Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for U.S. Veterans. Enjoy!
Gifts for History: How to Give a Gift that Gives More This Holiday Season
The holiday season is right around the corner. Why not give a gift that gives back?
From small gifts to large ones, every purchase supports The National WWII Museum’s mission of educating future generations on the war that changed the world. Show your support and find a unique gift for your loved ones that will truly get them excited this holiday season!
Read more here…
Veterans Advocacy: Ten things veterans should know about burn pits
Just five months ago, VA launched the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry in response to concerns that Veterans were experiencing a range of respiratory illnesses possibly associated with exposure to burn pits. The registry is open to many Veterans and active-duty Servicemembers who deployed to various locations. This post describes why you should participate in the registry and how it might help uncover links between exposures and certain health conditions.
Read more here…
This Day in History: 26 November 1944: US 116th Infantry Regiment on the ‘watch on the Roer’
In some parts of Northwest European the front was becoming increasingly static, as both sides dug in. The weather and extended supply lines had slowed down the Allied advance. Although the Germans were fighting tenaciously to defend their homeland, Allied intelligence believed they were largely contained. Many believed that the lines would settle down even more over the winter period.
Sergeant Bob Slaughter had landed with the 116th Infantry Regiment on Omaha Beach on D-Day, where they had suffered devastating casualties. They were still in the line, having fought all the way across France. Slaughter had been wounded in France and spent two months recovering in England before rejoining his regiment, along with many more replacements.
Now they found themselves holding an area on the west bank of the River Roer, one of the main natural barriers to Germany before the Rhine itself.
Read more here…
Legends of History: General George S. Patton confronts an SS General
The heavily fortified border city of Metz had been seized from the French in 1870, returned to the French in 1918 and again seized by the Germans in 1940. The US Third Army’s struggle to liberate it had taken nearly three months and heavy casualties.
Sergeant Leonard O’Reilly discovered SS Major General Anton Dunckern hiding in a brewery on the 20th Novemebr, during a thorough search of Metz following its occupation on the 19th. At first Dunckern demanded to be allowed to surrender to a senior officer but, with a cocked pistol prodding him in the stomach, soon changed his mind. He was later brought before General Patton.
Although Patton spoke German fluently he chose have the interview translated because he would not demean himself to speak to him directly:
Read more here…
History Maker: God, Whiskey, Cigars and Guns. WWII Vet Still Going Strong at 108
Richard Overton spent Veteran’s Day this year serving as grand marshal in the Austin, Texas parade alongside the mayor, another veteran. What makes Overton so special?
He is the oldest living male veteran in the United States. At 108 years old, this man from Texas rarely uses his cane to walk, is still doing his own yard work and driving widows to church every Sunday. He told a local TV station in an interview last March that he doesn’t take any medicine other than aspirin…and the “medicine” he puts in his coffee every morning. He told Fox News, “I may drink a little in the evening too with some soda water, but that’s it. Whiskey’s a good medicine, it keeps your muscles tender.”
Read more here…
Legends of History: Rommel saved me from being shot as a spy – and gave me cigarettes!
He was viewed as Hitler’s finest general, admired even by the Allies for his skills as a military leader. But to one captured British soldier, Erwin Rommel was the man who saved his life – and gave him beer and cigarettes. Captain Roy Wooldridge, from the Royal Engineers, has told how he was introduced to the ‘Desert Fox’ after being taken prisoner in France. He had been caught during a covert night-time reconnaissance mission ahead of the D-Day landings. Without uniform or identification due to the secrecy of the operation, he was treated as a spy and told he would be shot. But Field Marshal Rommel requested a meeting with the new prisoner and asked the Brit if there was anything he needed.
Captain Wooldridge said he replied: ‘A good meal, a pint of beer and a packet of cigarettes.’ To his astonishment he was then ushered into Rommel’s mess, where all three items were waiting for him. Capt Wooldridge, now 95, saved the empty cigarette packet as a souvenir and will recount his adventure on Sunday’s edition of Antiques Roadshow. He said: ‘I was told that Rommel always wanted to meet men who had been doing something unusual when they were captured. ‘I was meant to have been shot. I was told on several occasions during my interrogation that is what would happen unless I talked.
Read more here…
Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for U.S. Veterans.
Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for U.S. Veterans. Enjoy!
