WAR STORIES: Harry V. Jones fought at the Battle of the Bulge. A member of the Army's 334th Infantry, he was recognized with many military awards, including a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. "Jones was a volunteer member of a patrol which successfully crossed the Rhine River, entered a German town, narrowly escaping detection, and obtained valuable information which enabled artillery concentrations to be placed on enemy strongpoints." (Submitted by Charles Jones.)
STORIES OF WAR
Reflections on World War II by those who were there
THINNING RANKS:
TIME IS TAKING A TOLL ON THOSE WHO REMEMBER
Right now, there are 2.8 million people alive who served in World War II. In just five years, there will be half that. Their histories are not always in textbooks; in many cases, the burdens they carry have remained their own.
That's why the Daily News, WHYY, The Philadelphia Tribune, Al Dia and other newspapers have teamed up to preserve their stories.
PAIR RECALL A DARK PAGE IN HISTORY
AS A commencement speaker at his high-school graduation in Salinas, Calif., George Ikeda spoke about the importance of civil liberties in the United States. Three years later, on July 4, 1942 - Independence Day - he became an internment-camp prisoner, taken from his home by the government whose virtues he once extolled. Ikeda's only crime was his Japanese heritage.
ABRAM SHNAPER was a bookbinder by trade. He's bound ancient texts and modern classics, but there's one story he can't seem to bind tightly together: his own. The pain, hate and carnage that filled the seven concentration camps where Shnaper was a prisoner during World War II are a memory now. But the sad realization that humans were capable of such acts is a horror story that never dies.
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LETTERS ON THE WAR
Submitted by Daily News readers
ONLINE EXTRA: MORE VETERANS' STORIES
Our readers offer their first-hand accounts of life in war, and on the home front
John Lieb: This is Japan
We took off from Okinawa at 6 a.m. that morning, heading directly north for about 3 hours. Then arising from the horizon like a huge hump was our first glimpse of Kyushu , the first point of land belonging to the Japanese.
Frank Rinky Batson: On the home front in Norristown
As I was only five on Dec. 7, 1941, I do not recall exactly what I was doing when the news came about Pearl Harbor . I do remember my Dad talking with his father in our living room that following Christmas Day. Dad wanted to enlist and I, sensing that meant he would be leaving home, leaving Mother and my younger brother and me, cried and implored him not to go away. It turned out that he tried twice to enlist but was rejected because of his age and marital status, with two children.
William J. Myers: Under fire on Iwo Jima
I was in the 4th wave of Amtracks (Amphibian Tractors) invading Iwo Jima . Direct mortar shell on Amtrack next to ours! It sank immediately, killing about twenty-two Marines. We landed and saw smoke and explosives to our left where 4th division was catching it. For two nights we were on alert in foxholes, pinned down by the enemy barrages.
William S. Clement: The surprise private
Along with a group of officers from the 46th Brigade in Louisiana, I was sent to Camp Shenango in western Pennsylvania in August of 1943. We were supposed to spend three days there before being shipped to a port of embarkation. Instead, the Army lost track of us and we were there for three months, doing nothing. The only duty that was rotated among the idle officers was the job of Officer of the Day.
Milton Pincus: The liberation of Dachau
During WW2 I had the unfortunate experience of being a liberator of Dachau concentration camp.. I spent the first five days of its liberation there. Those five days had the greatest effect on my life of anything that has happened to me before and after.
Sid Stern: From South Philly to Normandy Beach
My name is Sid Stern. I was born and raised in South Philly. At the age of 18, I entered the U.S. Navy, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. I took my basic training in Bainbridge, MD. , after which I was transferred to Little Creek, VA. for amphibious training. I then was assigned to an L.S.T. which left from Bayonne, N.J. for North Africa
David D. Robison: Roy’s sacrifice in Viet Nam
There are a lot of stories I could mention, but I want to tell you about my best friend in 'Nam. His name was Roy Mitchell Wheat, from Moselle , Miss. We had a lot in common, became best friends and celebrated our birthdays together. Mine was July 23, Roy’s was the 24th. Roy was one of the bravest guys I knew and he was great in the bush.
STILL MORE STORIES
Morris Barrett: A brush with Patton, and with mortality
Larry Owens: What Vietnam taught us about Iraq
Barbara Ann Tarvydas: On borrowed time
Richard S. Coben: Healthy enough to be a cook
Kurt W. Ritterbusch: Offering healing in Iraq
Caroline Loughlin O’Connor: A secret wartime marriage
Aldo Esposito: A bomb kicked into the open air
Flossie Raybold: The Medals Cannot Erase The Memories
William Breard: A footlocker from the past
Ozzie Moss: For FDR and Ernie Pyle, too
Sharon Snyder-Rafael: A Saipan miracle, in Philly
Milton Dank: The Mojave Buzzard
Edward Shakespeare: Summer In Iraq, Winter In Saarland
Marvin Tobin: Under fire in Leyte
Charles Wesley Dougherty: Unlikely compassion
