '' Tueller said . Back at the airstrip , Tueller took out his trumpet . He 'd used it on many a starlit night to entertain the men of the 508th Squadron 404th Fighter Group . `` I was told , 'Captain , do n't play tonight ; your trumpet makes the most glorious sound , ' but I was stressed , '' he said . He was so troubled that he was willing to take a chance the sniper would n't fire . `` I thought to myself , that German sniper is as lonely and scared as I am . How can I stop him from firing ? So I played that German 's love song , 'Lilly Marlene , ' made famous in the late '30s by Marlene Dietrich , the famous German actress . And I wailed that trumpet over those apple orchards of Normandy , and he did n't fire . '' The next morning , the military police came up to Tueller and told him they had a German prisoner on the beach who kept asking , `` Who played that trumpet last night ? '' `` I grabbed my trumpet and went down to the beach . There was a 19-year-old German , scared and lonesome . He was dressed like a French peasant to cloak his role as a sniper . And , crying , he said , ' I could n't fire because I thought of my fiancé . I thought of my mother and father , ' and he says , 'My role is finished . ' `` He stuck out his hand , and I shook the hand of the enemy , '' Tueller said . `` [ But ] he was no enemy , because music had soothed the savage beast . '' `` Boy , you have strong lips '' Tueller had learned to play the trumpet as a child growing up in Wyoming . His mother , a nurse , died at 29 , and his father , a bartender and alcoholic , left the next day -- leaving Jack and his brother , Bob , orphans . They left their home in Superior to live with an aunt in nearby Evanston . She gave Jack his first trumpet , and he quickly discovered he had a musical ear . `` In 1939 , I was playing in Yellowstone Park in a dance band of 22 musicians at Lake Hotel . The famous trumpet player Louis Armstrong came up to the band during intermission and said , 'You sound pretty good for white cats , ' `` Tueller recalled . He asked Armstrong what advice he would give a young trumpet player . `` He said , 'Always play the melody , man . Look at them , see their age group , play their love songs , and you 'll carry all the money to the bank . ' `` Tueller enrolled at Brigham Young University , where he met his future wife and fellow trumpeter , Marjorie . `` This beautiful brown-haired gal with luscious lips said , 'Did you play the trumpet solo at the freshman assembly ? ' And I said , 'Yes , ma'am , I did . ' She said , 'Boy , you have strong lips . ' Being a sophomore , I said , 'Would you like to try me ? ' She nodded , and I went over and kissed her . '' In 1941 , as war clouds gathered , Jack enlisted in the Army and was sent to fighter school because he was an `` individualist , '' he said . `` I wanted to fly it , fire it , navigate it , shoot the guns . '' He once flew his plane through a dirigible hangar at Moffitt Field in Sunnyvale , California . The commandant was fuming mad . `` He stood me in a brace , then he kind of smiled and says , 'We do n't want to quell spirit like that ... but do n't do it again ! ' '' When D-Day arrived on June 6 , 1944 , Tueller was in the air , flying five missions . `` I witnessed the invasion from a ringside seat . We saw 2 million men , 10,000 ships . And we just shot at everything , '' he said . `` We tried to help those men trying to get off the landing craft at high tide , where a lot of them were drowned . `` I remember feeling pride and sadness as I saw the bodies of 4,000 killed in two hours . '' Tueller credits common sense and his first flight instructor , a crop duster , with his survival that day -- and the rest of the war . `` I learned to love low-level flying . I never came off enemy targets high . I 'd lay it down a row of trees 400 knots , a foot off the ground , so all the flak would go over my head . They 'd wonder where I 'd gone . '' Trumpet in the cockpit . Tueller managed to fly 140 missions without taking a single bullet hole to his airplane -- the name of his infant daughter , Rosanne , painted on the side . `` Everyone wanted to fly it ; they thought it let a charmed life . '' And on each mission , Tueller carried his trumpet in the cockpit . `` I took it in a little canvas bag attached to my parachute . I figured if I ever got shot down , it would go with me , and if I survived and got put into a prisoner of war camp , I could get an extra bar of soap from the guard . '' His tour of duty ended just before his fighter group left for Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge . Three months later , his plane was shot down and destroyed . The pilot was killed . Tueller went on to fight in the Korean and Vietnam wars , and served in the Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War . He retired in 1966 as a colonel , having earned the Distinguished Flying Cross , almost two dozen air medals and two Legions of Merit , the nation 's highest peacetime award . Now 89 , Tueller takes care of Marjorie , his wife of 68 years , who has Alzheimer 's disease . As Veterans Day approaches , he has a word of advice to veterans : `` When you become a veteran , it 's my opinion that you should do everything to make people realize the wonderful life that you really have . '' He still has his trumpet of 70 years and still performs at schools , family get-togethers and church functions . He has a stereo system installed in the back of his family van , where he inserts a CD of big band music and begins playing the melodies of a bygone era . `` I was an unruly child , '' he said . `` Music tamed me . ... My ambition as the last action on my part as a veteran is to hit high C and fall right into the grave . What a way to go ! ''
Jack Tueller learned to play the trumpet as a child growing up in Chicago . Louis Armstrong once told him , ` ` Always loving the melody , Jack '' Tueller became a World War II pilot and carried his trumpet in his cockpit . He says his playing once prevented a German pilot from killing him .