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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Christmas in Kirschnaumen and other holiday stories

A card from Lt. Fred Lemm, 712th Tank Bn., to his wife.

   Ira Weinstein of the 445th Bomb Group volunteered to fly a mission on Yom Kippur in 1944. It would have been his final mission, and he would be home in time for his wife's birthday on Christmas Day. Instead his B-24 was shot down over Kassel, Germany, and he became a prisoner of war. He did make it home for Christmas ... in 1945.
   Tank driver Tony D'Arpino celebrated Christmas during the Battle of the Bulge by stringing machine gun bullets around a scrawny tree.
   Bob Rossi, the loader in Tony's tank, recalled eating Thanksgiving dinner in the rain.
   Far from home, holidays were especially poignant for the men and women fighting World War II. These are some holiday-themed audio clips from my World War II oral history interviews.

track 1 Major Forrest Dixon, 712th Tank Battalion, recalls Christmas shopping in Luxembourg.

track 2  Pfc. Bob Rossi recalls Thanksgiving of 1944.
 
track 3 Sarah and Jim Schaen get married on Christmas Day.

track 4 Bob Rossi and Lt. Jim Gifford recall Christmas in Kirschnaumen (France).

track 5 Ex-POW Jim Koerner recalls a Christmas Eve service in 1944.

track 6 B-24 bombardier Ira Weinstein is shot down on Yom Kippur in 1944.

track 7 Karnig Thomasian grows an Easter lily in a Japanese prison camp.

track 8 Corporal Jim Rothschadl, 712th Tank Battalion, recalls his father's love for the 4th of July.

track 9 Forrest Dixon's Christmas dinner is interrupted by an order from General Patton.

track10 T-4 Tony D'Arpino decorates a tree for Christmas.

track 11 Orlando Brigano and Paul Wannemacher recalls a Christmas Eve tragedy

track 12 More on the Christmas Eve tragedy.

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