." >> reporter: inside a single-wide in cookson, oklahoma, a tortured soul lives alone. >> it's a harde, let me tell you. but you ain't never lived hard until you go through what i've been through. >> reporter: 90-year-old ed bray served in world war ii. he was at normandy on d-day, has two purple hearts and more than a dozen other medals. but when we first met him in march he couldn't even read what they were for. not because it was too painful, but because he simply couldn't read. you know what that word is e-u-r-o-p-e? >> no. toughest thing that ever happened to me in my life is not being able to read. >> reporter: you said you were at normandy, though. >> yes. >> reporter: illiteracy can be that damning. >> i've covered this up for 80 years. nobody in this town knows i can't read. >> reporter: until he retired ed worked a civilian job at an air force base refueling planes. a coworker helped him with the forms and what not. at home his wife covered for him for 62 years until she died in '09. since then, ed has managed okay, but the soldier in him still refuses to surrender. >> i wan