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As part of the First Army’s 3rd Armored Division, my father and his buddies in the 23rd Armored Engineering Battalion bridge the River Seine in France in the summer of 1944, near where Orly International Airport is today. Soldiers of the 23rd went on to bridge the Marne River east of Paris, the Meuse in Belgium and the Rhine in Germany, among others. They fought for weeks in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, the single longest battle in U.S. Army history. During one of the coldest winters in local memory, the combat engineers fought in the Battle of the Bulge as armored infantry. They dynamited holes in the Siegfried Line, Germany’s western wall of defense, and removed thousands of mines. The 3rd Armored Division overran the German towns of Paderborn and Nordhausen, capturing the V-2 rockets manufactured there and preserving the technology for America. They also discovered and freed a nearby concentration camp where inmate slaves were being worked to death in the underground rocket plants. In the spring of 1945, the 3rd Armored Division, the “Spearhead Division,” was deep in Germany and about to meet Soviet troops coming from the east. My father and his buddies were preparing to bridge the Mulde River when they were ordered to stand down. The war had ended. My father survived this experience and came home in the fall of that year. He did not tell me these things. I learned them through my own research, much of it conducted after his death in 1992. And I wonder, how does someone walk away from something like that and go back to a normal life. I guess I should know, he never really did.
174 responses to “My Daddy”
GR 😉 here’s one you don’t hear too often:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obVMS4Q7N2k
…try using ground turkey in your chili….mine tasted damn good….think I’ll have a bowl soon after I start cleaning this house…been ‘abused’ (the house) for too long. Husband does a good job, but in the last couple of weeks he’s not been feeling well. When he applied for SSI, he got it immediately…no appeals, and that is scary.
To all of you who are not posting political comments: Thanks.
Wonderful tribute, Jimmy. Thanks for sharing. You Veterans Day posts have all been memorable. The one that spoke most to me was Arlo telling Gene that he’d won the lottery.
I give up….need a dumpster to start tossing out the junk, like my Old Dell, a useless water cooler, one 28 year old son 🙂 …. just kidding.
Going to hit the recliner for a while. Husband fixing chicken fettuccine.
Rick, you are most certainly welcome….there are forums for that BS
Beautiful day here in SIN
Hey…where’s Jackie???
Mark, do you know????
And yes Jimmy…a wonderful tribute to your father and to all who served. Thanks.
Thanks to your daddy and mine and all the other dads who left all their loved ones to go so far away to keep us and the rest of the world safe. Luckily, at 93, my dad is still alive (and kicking). It has only been in the last 15 years that he has somewhat opened up about his service in Italy. He didn’t want to talk while Mom was still alive, as he never wanted her to know that he wasn’t always safe.
Good morning. Jackie is home in bed with the Adventure Dog getting ready or not to have knee replacement in two weeks.
As a political service to our country I have been posting photos of a variety of cats in my Endless Kitty Buffet out in yard and advising everyone follow Abe Lincolns advice to pet a cat. Facebook needs cat and food photos right now.
Thanks, Rick. I have my own religious and political beliefs and I like to keep them to myself. I, like Debbe, do not consider this a political or religious forum.
God bless us every one. God bless the USA.
The best political news of all is that this Presidential election cycle is over, done, fini, and the next campaign won’t start for…oh, wait, it probably already has, hasn’t it? 🙁
Jackie, are you really still undecided about what to do about your knees? Not my place to tell you what to do, but if it were Ghost, I’m pretty sure he would prefer to deal with some temporary immobility rather than being permanently invalided.
Debbe 😉 If Ian is a typical 28-year-old bachelor, he probably couldn’t tell the inside of the dumpster from his room. 😀
By the way, did you know that those dumpsters were invented by George Dempster, and that their trade name is/was the Dempster-Dumpster?
Jackie got clearance from endocrinologist and rheumatologist so far. Big one is cardiologist. Shrink will ok it. I am doing this but don’t want to.
Should have done face-lift. May sell a boat for one?
Hey, the DeLorean took me to wrong year or I can’t do math. I looked good by 1957 not 1955.
One thing that is depressing me is fast I have two knees to do so looking at a year according to orthopedist for knees, then another year to do two shoulders and hands if not more. That is her best case scenario to allow for recovery with no complications.
Damn, there go the best years of my youth! At least what’s left of it.
Again, Jackie, think about what it will be like if you don’t get those things fixed. And perhaps that tall, dark, mysterious visiting nurse will show up to look after you.
A physician I know had a face lift at age 60. His reasoning was it made him look 45, and he would be 75 before he looked 60 again. He’s 85 now and looks damned good.
1955, 1957; jail-bait either way, no? 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGAVwQAmAHs
An absolutely gorgeous mid-fall afternoon in the Deep South today. Bullet got a bath, which he appreciated. I believe I finally have a handle on all his features.
Enough with politics, on with food: What percentage cocoa do you like in your chocolate? I’m into extreme dark chocolate, found a bar with 88% cocoa:
http://www.chocolatebar.com/?portfolio=dark-chocolate-with-88-cocoa
It’s actually 6g fiber to 5g sugar per serving, and they promise to give 10% of proceeds to supporting endangered species.
My wife loves white chocolate, but it’s too sweet for my taste.
Debbe, it probably would easy for you to move to Canada, but at my age I don’t want to try and learn a new language.
Sorry. That was me.
Thanks for the update on your clearances, Jackie. Do keep us posted; we care. I admit I am putting off my second knee as long as the synthetic joint fluid (“chicken juice”) is giving me good relief. But my masseuse asked me last week, if you know you’re going to have to do it and it hurts, why are you putting it off? I’m going on a choral tour to Europe in May; won’t have time before that, but may well decide to have it done afterward.
To quote the t-shirt: Getting old is not for sissies.
My endo and rheumatoid guys said getting off steroids was best thing I did, that and plaquenil. I hurt but I am less risk.
88% chocolate is just right. Buy mine at BUMC, fair-traded, small farmers, etc. Church sells chocolate, coffee, tea, and BUMC sells more fair-trade stuff than any other MN UMC, regardless of # members. We are a midsized UMC, large enough to justify one pastor, and secy.-bookkeeper, lay pastoral asst. of some sort, organist, choir director, and janitor, all part-time. Everybody else [lay leader, S.S. mgr. + teachers, copy editor, two women’s orgs, trustees, committee chairs + members, etc.] = volunteers. Several other UMCs, esp. in the Cities and Rochester, are much larger, w/ multiple pastors & such. No UMC mega-churches in USA, to my knowledge.
Not a word in there about religion, just food and organization. Nihil obstat.
Pax vobiscum.
Thank you, TruckerRon! With only 22 grams net carbs per bar, even I can indulge, especially as there seem to be a few retailers in my neck of the woods.
When I jones for chocolate, it’s in the form of Hershey’s Kisses. I don’t know what the percentage of cocoa in them is, but I know they are good, as one would expect from the fact that they have been around for over a hundred years. Letting three of them melt in my mouth (one at a time) will satisfy my craving.
About the visiting nurse. My surgery is scheduled for November 30 right after Thanksgiving. Does he have plans for roasting a turkey with someone already? It might be nice to meet me when I am not drugged on pain meds nor screaming in pain and cursing my knee.
Frankly, I would love to have someone who won’t let me wimp out. You can put up with five women, I can’t possibly be as bad as five combined. Almost couldn’t type that, I hesitated. I might be.
“But my masseuse asked me last week, if you know you’re going to have to do it and it hurts, why are you putting it off?” from NK in AZ.
Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense! I like to get bad stuff over and get to the good stuff. Also makes sense to me to have a surgery sooner when recovery prospects are better than later when I might be less able to bounce back. Or can’t bounce back at all, can’t have surgery, and end up feeling miserable. I hope I remember this when I need it!
I had a good friend many years ago in Texas who committed suicide that way, very very slowly. She needed knee surgery and was in multiple diet groups with me. Instead she just ate more and continued to gain weight until she could no longer walk and she went on to walker, then scooter, then power chair.
She continued to gain and gain until she was bed ridden in a hospital bed on first floor of their home and could no longer get out of bed or even turn over. She ended up being lifted with a mechanical lift to even move her. Obviously she died prematurely.
I know this is extreme and obviously it was mental but I think of her often.