In Remembrance

With Memorial Day last week and today marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day, I thought I’d write a post in remembrance of the soldiers who fought in WWII, and specifically, my grandpa, who was in five campaigns (including Normandy) and earned five Bronze Stars for his service.

My grandpa, who passed away five years ago at the age of 89, was a pretty tight-lipped man. Though I grew up just a block away from him and saw him at least once a week for almost my entire life, I didn’t know a lot about him. He wasn’t an especially tender man–I remember telling my mom when I was a child that he hurt my armpits when he’d tickle me, or my belly button when I’d walk by and he’d stop me and say, “Meggie, am I boring you?” while twisting his finger in my belly button. As he got older though, you could see the love for his girlies (his only daughter and all of his granddaughters) grow and his eyes swell with tears every time we had to leave him.

It’s not hard to gather why he was a rather hardened man. My fiery-tempered, ginger-haired grandpa grew up on a farm in rural Missouri, where he worked day in and day out to provide for a family after his father left them. Then, he joined the army and was sent to war where he saw, among many atrocities, his friends and comrades get killed, and the cowardice of both men and nations.

He never spoke to me about the war. I asked–a lot. Forever a curious girl, questioning is in my nature and I always want to know people as deeply as I can, but grandpa wasn’t a very forthcoming interviewee and so what I know about him I learned through the rest of my family. I think he talked more about the war when he was younger or perhaps only with his boys, because the majority of stories I know have come from my dad.

What I know is pretty small: he was a Staff Sergeant in the 75th Armored Medical Battalion; he joined in November 1941 and served until October 1945; he and one of his brothers were both in Normandy at the same time, but neither knew the other was until many, many years later; in addition to Normandy, he was part of four other battles/campaigns: North France, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe.

I’m sure there are a million stories like this one, but one of the most interesting stories I heard about his time there was probably his biggest close-call to being killed/captured. I don’t know the entire background story–but he was alone, separated from his unit for whatever reason, and saw a German tank coming his way. There wasn’t anywhere for him to go–running away would’ve drawn attention to the fact that he was the sole person around. He quickly dove into a snowbank hoping that the deep snow would shield him from view and that he’d escape unscathed. He was lucky–the tank drove by within feet of him while he held his breath, hoping for the best.

During the four years that he spent serving in the US Army, he, along with countless other soldiers, faced what were likely some of the most difficult times in their lives. But despite all of the horrors of war that he saw, one thing is evident–he had some great camaraderie with his fellow service men, which I believe made the bad times a little more bearable.

A few months ago, I was at my grandparents’ house of over 50 years, and though my grandpa’s chair remains in the living room, mostly unoccupied, he is still ever-present. I am grateful to my Nana, who not only put up with his stubborn ways for 62 years, but who also hung on to so many things from his life. When I visited that particular time, I was sorting through things as I often do there to see what treasures I can come across, when I found a pile of black and white photos that grandpa had taken during his time at war. All of the photos you see in this post were his, and surely, some of them had some great stories to go along with them–stories I will never probably never hear, sadly. But, I am forever grateful for having found these photos and for the surge of love that filled my heart when I saw my grandpa’s young face smiling back at me in a couple of them. (He’s the one on the right in the following photo.)

As a bonus, I found a few photos he’d taken during his travels.