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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”
TruckerR, I find 70% cocoa to be a very sweet treat. I do like 85% and 90% as well but they are a bit harder to get. I also have tried 99% which is quite intense. I can only eat a few squares at a time. It goes nice with a black coffee follower.
Llee, a large corporation has hired a “good fairy” to look for worthy projects to donate to; my daughter’s project was one chosen by that lovely person!
So, emboldened by that event, she has started another one:
https://www.donorschoose.org/project/computers-for-fifth-graders/2309572/
Gary, the highest % I’ve found in local stores was 90%. I find that anything below 70% is too sweet for me anymore. Interesting how our tastes adjust to favor what my daughters find incredibly bitter.
Have worked on cleaning kitchen, washing dishes, unfurling surfaces and cooking. Tonight was leftover zucchini and yellow squash turned into a (gasp) squash casserole, garlic lemon cauliflower a nd sautéed kale, mustard and bok choy greens, plus leftover pork loin.
Everyone gets a buffet plate of leftovers tomorrow and I cook something fresh and perishable for dinner. Triage in the fridge on vegetables and fruits. Probably stir fry with brown mushrooms and snow peas, peppers, onions and who knows?
Walmart has good selections of dark and gourmet chocolates, usually in different location than more common candy.
My candy shop had upscale European and American candy you scooped and weighed. Now you can buy versions in gas stations and discount stores. Not sure any cheaper though? Just easier to find.
Anyone here eat gummy rats?
No, but I’ve had woodchuck, muskrat, fox and grey sq., fox [horrid], coon, opossum, cat, deer, whale [would no longer eat that, nor primate of any sort], various game birds. Best of those mammals are deer, muskrat, and opossum. Have not found any bird or fish that I don’t like. Also various mollusks and crustaceans. Peace,
https://www.chocosphere.com/default/percentage/80-90-percent.html?limit=all
https://www.chocosphere.com/default/percentage/over-90-percent.html
Thank you Google!
Have been running Chinese laundry, sorting clothes and jewelry and hanging it up, cleaning kitchen and doing everything except staying off knees. Now both knees hurt. Just fantastic. Not that they haven’t hurt badly before, it’s just I have been in a remission that seems to have ended. I am going to bed, both tired and depressed.
Think I am going back to cooking but not eating my own cooking. I have gained weight. Think I will return to the iced tea diet, stop the Diet Cokes (bad) and go on anti-inflammatory diet that both endocrinologist and rheumatologist recommend. It is proven to work for both diabetes and autoimmune diseases.
There is so much to do in next two weeks that I will be exhausted by time I check into hospital for surgery.
Ghost, this note is to you. Please send the information I need to make the two memorial pieces for your sister and parents. The flowers are in huge sacks in living room.
I need to at least make flowers for my mom too and hopefully for other family in Louisiana. It looks like I need to go to Tupelo about Trigger and it isn’t that far from Jackson on to Monroe and graves. Well, I may be trying for too many memorials. I have about six immediate family in one cemetery alone.
But yours and my mama’s are being done, have everything bought. I turn into a “kitchen witch” and design them on table, that is what professional florists call housewife do it yourselfers.
Morning, folks! This one has 2 pages, by the way (or it did on my machine)
http://www.tickld.com/x/actual-exchanges-between-pilots-and-control-towers
Very funny Llee Perhaps Ghost has one of his own he remembers?
By the way, Jim Young I noticed we have over a thousand members now on Facebook for A and J.
You are welcome. There is so little we can give someone like Jiimmy.
Jimmy,
My father like yours was with Patton in the “Bulge” and froze his feet, was sent to England for a couple of weeks, then back to the Engineers. He survived it or I wouldn’t have been born. Talked very little about it. After he passed we discovered letters he wrote back to Mom.
Not much about the fighting, but the cold and wet socks. All the soldiers then wanted was dry socks. He should have applied for service connection disability but never sent it in. Before he passed on Veterans Day 2003 he was awarded a Bronze Star.
Salutes to your father and all of his buddies.
Ah, ha…good morning Villagers 🙂
Slept like a baby last night…must have been the chicken livers 🙂 Since it was a beautiful day, we decided to take a cruise and did something we’ve not done in years…went out to eat. Just the three of us. And yes, we drank responsibly. It’s the first time I ever put a $ in a jukebox to play only two songs…I remember when it was 5 songs for a dollar….inflation…tells you how long it’s been since I’ve been in a bar…..and I don’t really miss it.
Temps this week will allow us to get some work done at the hen house….sixties.
Oh, Jackie, sorry about the double post…I’ll post it later.
Happy Monday one and all
Your father was a true hero. I had the opportunity last week to see a WWII vet speak at my child’s school. He was at the Battle of the Bulge and helped to liberate Dachau. It was an honor to see him and see how he connected with a groups of middle and high school children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIY6ZrQCuTo
Odd bit of trivia:
According to the Internet, Natalie Schafer (“Lovey Howell on Gilligan’s Island) would lose weight by exclusively eating premium ice cream for a few days. Anyone want to try it and report their success or failure? I’m tempted!
TruckerRon, that’s wonderful news!
Llee, those exchanges made my morning!
Jimmy, I’ve been thinking about my Dad’s service during WWII and his Mom’s role in it. He was her first child, 17 years old, and she had to sign papers giving permission for him to enlist since he was underage. Her husband had died three years earlier, she had two other younger children, and was struggling to raise them alone (although the jobs my Dad had helped). Now he wanted to enlist and fight for her adopted country; and he might return home injured and unable to work or care for himself, or not return at all. I don’t think I ever appreciated how heroic a sacrifice that was for her. Thank you, Gramma.
Llee…those were funny, especially the one where the last one…too funny. Thanks for the giggles.
Where’s that edit button? I hate leaving out the closing quote mark.
TruckerRon, I meant the news about your daughter, but the ice cream idea is pretty cool, too!
Smigz , she was thrilled to hear the news and is awaiting the scanner’s arrival in mid-December. Most of the classrooms have one already, so it should be easy for the tech guy to set it up.
Now to go buy some ice cream! Or better yet, go visit the nearest Subzero ice cream shop:
https://www.subzeroicecream.com
Their premium ice cream at the nearby mall contains an incredible 14% milk fat. It doesn’t take a large serving to fill me up.
Doesn’t work Trucker, I have been on that diet! When I was delivering flowers and running the roads on Houston freeways back in early to late 80s I memorized the location of every premium high fat $5 and up ice cream cone in town and drove around town living on binge ice cream and diet Tabs.
Caffeine in huge quantities and 22% and higher fat content ice cream, what could be wrong with that? In a chocolate and nut dipped waffle cone for extra nut-trition.
Good morning Debbe. Fried chicken livers and gravy, I would still be sick with gastric reflux. I eat them wh r n I am feeling suicidal. At least bars in Indiana serve food with the cigarette smoke.