It should be remembered that the best combat photographer the media had to offer, Robert Capa, turned around and got back on the boat at Omaha Beach.
The soldiers didn't have that option.
As they reached the sand a heavy mortar bombardment began. Capa felt "a new kind of fear shaking my body from toe to hair, and twisting my face." He attempted to reload his camera, but could not, his hands were trembling so. "I did not think and I didn't decide it," but he stood up and ran toward an incoming landing craft. "I knew that I was running away. I tried to turn but couldn't face the beach."