Commentary

Speech at the Rochefort Reception

The following speech was made at the Rochefort, Belgium Town Hall on the occasion of John being made a honorary citizen of that town on June 19, 2010. Mr. Gilbert Stevenot, who was an interpreter in General Bradley’s Headquarters during WWII was responsible for the...

Mail From Home Was the Infantryman’s Oxygen

Whether he scanned the mail and pocketed it in his foxhole with artillery screaming around or snow raining down, or in a barn with bullets whizzing past, and whatever information it contained, mail from home was the oxygen of an infantryman’s life. Even when they were...

A Tale of Buchenwald — The Stench Still Lingers

The first thing I noticed was the odor. It reminded me of the Kuhner Packing Company’s waste being burned in my hometown of Muncie, Indiana. It was a warm morning in April, 1945 — calm and peaceful — unlike the grueling conditions we had recently left behind in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Battle of the Bulge Was Longer, Bloodier Than Army Admits

There can be no dissent about the starting date of the Battle of the Bulge. Early on December 16, 1944, German armies jumping off from Germany smashed through American lines from both the ground and air, across Luxembourg and into Belgium. But read a dozen books, plus...