CREATED FOR THE NATIONAL D-DAY MEMORIAL by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT), When We Went In is an immersive experience combining large-scale projection, archival imagery, and surround sound to bring audiences closer to the events of D-Day. Told through authentic film, photographs, wartime illustrations, letters, diaries, and oral histories, the experience gives voice to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and nurses who lived through June 6, 1944. At its heart is “Omaha Beach,” a poem by World War II veteran Peter Thomas, whose account of landing on Omaha Beach provides a thread through the narrative. Originally created for D-Day’s 80th anniversary in 2024, When We Went In returned in 2026 with a new prelude commemorating America’s 250th anniversary, tracing the nation’s journey from the Revolutionary War to World War II through the Declaration of Independence and the words of four generations of American military leaders.