I have produced a number of comic strips related to Veteran’s Day. Especially in latter years, I have tried to emphasize the universal experience of having served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Although they all placed themselves at Uncle Sam’s disposal, a large majority of veterans never experienced combat, but they almost all remember their time in the military as a unique and indelible experience. They all have their memories and their stories, and they are proud. On Veteran’s Day, we acknowledge all who served us. Having said that, I always think of my father on this day. Please indulge me. What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t brag on your old man?
My father came ashore on Omaha Beach in 1944, a member of the 1st Army’s 3rd Armored Division. It was two weeks after D-Day, but the battle for Normandy had only begun. For almost a year, Daddy and his fellow soldiers fought across northern Europe. By the time World War II was over, the division had accrued five battle stars: Normandy, Northern France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland and Central Germany. Known as the Third Herd when it arrived in France, the division soon was to be rechristened the Spearhead Division. My father was a member of a combat engineering battalion. The photo is of tanks and troops breaching the Siegfried Line, the first Americans to do so. Daddy and his buddies would have dynamited those “dragon’s teeth” and bulldozed the roads. When the going became particularly tough, they fought as infantry.
Daniel Bolger, a military historian and a retired lieutenant general, writes that there were 16 armored divisions in the U.S. Army in World War II. All fought in Western Europe. He ranks them by contributions they were able to make to the ultimate outcome. Coming in at No. 2 was the Hell on Wheels Division, the centerpiece of George Patton’s 3rd Army. Then, Bolger writes, there was one better:
“The division didn’t seek publicity; they had a war to fight. And fight they did. That’s why the 3rd Armored Division was the best in the west.”
Most of this stuff I learned from the internet years after my father had died. He didn’t talk about it much. He came home and worked as a machinist in a textile mill until he retired. Well, here’s a little publicity for you, Daddy.