For Memorial Day

[Eddie]

Since Memorial Day is approaching, I just wanted to share:

We have several WWII vets that live in our neighborhood. Last night one who saw a lot of combat came and talked to our youth. It was crazy hearing some of his stories – and to hear how much he was involved in.

He had been in the ROTC during college to help pay for schooling and in January 1941, he was called into active duty. He had papers saying he was to be relieved on December 11 and was excited to be getting out of the army and back home, when Pearl Harbor was attacked on the 7th and he was ordered to report to station – relief papers rescinded.

He was in artillery and was part of the 9th infantry. He participated in the invasion force that landed in Africa and was responsible to take the airport in Algiers. There were two ships as part of the invasion force – the other was hit by a torpedo and ended up stranded. So they went with who they had.
Once they got there, they realized that they had the wrong ammunition for the artillery they had. Because he was an officer, he got a Tommy gun to go with his .45, and that is what they fought with until they got the ammunition issues straightened out.

The artillery they had was old French stuff – so they ended up giving it to the French soldiers to use. He was involved in training them and as a result was awarded a French Legion merit decoration by General de Gaulle.

He didn’t have much good to say about Montgomery or Patton, so he wouldn’t say anything about them. Just that he thought they were both showmen, period. Part of his frustration with Patton is that he was told repeatedly that after a certain operation they would be rotated back to the states, only to have that change. Patton would say he wanted trained troops, not new ones, and they just kept on fighting.

He was in on the invasion of Sicily – and was stationed right in the area when Patton slapped the soldier that got him arrested – he was there for the “apology”, and says he can’t repeat what Patton said.

After Sicily, he was shipped back to England and got ready for Normandy. He was part of the second wave, landing in the afternoon at Utah beach, and went in to meet up with the airborne soldiers and fought at Sainte-Mere-Eglise. At Cherbourg he was the one sent with a white flag to see if the Germans there would surrender, and ended up escorting the German General back to General Eddy to surrender.

He was in the Hurtgen forest just before the German push and the Battle of the Bulge. He says they actually captured a German artilleryman who told them they were getting ready for a push, but HQ didn’t believe the German’s had the capacity to go on the attack, so they ignored it.

He was one of the first group with those who crossed the Rhine river on the Remagen Bridge, and remembers watching it collapse the following day.
He also talked about being with a group that liberated a concentration camp, seeing some French and Belgian resistance people who had been executed by the Germans in some gruesome ways, and since we were limited to about 45 minutes I’m sure there are hundreds of stories we didn’t even get the chance to scratch the surface of.

It seems incredible that one person would've seen and been involved in so much history.

Anyway – it made for an interesting evening. And I was impressed at how quiet and respectful the youth were while he spoke. I’m used to them snickering and telling dumb jokes back and forth. He had them enthralled.

[Borg]

Awesome. I remember some years ago, I was partnered with an elderly fellow as my home teaching companion. Turns out, he fought in WWII as well, was shot down over France, and before he was captured by the Germans, the French underground got a hold of him and his crew and smuggled them away. Hid out for over a month, before they snuck out and escaped into Spain.

There were more stories, but I loved going out in the evenings with him. We also did a similar thing with another fellow from WWII with our youth, but, he got sidetracked too much on how "it was back then, compared to what it should be like today"...instead of just relating the stories...so, it wasn't as effective as it was with your group.

Love it. Bet your meeting was a good one.

[Moliere]

Very cool! I wonder if the guys name was Dick Winters

I'll be at the beaches of Normandie on Memorial Day. Well do an all day tour on Sunday and then well go back on Monday to do whatever we think we missed.

[BigFatMeanie]

That guy must be pushing 90 right now. Impressive.

[thesaint258]

In my experience, it's pretty rare to get someone who served back then to really open up about their experiences (that's probably true for anyone who's served during wartime). My grandpa was a B-17 pilot who was shot down over Germany and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III (of The Great Escape fame). I've only heard him talk about his experiences once, and I'm glad I was able to hear him tell some of those stories.

[creekster]

What an impressive tale. It almost sonds GUmpian. I would haveloved ot hear it. We are about to lose that generaton from our midst and, despite the many stories that have been told and books that have been written, it still feels like we will not hear it all before they go.

[happyone]

In my experience, it's pretty rare to get someone who served back then to really open up about their experiences (that's probably true for anyone who's served during wartime). My grandpa was a B-17 pilot who was shot down over Germany and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III (of The Great Escape fame). I've only heard him talk about his experiences once, and I'm glad I was able to hear him tell some of those stories.

I tend to agree. I rarely hear my Dad talk about Viet Nam. He makes passing comments once and awhile, but the first time we really discussed it is the night before I left for the Army.

[Green Lantern]

In my experience, it's pretty rare to get someone who served back then to really open up about their experiences (that's probably true for anyone who's served during wartime). My grandpa was a B-17 pilot who was shot down over Germany and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III (of The Great Escape fame). I've only heard him talk about his experiences once, and I'm glad I was able to hear him tell some of those stories.

I wonder if something changes once enough time has passed. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII and my parents knew next to nothing about their experiences outside of their general area of service. Then one day in 2005, just a year before he died, my wife and I had my mom's dad over for dinner and one question from me about the war launched him into almost 45 minutes of stories about flying out of South America, landing at Ascension Island, moving across Northern Africa and into Italy. Amazing. When we told my mom about it later, she was gobsmacked.

[Eddie]

The guy is 94 years old - I think?

For the most part he left out a lot of details - like he talked about going into the concentration camp and stack of bodies, including some who were still alive but position to go into the crematorium - but he didn't describe them with much detail.

He talked about the gliders that landed in Sicily having a rough go due to telephone poles being planted every 8-10 feet in the open fields - but just mentioned that he saw some that had landed and were still full of the dead who had been in them when they hit the poles.

He used the word "terrible" a lot.

The one time he mentioned a couple of details was when talking about finding the Belgian resistance fighters who had been executed. He talked about one having his brains bashed in and skull coming apart. He talked about another who had had barbed wire wrapped around their neck 2-3 times and then both ends pulled until it strangled them.

One thing he talked about in particular that I liked was that the choices you make now influence your future. He talked about how this happened with his ROTC experience, with his friends (he ended up marrying the sister of a friend), etc.

A while back KUED interviewed a bunch of WWII veterans to record their stories. They cut up the interviews and used pieces for a couple of TV broadcasts, but they also put the entire transcript of the interviews online for anyone interested here:

http://www.kued.org/productions/worl...interviews.php

The guy in our ward who spoke to the youth was interviewed as part of this and I found his transcript here as well.

[il Padrino Ute]

Eddie, if you're in Utah and if this gentleman ever speaks to a youth group again, please give me a heads up. I'd love to have my kids come listen to him. He sounds like a tremendous person.

If anyone doubts that there really is a greatest generation, they only need to read your posts. The rest of us suck compared to them.

[Eddie]

The guy has a cabin up in Star Valley, Wyoming that he let us take the scouts to stay at last summer. Had a great time up there - going down the snake river, riding horses up the canyon, hiking a couple of local peaks, etc.

About the third day we were there, one of the other leaders pointed to something hanging on one of the walls and asked if I'd seen it. I said no, and went over to read it.

It was a poster commemorating him being awarded the Silver Star for manning an observation post alone over a 2 day period where he coordinated artillery fire on enemy positions while under fire himself. I'd known he was a veteran, but this was the first I'd seen anything talking about what he experienced. Then last fall he was in a local paper article that talked about the interviews they were doing and some of his experiences.

I don't know that we'll ever get him to speak again, but if we do I'll let you know.

[hostile]

Since Memorial Day is approaching, I just wanted to share:

We have several WWII vets that live in our neighborhood. Last night one who saw a lot of combat came and talked to our youth. It was crazy hearing some of his stories – and to hear how much he was involved in.

We have a similar situation in neighborhood. One of the vets was a bomber pilot. His plan was shot down over Poland, behind enemy lines. I don't remember all the details. Last night he met with the youth to recount his story but I couldn't make it due to work. He's an amazing person - always willing to talk about his experiences but very down to earth.