Some Gave All: Memorial Day 2015

The grave of John Daum, 82nd Airborne, in Normandy. Photo by Bill Nation, whose uncle, a captain in the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was killed in the Battle of the Bulge.

   Every Memorial Day I give some special thought to the interviews I've done in which veterans talk about members of their unit they were close to who never got the chance to come home from the war, or who came home in a casket years later. Here are some audio clips of veterans, and in one case a sibling, talking about those who went off to World War II and made the ultimate sacrifice.

Ed Boccafogli on Johnny Daum (From "The D-Day Tapes)

The family of Wil Goertzen at Ed Forrest's grave. Goertzen teaches history at Carbooncollege, a school in the Netherlands which "adopted" Ed's grave in the American cemetery at Margraten.

Clifford Merrill on Ed Forrest

Erlyn Jensen, left, and Linda Dewey of the Kassel Mission Historical Society.

Erlyn Jensen on her brother, Don McCoy (From "The Kassel Conversations)

 

Karnig Thomasian with some of his artwork.

Karnig Thomasian on Vern Henning (From "POW! Right in the Keister)

Karnig Thomasian on Vern Henning (Part 2)

Malcolm McGregor on Jack Dent (From "The Kassel Conversations)

Ed Stuever

Ed Stuever on Marion "Shorty" Kubeczko

Ed Stuever on Shorty (Part 2)

 Ed Stuever on Shorty (Part 3)

Tim Dyas

Tim Dyas on visiting the father of a POW who died (From POW! Right in the Keister)

Sam Cropanese on Lt. George Tarr (From "The Tanker Tapes)

Joe Bernardino

Joe Bernardino on tank driver Edmund Pilz (From "The Tanker Tapes)

  

Chuck Hurlbut

 D-Day veteran Chuck Hurlbut on Tom Legacy (From "The D-Day Tapes)  

1st Infantry Division veteran Valentine Miele on Omaha Beach (From "D-Day and the Bulge")

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