Though some of you might be interested in this story about one of our local WW II vets. This man has a remarkable story about surviving being captured and escaping during the Battle of The Bulge.

Mr. Haynes is the father of one of my wife's high school friends. His son and wife are also friends of ours today. This story first appeared several years ago on the anniversary of the battle and was reprinted this year. I meet the man years ago and like most heroes of that generation he never mentioned his experience. Not many of that generation left, unfortunately.

http://www.dnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...nclick_check=1

Great stories. With him telling them, I felt like I was there.

But Mr. Franklin was not captured. He was wounded and was being evacuated in a Halftrack when it either hit a mine or had artillery land close by. Mr Franklin ended half under the Halftrack. When they tried jacking it up to free him, it slipped off the jacks, falling back on his legs. Mr Franklin was the most crippled up man I had seen at the time. He bore his pain stoically and never talked about the war to me or anyone else I know of. His relationship with his son was tempestuous, at best. He's been gone for over twenty years and I am sure his injuries shortened his life.
Just another member of the "Greatest Generation".

Mr. Haynes also had a limp. I'm pretty sure I remember his son telling me it was from a war injury. Probably the shrapnel he dug out of this leg.

My dad was there also. He worked outside his entire life, but he never liked the cold.

I had a Uncle there also. He was never right after that. He would never talk loud and almost whisper all the time, if you talked to him in a normal or loud voice he would tell you to lower your voice, and he would never stay in one spot and was always on the move until his death I guess. I say I guess because we lost touch with him years ago. I have always wanted to know where he ended up so I could visit him as he never had anyone else. He was never able to hold a job and was on disability from his experience. I think he was a cook at the time which didn't matter as everyone there turned into infantry.

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Psalm 23:4

Max,
I heard the same thing about the cold also. Not sure if it was from a WW II vet or Korean vet. Surviving a war is enough for anyone to ever go through (never had to but think I can imagine), but doing so under the conditions these guys did with what they had is incomprehensible to me.

Hodgin, Great choice for a thread. The business he chose was an eloquent way to carry forward the message of freedom, and the cost that comes with it. He inspired patriotism in Murfreesboro and now in the readers of this thread. Bravo.

Joe

I have a uncle still alive at 96 that was there. He froze his feet. I need to go home and see him.

My Dad was there. His unit was assigned to Patton's third army. He was a member of a three man crew on a 10 ton Ward La France Wrecker. He didn't talk to me much about his experience but sat down with my brother Jack and shared with him when Jack came back from Vietnam. My Dad didn't like the cold either. He said he had seen enough snow to last him a lifetime.
The only story he related to me about being involved in a shooting situation was when they first arrived in France in August of 1944 his crew was sent to retrieve an M3 Stuart with a trailer behind the Ward. When they arrived at the tank people were still shooting at it. He said they were armed with carbines. When they returned to the repair yard with the tank the Sgt. in charge took the carbines and came back with two BAR's and an M2 50 caliber. He said they welded a ring mount above the passengers seat for the 50. He added that their next encounter was not so one sided.

He owned a candy distributorship for years. When he retired he opened the flag and flagpole business in the same building (part of it). I'm not sure how much business he does but he enjoys talking to people and loves showing his museum. In fact, I think
I'll go down and get a new flag after the holidays if he's still open.

My ole Pop who passed away in December, 1988 was there, in the 3rd Army, wounded by shrapnel in several places, while in a foxhole. He was moved out for surgery, ultimately to a Red Cross ship. When recovered, he was sent back into combat
I was contacted about 2001 or so, by a man from Belgium, who had a small collection of war zone artifacts; much the same as those who get out to the U.S. civil war battle fields.

He had found one of Pop's dog tags, broken in two, but had found both halves. He sent it to me for Pop's family to see. He requested it be returned, along with any pictures in uniform or other info, to be displayed with the rest of his collection if I did not object. After a while, I decided it was a good and proper place for it to be.

I have the re-issued set of tags Pop got when he was sent back to combat, where he once captured a dugout full of nine Germans, less scared than he was he always joked, and later, was captured himself and interred in prison camp Jan. 18th, 1945 and liberated March 28th 1945, by the 7th Armored Division.

He was awarded his Purple Heart, if that can be called an award,and a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. His elder sister who had his Silver Star was unable to find it to pass on to me but I do have his Purple Heart.

While I am proud of him as can be, and served the Army myself, and furthermore, consider myself as patriotic as any man, those trinkets are a damn poor reward for what those honorable men had to go through.

My Pop, like most who endured it would never volunteer to speak of it, and sorry to say, I was too young to seek out details. He did sometimes relate some kinda funny ironies. He told of being forced to do railroad repair for the Germans while in prison camp. Every day as they were being marched back to the prison camp, after repairing a mile or so of track, they would hear the American air corp come in and bomb it all back to the destruction of the day before. He and the other prisoners always got a kick out of that.

Happy Christmas to you all.

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wanna do right-- not right now

My Pop will be 89 on the 24th of Feb. He was in Patton's 3rd Army, !7th Airborne, 680th Field Artillery Battalion, Battery B. I have, only in the last few years, heard many stories from him and other Airborne Vets at a Reunion my parents attend for the 17th in PA.They landed in France on Christmas Eve 1944 and went into the Battle of the Bulge. At midnight the next day, Christmas, all the church bells started ringing and my Pop thought it was in celebration of the holiday but suddenly the air raid siren
started sounding and German Planes flew low over head strafing them.

I knew a local gent,who I believe is still alive,who was at the Battle of the Bulge.He told me of firing a 50 cal mg,having an enemy round hit him in the chest(and with his hands forward on the grips,the bullet took off one pinky finger first),and it exited his back.Real lucky guy to have missed vitals.He also told another interesting story of being a scout behind enemy lines,but his wife asked him not to tell me more.Unlike a Marine that I knew that had been on Saipan,he wanted to talk about it.

As a kid , I had a Scoutmaster who had served in the 101st Airborne in the Battle of The Bulge. He told us the story several times of being in a trench and the soldier next to him standing up to take a look and being hit in the front of his helmet. The enemy round spun around between the helmet and liner and exited the rear of the helmet via a hole you could put your fist through. The helmet was blown off the guy's head and he was knocked out but not otherwise injured. A scene exactly like this was portrayed in the Band of Brother's series and sprurred me to seek out my old Scoutmaster to see if it was his experience or possibly one similar. After a long and futile search I have abandoned trying to find him.

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Lost in Penn's Woods

One of the 17th Vets had the same experience. His wife and daughter bring his helmet to the reunion every year as he has now passed away. They tell the story of how mad he was because as the bullet passed thru it caught his hair on fire.