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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”
I am hating all the obituaries. That is not aimed at you Mark. Just a comment.
I intend to only date younger men and even that isn’t much protection unless they have taken really good care of themselves. Of course most my age and older are in cemeteries, nursing homes or really bad shape!
Have found two of my old boy friends who look good and are alive. One has had at least seven wives, the other four. That brings their mental capacities into question but then that was always in question.
Mark…Leon Russell has returned to the island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR_eDJ7IIJE
There were instructions on a label stuck to the side of the squash, Jackie, and I followed them. I split it, cleaned out the hollow, put both halves in a microwave safe dish with 1/4 cup of water and zapped it for 12 minutes.
Thanks Debbe. My friend Kelly does this one and sailors love it universally. Here’s a funny Leon Russell that made me laugh. This is more reality of honky tanks than the beautiful women Ghost posts.
https://youtu.be/eRlkIunIU-c
Jackie, had this album…loved it….and at the time, love did have a hold on me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFUHoaPUtE
Going to run over to the hen house, temps are 55 degrees…don’t know how long I’ll stay. Need to grab the fly spray too….seems I’ve ‘inherited’ a few fleas…..gonna spray furniture and get to the vet and get spray for animals….nasty vermin….and why were they allowed on the Ark???
And, Jackie, what does Lincoln have to do with cats?
Lincoln was famous for his love of cats even during his lifetime. He fed Tabby on the formal White House dinner table with a gold fork. Mrs. Lincoln objected and he said it had been good enough for Mr. Buchanan so it would do for Tabby. Lots of anecdotes and Lincoln cat stories exist.
Lincoln suffered badly from depression and found solace in petting cats. He was quite loving and kind to cats all his life. The same cannot be said for Mrs. Lincoln who was known to Lincolns staff as the hellion cat.
Google Lincoln and cats.
PBS had a music series in the early 1970s that included an episode with Leon Russell. I was living in the garage apartment* behind my parents’ house at the time and decided to watch it with them since their TV was better than mine. I figured that they would like the short program with Cat Stevens that ran first, wasn’t sure what they would think of Russell. Turned out that my mother, especially, really liked him!
* The apartment had originally been fixed up for my grandmother, who lived there with us from the time I was about 5. During my junior year in college, she reached the point of needing more attention so she was moved into my bedroom and I got the apartment. Worked out well for everyone – I used it during the 1970 summer break, my brother used it after his divorce while I was away the next school year, and I moved back in when I graduated. I stayed there for a year before getting my own place which allowed me to save up a nice chunk of money to get me started.
And remember, if it’s on the Internet it’s gotta be true… or false! We used to believe everything in books and newspapers was true… or not!
Spent last couple hours listening to Leon Russell music. I find I like it all.
What Trucker? You mean Washington didn’t chop down that cherry tree nor skip the coin across the river and maybe he did tell a lie?
All pre-Internet perpetuation.
Still listening to Leon. May do so all day. Good music to wash dishes and clean by.
Cohen. Russell.
Who will be the third?
Or was Russell the third?
Trucker:
http://dykn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Abraham-Lincoln-Internet-Quote.png
Oh Ghost, at least give me that Lincoln loved cats! It is documented by contemporaries in their diaries and letters.
He ranks right along with Doctor Johnson and Mark Twain, Voltaire as cat lovers.
Yes, photos are faked but the photo he had taken of Fido his Springfield dog went for more than $30,000. That isn’t faked.
Don’t you admire Lincoln?
Trucker, any word on your daughter’s fundraiser for the school? I meant to keep the url but haven’t. Hope that it is working out well for them.
Springfield…maybe we need a little of this….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85cNRQo1m3A
Springsteen…just left a bar and and had a few adult beverages and my favorate…chicken livers
nighty night
GR 😉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85cNRQo1m3A
How many adult beverages? You posted same song again Debbe.
Probably the chicken livers did it. Those nasty things are are near-toxic waste as far as I’m concerned. Well, maybe she’ll see this in the morning.
Debbe 😉 Doc typically watched only one TV show per night and on Mondays that was The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. We watched “The Musical Version” episode, the one at the end of which Gracie explained why her father had a sign on the front of his photography studio that read “Shoe Repair”, and why he put a camera inside of a cantaloupe. I was disappointed, though, to see that it did not end with George saying, “Say good night, Gracie,” and Gracie saying, “Goodnight, Gracie,” but it was still funny.
Earlier that evening, Doc and I had stopped at a drive-in restaurant for hamburgers, fries, and milk shakes (all of them delicious), and this song was playing on their outdoor PA system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgdufzXvjqw
(Oddly, Li’l Smigz), there did not seem to be a radio in Doc’s house.)
Good golly Miss Molly, you were back in the days I began dating and dancing. We went over hips and between legs but not over shoulders and back as I recall. I actually went to a dance he played for.
As Jimmy Buffet said, what happened to the saxophones and brass?
You haven’t said but why back to 1955?
Here’s my favorite Springsteen to remind me not to live in the past. If I totally stop turning heads and live only in the past, then it’s time to say Goodnight Gracie.
https://youtu.be/6vQpW9XRiyM
Opps… Here’s a one you’ll like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tebjshm7f_I
and ;the lyrics
“Well if I could I surely would
stand on the rock where Moses stood
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Well Mary wore three links and chains
on every link was Jesus’ name
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep, go!
Go!
Well one of these nights bout 12 o’clock
this old world is gonna rock
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Well Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
smote’ the water with a two by four
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Alright!
(O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(pharaoh’s army got drownded)
(o Mary don’t you weep)
Well old Mr. Satan he got mad
missed that soul that he thought he had
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Brothers and sisters don’t you cry
there’ll be good times by and by
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Well O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Solo, try it out!
(O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(pharaoh’s army got drownded)
(o Mary don’t you weep), hey!
Drums!
God gave Noah the rainbow sign
– no more water but fire next time –
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
pharaoh’s army got drownded
o Mary don’t you weep
Everybody!
(O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(pharaoh’s army got drownded)
(o Mary don’t you weep)
O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn
pharaoh’s army got drownded
oh, Mary don’t you…
(O Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(o Mary don’t you weep, don’t you mourn)
(pharaoh’s army got drownded)
(o Mary don’t you weep)?