Stephen Colbert Shares The Story Of His Uncle's Heroism During D-Day

Mireya Acierto / Getty Images

He's usually known for his biting wit and sarcastic take on current events, but Stephen Colbert sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper - out of character - to tell the serious tale of his uncle's heroism on D-Day during World War II.

Colbert's uncle, Andrew Edward Tuck III, served in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne, and was one of the 150,000 Allied soldiers to drop into enemy territory in Normandy the night before the beach landings on June 6, 1944.

"He's looking eastward over the channel at the hedgerows of France that he knows he has to drop into," Colbert told CNN of his uncle, while showing an album filled with letters Tuck sent home to his parents.

"There are letters in here that say, 'Dad, thanks for the stiletto you gave me,' because at night what they were doing was going into enemy camps and killing German officers in their sleep, and then coming back without getting caught," Colbert said. "Those letters went to his dad, 'Sorry, could you send me another? I left it in a German...' My grandmother would get 'Thank you so much for the socks.'"

His entire story is pretty remarkable. Watch: