"Okay." "Welcome." "Hi." "Thanks for sitting down with us." "We appreciate it." "Would you recount for me the incident where you were wounded?" "Well, I was standing..." "... onthetopofthis hill  at the aid station..." "... anda randomshellcamein." "It couldn't have gone off more than 1 0 feet away..." "... becauseallIremember is a tremendous blast and a flash." "And the next thing I knew, I was on the ground in the snow..." "... andI triedto getup." "And when I tried to get up, I... ." "Only thing I could see were the broken ends of my legs." "And I thought my legs were gone. I was" "Because that's all-- Both femurs were shattered." "They were laying down here as I was on my back, trying to raise my legs up." "And I thought:" "And I said-- l said my Act of Contrition, because I am a Catholic." "And then the next thing I thought of was my mother." "And I thought, "What's she gonna say?"" "Because I was an only child." "My name is C. Carwood Lipton." "I was born in Huntington, West Virginia." "Grew up in Huntington." "Frederick T. Heyliger." "Concord, Massachusetts was my hometown." "I was born in a town named lnchelium, Washington." "It's on an Indian reservation." "My name's J.B. Stokes." "I was born close to Bonham, Texas..." "... inanareacalledLeonard." "Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio..." "... mydadworkedfor the railroad." "My mom was a housewife." "My nickname was Babe." "And my mother..." "... shewasalittleIrishbroad ." "Red hair." "Fiery." "Great woman." "Born and raised in Philadelphia, where times were tough." "Mom had 1 0 children, so you had to work to survive." "It was just survival in the streets of Philadelphia." "We came up in the Depression." "Sometimes we'd live on a farm and have..." "... pigsandraiseagarden." "I saw people that really were hungry and had hard times." "My father was able to find employment." "We never went hungry." "We lived on a farm." "Everybody was poor." "That was the Depression." "When I got to about 1 0, I got a paper route." "I made $5 a month." "Something like that." "But it was something." "There's a work ethic the Pennsylvania Dutch in this area are very proud of." "I was the oldest one, so I sort of branched out on my own at an early age." "I was married when I was 1 9 years old in 1 941 ." "On December 7 of '41 ..." "... wewerein astore, and a guy, he says:" ""The U.S.A. is in a war with Japan. "" "And everything just went silent." "I said, "Let's go in the Army. " He said, "l don't want to. "" "I said, "You're gonna have to go sooner or later. "" "Something was wrong with you if you weren't in the service." "It was what you had to do." "I wasn't gonna be in the infantry." "I was gonna be in some..." "... topkindof aunit, or I wasn't gonna be in the Army." "LIFE magazine had run an article on paratroopers..." "... sometimeinearly1942." "And it told about the training that they got..." "... andthedifficultphysical requirements, and I got interested..." "... inseeingif Icould become a paratrooper." "Nobody forced you to do this, you volunteered." "And it was the notion..." "... thatyouwantedtodosomething." "You wanted to be with the best." "But once you got in there, you was proud to be." "We was proud of our boots, and our shoulder patch." "And we was proud to be paratroopers." "And we was proud to be working with the guys we were working with." "You know these people that you're in service with... ." "You know those people better than anybody in your life." "You know them right down to the final thing." "And that comes when you start your training, while that progresses." "l thought I'd die." "No holding back." "You had to hang in there and be tough." "We marched 1 1 8 miles in three days." "The training I got and the men I trained with..." "... gavemetheconfidence to go into battle." "We were just a bunch of ordinary kids when we went in." "The training was to build you up physically and mentally." "Some of them lost as much as 40 pounds." "But I didn't have nothing to lose." "I weighed about 1 30." "If I lost 40 pounds, I'd have been too small to stay." "You know, they weeded out so many." "They'd be there one day, and they'd be gone the next." "They couldn't keep up with it." "They couldn't take that hard training." "You had the cream of the cream of the cream." "We had to climb this mountain called Currahee every morning." "Run up and back." "If you couldn't, you'd end up in another unit." "The name Currahee means "We stand alone together. "" "That's an Indian name." "It became a symbol of the camp..." "... becauseitwasroughandtough , going up and down." "A lot of times, when some of the guys would go and get them a drink or so..." "... you'dseethemlayingontheroad, where they were sick." "It didn't matter how hard you trained and how tired you got..." "... youwouldstillgooutonyourown and run the mountain at night..." "... whichwasridiculous because during the day..." "... allyoudidwas bitchandmoan." "At night, they'd get a couple guys and go up and do it on your own." "We learned how to be soldiers at Toccoa..." "... asa group,allofuscomingin..." "... fromnoexperience in the Army at all..." "I'm gonna say this, I believe..." "... thattheparatroopers of the 1 01 st Airborne Division..." "... wasaswell-trainedasyou could get a soldier to be at that time." "We packed our own chutes." "Nervous as hell." "You're asking yourself, "What am I doing here?"" "Coming down is great." "lt affects everybody different." "l broke my foot." "You're dropping 1 6 feet a second." "I can remember just like it was yesterday." "That morning after breakfast..." "... theymarchedus all out there to the airfield." "There were guys that already made their jump." "And they were all hollering, "You're gonna be sorry! " You know?" "You didn't want to be afraid, you know..." "... becausetheseotherguysarethere  with you." "Your bravado and all that... ." "You didn't wanna be afraid, so you kept that out of your mind." "Jumping out of a plane wasn't like today." "My first flight up, I jumped." "That was years before I landed an aircraft." "Most of the troopers was the same story." "Foolishly, I didn't think it'd be so tough, but... ." "The first time" " The first jump you make is not all that bad." "You don't know what you're doing." "When you step out..." "... thechutejustopenedrightthen." "As I went out the door, I was blank." "I cannot remember leaving the plane..." "... untilafterthechute opened up." "My God." "But after that, it wasn't as bad." "It was a thrill." "It was like going on a roller coaster." "You get off and want to get back on." "It was a thrill." "It was a high, as they say these days." "Everybody enjoyed themselves." "Landing was the hardest part." "Once that chute opened, I was happy as a lark." "You know, coming down is great." "I was small too, and I didn't hurt myself when I hit the ground." "Some of the big ones hit like a ton of" " What's his name?" "You worried most about your chute." "Did you pack it right?" "You'd pack it one day and jump the next day." "You thought about it all night." "You had..." "... ideasofwhatyou might have done wrong, or... ." "But it worked out fine." "We made five jumps in the third week there." "Then you were a qualified paratrooper." "Got your wings pinned on..." "... andbecameoneoftheelite members of the parachute regiment." "We were thoroughly prepared." "The men were..." "... trained,hardened..." "... physicallyandmentally." "And they were ready to jump." "That's how we started off for Normandy." "When you walk up that gangplank, you know you're gone." "As you pull out of harbor, and you pass the Statue of Liberty... ." ""Will I ever be coming back?" "I don't know. "" "You know you're in a parachute troop." "You're gonna be jumping behind enemy lines." "What do you expect?" "You have no idea." "That'll make anybody stand..." "... andsearchhissoul for a few minutes." "We were ready." "We were stationed in England for about a year before D-Day." "We had a lot of maneuvers and parachute jumping." "They put us in a camp..." "... preparingusforD-Day." "At just about a week before D-Day..." "... theyputus in ." "No liberties,no nothing." "You couldn't get out of camp." "They had guards around the marshaling area..." "... sonobodycouldleave." "That's when you felt that, "This is it. "" "We did not know which day." "We did not know where we were gonna jump until we were locked in." "And then they had the briefing..." "... totellyouexactly what your mission was." "And they took this map..." "... andtheymadeamodel of the features of the land." "They put in all the buildings, the bridges, the knolls..." "... allthesanddunes." "Everything was in on that layout." "We knew it by heart." "We knew where we were going." "We knew exactly what to do." "I mean, if you could've been there at the time to see..." "... wheretheplaneswerelinedupand  all the gliders hooked up to the planes." "Tanks and trucks and fields and fields of them." "I had no idea that there was that much hardware." "No question, we knew it was gonna be big." "And that day..." "... thatwegotthe orders to get on the planes... ." "Thisis it ." "We had confidence in our leaders..." "... andalltheplansandpreparations that took place before the invasion." "We were confident and calm." "We were all loaded down." "We carried everything we thought we could..." "... inthelineofpersonalitems ..." "... plusthenecessarythings we were assigned to carry." "And we were loaded." "Everybody got in there..." "... anda lotof themwere very scared. I was scared too..." "... butprobablyin adifferentway that other people were." "As long as I was in that plane..." "... andtheyweregonna get me there safely..." "... that'sallthatIworriedabout ." "At the time, I had no feeling whatsoever." "My feeling was for my brother, who was killed." "That infuriated me." "And that's why, when I jumped on D-Day, I swore... ." "I swore I would kill every damn German I came across." "That's why they nicknamed me Wild Bill. I killed a lot on D-Day." "The sky was clear, coming across the channel." "Since I was jump master, I could lie at the plane door with my head out..." "... intheslipstream,lookingdown ." "And I saw the thousands of craft ships..." "... everythingfromLCls to battleships..." "... downtherein thechannel." "I think that's when I first realized..." "... howlargetheinvasionwas." "Tremendously large, the invasion was." "We were out for 1 1 /2 hours before we-- We went down the south end of England..." "... andthenacross the Jersey islands..." "... andthenacross the Cherbourg peninsula." "And that's when the fireworks started." "Flak was terrible." "Anti-aircraft was absolutely horrendous." "It was like..." "... aJulythe4th celebration, 1 0 times over." "Then it would hit under the wings and body..." "... andyoucouldhearitgo ..." "like gravel hitting a car fender." "You could see tracers all over." "Everybody wanted to get out of the plane fast." "Whether it was high, low, no matter where we were." "Out!" "They were getting shot up." "Finally, the pilots-- l happened to read their minds" ""Okay, we got so much gas..." "... andwe'regonnahave to get back to England." "What do we do with all the guys back here?" "Give them the green light." "Get out. "" "We're ready to jump." "There was a relief when the green light came on, and we said, "Let's go. "" "Well, I jumped up on a run..." "... andhitthestaticline  with the hook and out the door..." "... andgotsuchanopeningshock ..." "... fromthepropblast, that it broke this chin strap..." "... thatwehadonthis helmetliner ." "And that's when I lost this famous leg bag that everybody talks about..." "... justfromtheshockoftheopening." "It just flew right off my foot." "The British call them leg bags." "They gotta be this big, and you stuff everything you can into them." "They're supposed to weigh 1 5 pounds." "By the time you're done, they're 60." "Everyone that jumped with a leg bag, they lost it." "Most of the paratroopers that landed didn't have nothing." "I was one of them." "It tore right off..." "... becausewejumpedatspeeds of 1 50 miles an hour..." "... maybeevenhigher.Idon'tknow." "And lower than we should've been." "That wasn't bad either, because you got to the ground quicker." "When we went out the door, I looked to see if my chute was open..." "... andI sawtracerbullets burning holes in the chute." "And they told us all you'll have to do is shuffle up to the door..." "... throwthatlegout ,propblast will hit it, and you're gone." "Well, they were right." "Only I was going out, and my leg was in..." "... andI washangingupsidedown ..." "... lookingateverythingdown with my leg in the plane." "All this happened in a split second." "Paul rolled me out." "Paul Rogers rolled me out." "I just helped him out. i just picked him up and threw him out, I guess." "I had to get out." "We wanted to get out so bad." "And I come down right behind city hall..." "... watchedthemshootatmealltheway , which wasn't very long." "I could see the tracers." "They were kind of spraying around in the air." "Whoever the machine gunner was down there that was concentrating on me..." "... apparentlywas not a very good shot." "They were firing in every direction." "You don't know which way to go." "The next thing is that you are getting close to landing..." "... andyou'resaying,"There's some trees." "There's a road." "Try and slip to avoid the trees." "Try and slip to avoid landing on the road. "" "I slipped and my chute fell across power lines, and I hit a fence..." "... andfellintoafarmer'sgarden." "I'll never forget that fence." "It had glass on top of it..." "... andcutme up , but that didn't bother me." "I just-- l was down, and I got down with my gun." "I hit the ground in a field, and we were way-- l got looking at my map..." "... andweweren'tclosetowhere  we were supposed to be." "We was plumb off our maps that they'd given us." "So we had to make our way back." "We knew that the beach..." "... wastotheeast." "Weheadedthatway to find out where the outfit was." "My friend from Erie was in another plane." "When I hit the ground, I hit about 2 feet away from him." "And him and I start walking around looking for more of our troops." "And we were running into Germans everywhere, but we had to hide." "You know, because if we didn't, we were dead meat." "And I laid in a tree." "I had my trench knife." "And I reached up..." "... andgrabbedhold--ltwasa big  trunk, the tree, and I swung into it." "I cut those risers with, I think, one swipe." "And I come down that tree like a monkey." "And then there I was with a trench knife and a canteen..." "... andaboutsixcandybars  in my pocket..." "... readytofight the German army, you know." "So there's four guys that were with me on D-Day..." "... whodidn'thavenothing but a jump knife when they landed." "So we had to hope, scrounge." "As it worked out for all of us..." "... lateron,we 'drunacrosssomebody who had been killed..." "... andyou'dtakehis weapon." "And that's how you get a weapon for D-Day." "Rather haphazard." "We were scattered all over the peninsula..." "... soitwasquite a confused situation..." "... butwewerebetterprepared than the Germans were." "The Germans didn't know where we were." "Whereas on the beach, those people coming in on boats..." "... thoseGermanshadguns aimed at them, waiting on them." "They had it tough." "I admire every one of them." "These guns were pointed and firing right down on the beach." "People on the landing craft were coming onto the beach and were being fired at." "This battery of 1 05s was placed precisely where it should be..." "... toprotectanytroops coming up that causeway." "As you sit back years later, you think:" ""This was laid out exactly right, tactically. "" "We thought we knew every foxhole in Normandy." "We knew where everything was." "We knew it cold." "But on this one, the Germans had moved in there..." "... andcamouflagedit so well, we didn't know it was there." "E Company was the assault company of the battalion." "We were trained from special assaults and whatnot, special assignments." "They weren't aware of what we had." "They didn't realize we only had 1 2 people." "We worked our way down through the farm area..." "... toa hedgerow." "Lt.Winters had us set up a firing position." "And I went up to scout it for myself..." "... crawledoutalongthishedgerow..." "... togetalittlecloser,tolookit  over, and I felt I could see a trench." "And I thought I knew where our machine gun was." "Winters..." "... wasanexceptionalleader." "And he was able to size up, all through the war..." "... sizeupcombatsituations and decide quickly..." "... andcorrectlythebestwaytotake care of whatever the problem was." "I divided the group into two units." "Lt. Compton was with me." "I gave him half the men, and I took half." "I gave instructions, "l want Compton, Malarkey..." "... andWynnto crawlupthere and hand-grenade that machine gun." "Crawl through the grass, and as you throw your grenades..." "... I'llchargeup  with the rest of the guys. "" "I had the two machine guns set up..." "... togivehimcoveringfire  while he crawled up there." "I get out to this hedgerow..." "... andI peek--llookout,  and I peek through the bushes..." "... andI seeacoupleofGermans over there, about 30, 50 yards away..." "... stokingthisgunand firingit." "I pull out a grenade and pull the pin..." "... andI threwit as high and as far as I could throw it..." "... intheirgeneraldirection." "It had enough hang time on it..." "... thatbythetimeitgotto them, it went off in the air." "I jumped up with other guys, and we charged..." "... sothatwe alljumpedinto  the first position together." "They had trenches cut in where they worked, the Germans did." "They jumped down in them trenches..." "... andtheyworkedthemGermans like a ghost assault." "Three Germans broke off from this position..." "... torunacrossthe field, which was the wrong thing to do..." "... fromtheirviewpoint." "We cut them down." "I was in a trench, and I looked, and I saw an arm." "I didn't even see" " The man was in a camouflage tent..." "... andI didn'tseehim ." "ThenIsaw  an arm stuck out of that tent..." "... andoneof those potato-masher grenades..." "... youknow,withastick come out of there." "I said, "He's gonna miss me. "" "It fell right down in that trench with me." "I was trying to scuttle my way out of the way, and it went off..." "... andI feltlikeitblew mybutt over my head, and it pretty near did." "He's behind the enemy lines on D-Day." "Does he holler, "Help"?" "No." "He hollers, "l'm sorry, lieutenant." "I'm sorry. I goofed. "" "I felt like I kind of let him down, but that's neither here nor there." "My God." "It's beautiful when you think of a guy who's..." "... sodedicatedto hiscompany, to his buddies..." "... thatheapologizesfor gettinghit,  but that's the kind of guy he was." "That's the kind each one of them was." "They were all the same." "I look upon them, each man, with great respect." "Respect I can't describe." "Each one of them proved himself..." "Each one of them proved himself..." "... thathe..." "... coulddothejob ." "We've been through Normandy, through battle." "Maybe if I had been harder..." "... ifI haddonealittlebitbetter job, more men would've gone home." "I never thought I'd get through D-Day..." "... letalonethenextphase.Ithought I was gonna get killed instantly." "The chances of survival is very slim." "There's the parachute." "I got that done in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1 944." "Me and Johnny Martin." "Drunk as a skunk." "Guarnere and I decided we'd go to Scotland and get a tattoo." "We didn't figure we had a chance to come home." "But... ." "Yep." "We thought, "Well, hell..." "So it's a long haul. "" "The 1 01 st came back from Normandy after about 33 days..." "... andwewerereplacements for those who were killed..." "... orwoundedin Normandy." "There were young kids that came in..." "... andforsomereason, I don't know why..." "... theywerethefirstones killed." "And I think maybe they were trying..." "... toimpresstheolderguys , maybe people like me or Shifty." "We were in awe of them." "They had infantry badges on their uniform." "They had a star on their jump wings." "They... ." "They were our heroes." "That's how we looked at them." "I don't know why, but I got right there to where..." "... Ididn'twanttobefriendly with replacements coming in..." "... because,God,Ididn'tlike  seeing them get killed." "It just tore me up, and... ." "I don't know why, but they were the first ones killed." "My 1 0-man squad that I was in, eight were replacements." "The squad leader and the assistant squad leader..." "... Sgt.MuckandCpl.Penkala had been to Normandy." "We hadn't." "The eight of us hadn't been anywhere but Aldbourne." "The training got really tough between there and the Holland jump." "Training, training, training." "We had missions scratched." "We were to jump on..." "... aFrenchcityofTouraine." "And it got to the sand-table part..." "... wherewegatheredround to see who was gonna do what..." "... andPatton'stroopsoverran the drop zone, so that was called off." "We were wondering if we'd ever get to go, and then it got to be September." "It was a Sunday afternoon, noontime, 70 degrees." "The drop was perfect." "Everybody was dropping on the same field." "Daytime drops are a lot easier." "You can prepare for the landing." "I saw a plowed field, and I slipped right over it." "I believe I almost landed standing up, you know, soft." "A great jump." "The most dangerous part about it was that people were..." "... losinghelmetsandequipment,and all this equipment's raining down..." "... andifyougot hit withthis , you're gonna be killed..." "... orwoundedbeforeyou  got off the drop zone." "Everybody got together." "We all assembled very fast." "We moved out towards the Wilhelmina Canal." "Our mission was, first, to take a bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal." "It took us hours to get there." "And taking hours to get there, the few German troops..." "... thatweresecuringthisbridge had plenty of time..." "... tosettheircharges to blow the thing up." "And just as we got to it, I was maybe 1 50 yards away..." "... itblewup in ourfaces." "Rocks and timbers were flying and falling all around you..." "... andyoucan'thelpbutthink , "My God, what a way to die in combat..." "... tobekilledwithaflyingtimber ."" "We were that close." "It delayed us until morning." "We wanted to get across that night..." "... butittookustill  the next morning to get across." "But once we got in, the Dutch-- lt was just marvelous, their reaction." "They loved Americans, and still do..." "... forcomingin there and pushing the Germans out." "They called us "angels from the sky," which we were." "I mean, you're under German occupation for four years, right?" "It's horrible, and you see paratroopers come out of the sky." "Who were they?" "They were the angels." "They loved you." "Their welcome was unbelievable." "They couldn't restrain how happy they were to see you." "It was hard to get down the streets..." "... becausethepeople were swarming over us..." "... tryingtocongratulateus for being there." "They hugged you and kissed you, and we didn't mind." "Naturally, we was young, We didn't mind at all." "And they were really proud to see us in there..." "... tothepointwhereit was dangerous for us..." "... tryingtocleanout the town because snipers did damage..." "... ina situationlikethat." "We had a lot of fighting because we're on the Rhine River..." "... andGermanyis acrossthe river." "They're fighting like heck to keep us out of Germany." "It's called "The Island. " We called it The Island, and we set up..." "... positionsthere." "We had some substantial battles there." "They could observe any movement we made during the daytime..." "... andattheirwill..." "... theycouldjustshellus." "Mortar-- Put mortar fire on us..." "... whentheyhad a target of opportunity." "I heard something coming down." "I knew what it was..." "... amortarshell,and Ithrew my arm up, like that... andwentdown." "It lit within 3 feet of me, 4." "But when it blows, it goes up like that:" "It went through my arm and hit me in the head. I was bleeding pretty good." "Well, I was picked to go up on a dike." "So, of course, when you get to the top, you don't expose yourself." "I took my rifle and put my helmet on it..." "... andputit over,evenwith  the road, on a dike." "No action, so I brought it back down, put the helmet on..." "... andI sortof peekedover." "When I peeked over, I saw a hand with a potato masher, and he threw it at me." "I ducked. lt hit my helmet and bounced off." "When that thing bounced off my helmet, I hollered to the guys below:" ""Live grenade. "" "If Lesniewski hadn't hollered, "Grenade" ..." "... andI hadenoughsensetoknow that that's that grenade..." "... thathitmy rifleand isright in front of my face, practically..." "... I'dhaveeither had my head blown off..." "... orI 'dhavedefinitelybeenblinded." "There's no question about that..." "... becauseI justgotturned, just part way..." "... anditexploded,and it caught me in the face, neck..." "... leftarm,underthe arm , in the shoulder." "I hollered for them to take off." "I said, "Get the hell back. "" "I had eight grenades, so I had taken them off..." "... pulledthepins and threw them over." "And while the grenades were rolling down or landing wherever they were..." "... theywerehitting some of the Krauts..." "... becauseI couldhear screaming, crying." "I think I threw eight grenades in about four seconds." "And then I took off running." "So the doctor that counted the holes in me down at Nijmegen... ." "Yeah, Nijmegen." "The first doctor that really counted the holes..." "... saidtherewas32." "That was our first experience with artillery in large numbers." "I can remember sitting there a couple of nights listening to artillery land." "And the 88 was the fiercest cannon that the Germans had." "It was the way they used it, an all-purpose gun." "It could shoot anti-aircraft tanks, anti-personnel, airburst." "That was the bad ones, when shells went up." "I saw a huge mushroom cloud..." "... fromtheshell..." "... andJoeToyesteppedoutofit." "I run up. I remember that like it was yesterday." "I run up, and I grabbed him." "He said, "Don't touch me. "" "I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "l'm hit all over. " He said, "l'm bad. "" "I said, "Okay. " l said, "l'm gonna go see Jim. "" "He said, as bad as he was hurting, Joe Toye, he said:" ""Heffron, I already checked him." "He's gone. "" "Jim Campbell might be alive today if he hadn't said to me:" ""Heffron, you stay here with your gun." "I'm going up. "" "And I never, never, never-- l sleep on it, I eat on it-- l never, never forgot that." "And anybody that went through it..." "... willtellyouthe samething." "They can't-- lt's just..." "... sobadallyourlife ,yougotta  remember what one guy did..." "... becausehethoughtitwashis job to do, and he took a shot for you." "The exhaustion on these men, the physical exhaustion..." "... affectstheirendurance to be able to cope." "You don't realize it at the time you come off the line..." "... fromlivingin themud  and being absolutely miserable..." "... for70daysstraight." "You didn't realize that you'd only be off the line..." "... fora fewdays,and you 're gonna be facing Bastogne." "This is the last desperate action of the Germans..." "... toturnthetideofthiswholewar." "What it is, it is Bastogne. lt is" "This is Bo Jack's woods, right?" "lt is the woods." "Sure looks different now." "There ain't no snow." "These trees might've been replanted." "I think if the trees look like they did in '44 or '45..." "... wecouldgetabetteridea." "That's it." "Yeah." "That's the town of Foy." "Oh, this is definitely the area." "This is definitely." "There's the town of Foy, after the empty field, where those cattle are grazing." "About half a mile away." "Yeah, we had an outpost set up looking right into the town of Foy." "They had to watch everything because we'd come in here and sleep." "We had our foxholes right over here, and the other area and the other." "Wherever we had to move out and dig in again..." "... becausetheKrautshad artillery." "Most intense I ever went through here, shelling." "Most intense in the world." "Couldn't believe it." "You had to be here." "You just dove in the hole and prayed, and that's it." "If it comes in, you ain't gonna know it." "We lost Muck and Penkala over on this side." "They were killed instantly." "The shell went down, direct hit right in the hole." "Made mush out of them." "Luz come over and hollered:" ""l can't see nothing of them, nothing there. "" "They were all gone, just disintegrated." "Unmerciful shelling, really." "Everything out here was shredded." "Yeah, shredded by it." "I tell you, it's an odd feeling." "To me, it brings a lot of memories, memories of the men, the times..." "... goodandbad,alotofmemories." "It was the most miserable place I've ever been in my life, even today." "On a real cold night, we go to bed..." "... andmywifewilltell you,  I'll say, "l'm glad I'm not in Bastogne. "" "The Germans wanted Bastogne because of the road network." "That's why it was such an objective." "So that's where we had to hold, which we did." "31 8 trucks come in around noontime, and by that evening..." "... everybodywasloaded and moving out." "We were short of equipment." "We didn't have enough ammunition or enough warm clothes." "But we had confidence that our..." "... highermilitaryauthoritieswouldget to us whatever we needed." "When we got up there, we didn't know what we were getting into." "There was very little information..." "... onlythattheGermanshad broken through." "We went down, loaded on the trucks." "Another truck came by with weapons..." "... andpitchedweapons." "You catchone,  that's what you got until Bastogne." "As it worked out, there was some men who actually..." "... gotonthetrucksandleft for Bastogne that didn't have a rifle." "When we got there, we saw men singly and in twos and threes..." "... workingtheirwayback, some of them without weapons..." "... withoutequipment." "Some of them were terrified." "They were beat to a nub." "Every one of them were saying:" ""They're gonna kill everybody. "" "They couldn't believe, when they saw us up there, that we intended..." "... tosetup lines and stop the Germans." "They said they couldn't be stopped." "We went in and started taking up their weapons and ammunition." "Asking the retreating guys, "You got any extra ammunition or grenades?"" "You could hear the firing going on up ahead, and we're marching..." "... toitwithlittleammunition." "We marched through the night, went to the front of Bastogne and dug in." "And then it snowed." "Snow, cold up to your rump." "We didn't have no winter clothing or nothing." "A third of the doggone casualties was either..." "... frostbiteortrenchfoot, whatever you want to call it." "Bad move." "A lot of snow..." "... alotof everything you didn't like." "It was a cold place." "At this particular time, we was on top of kind of a hill..." "... andthetopofthehill had pine trees." "We set up our positions around the fringe of the woods." "In Belgium, trees are planted." "They don't grow like in Maine." "There are rows of trees." "You look down a row and can see half a mile." "On top of this hill, there was a ridge with a tree line." "We were dug in there." "The Germans knew right where we were, and they really gave us a shellacking." "To an infantryman..." "... inwartime,themotherearth is your best friend." "You could always dig a hole and get out of sight, you know." "We dug plenty of those." "You get through hard ground quickly..." "... whensomeone'sshooting, and shells are falling." "You can make fast work of it." "We just have to dig that hole." "We say we became experts on foreign European soil." "We dug in, and two people could dig better than one." "In ground that's frozen, it takes a while." "You just chip it out." "By the time you finish, they whistle to you, "We're moving out. "" "And you go someplace else and dig another one." "You must understand, the Germans were" "We were surrounded." "The Germans were maybe 1 00 yards away from us." "No matter where you looked in a circle, you could see artillery flashes." "So we knew from that that we were surrounded." "But we went through a couple of shellings at Bastogne..." "... thatwereearthshaking." "If you lived through them, you remember them for the rest of your life." "I'm not sure you're the same for the rest of your life..." "... afteryoulivethroughthem ." "You never forget them." "There was one moment I remember. I'll never forget it." "One guy got hit in the arm with shrapnel..." "... tookhisarmoff abovetheelbow ." "They were taking him out, he said, "Get my watch off my arm. "" "Before they took him out." "That always stayed with me." "I mean, calm voice and everything, "Get my watch off my arm. "" "On the 3rd of January, we withdrew back to our former positions..." "... there,upthehillfrom Foy." "And when we got there..." "... wecouldseethattheGermans had zeroed in artillery there." "Trees were knocked down." "There were holes in the ground." "It was right at dusk, and the Germans had this... ." "This woods of ours zeroed in completely." "And as we hit the woods, this tremendous artillery attack came." "They knew where we were..." "... andstartedshooting, point-blank, 88s into our area." "They let us have it." "Everything, the kitchen sink..." "... mortars,a rocketthing with a screaming sound." "It scared the hell-- l was scared, but I think I was petrified then." "I thought the whole world was shooting at us at once." "I jumped into a foxhole somebody had started and hadn't finished." "So I was crouched down in that foxhole, but it wouldn't hold all of me." "From about my nose up was above the ground." "I could see all these shells hitting." "Sgt. Guarnere and Joe Toye each lost a leg..." "... inthesameplace,rightthere  on one hill. I remember." "Just this certain instance." "Joe got caught not near his hole, and Bill and I were ahead of him..." "... andBillhadnot beenhit." "He came up out of his hole quickly." "We were still under heavy fire." "Joe said, "Jesus Christ..." "... whatdoIhavetodo to die?"" "He got hit real bad in the back of his leg." "He's out hollering, "Medic," and he can't find a medic." "I went out to see what I could do for him..." "Igotit too." "I went over to Guarnere." "He was sitting on the ground." "His leg was badly mangled." "He was holding his leg, and it was jerking like that:" "He said, "Lip, they got old Guarnere this time. "" "He had been hit before, but they really got him there." "We got him out of there, Babe Heffron and I and some others." "And they brought a jeep down, and we put him on stretchers." "I better not talk about him." "I better not talk about him." "It was terrible." "We had lost some very good men there." "Toye and Guarnere had lost their legs there." "A number of other people were killed." "It was a difficult situation there." "When a man was wounded, we felt glad for them..." "... wefelthappyfor them." "He had a ticket to get out of there, and maybe a ticket to go home." "And when we had a man who was killed..." "... wefoundthathewasatpeace." "And he looked so peaceful." "And we were glad that he found peace." "We had this..." "... assistantsquadleader, name of Mellet." "He was from New York City." "And I overheard him talking one time..." "... thiswasin Bastogne, he says:" ""l been through..." "... Normandyandwent through Holland..." "... andtothisday ,Ihaven't got one scratch. "" "He says, "l'm afraid when I do get it, I'm really gonna get it. "" "And he was right." "In this little town of Foy, he got killed." "I don't think he had any premonition of it." "He just wondered about it." "But I never did wonder." "Never give it much thought." "You just live from day to day." "Keep your fingers crossed, and that was it." "I have the honor to present the supreme commander, Gen. Eisenhower." "It is a great personal honor for me to be here today." "To take part in a ceremony that is unique in American history." "Never before has a full division been cited by the War Department in the name of the president for gallantry in action." "This day marks the beginning of a new tradition in the American Army." "With that tradition will always be associated the name of the 1 01st Airborne Division and of Bastogne." "Good luck and God be with each of you." "The Germans had started to surrender." "They still had their arms..." "... butasyou'regoing down the autobahn..." "... therewasalmostasolidline of German troops coming north." "And our job is to get to the end and get to the heart of it." "Berchtesgaden, that's the end of the line." "It's the retreat that Hitler had for himself." "And he built his Eagle's Nest..." "... hispenthouseon topoftheAlp..." "... to,I 'msure,relax and confer with his staff..." "... becausetheyallfollowed him to Berchtesgaden." "This was their final retreat." "Of course, this is where they had their loot as well." "This was the goal of the French, who were on our right flank." "This was the goal of the British." "And this is the place to capture." "This is the one everybody wanted." "Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat burned by SS troops in the war's last days." "The chalet from which he hoped to rule the world now lies in ruins." "American Air Force's pictures show the gutted rooms and the great window through which the fuhrer gazed out on the Alps." "We took Berchtesgaden May the 5th, no fighting, no shooting." "The only thing I seen of Berchtesgaden was a couple..." "... deadSStrooperslaying on the road as we were going up." "It was beautiful country." "He knew how to pick out a good spot for a house." "We took over his house..." "... andliberatedit ,youmightsay." "There was, obviously, loot of all kinds..." "... thatthemenwerelookingfor, such as guns... ." "There was money that they were looting." "I was a pack rat anyway." "I picked up a lot of German items..." "... includingsomepostcards and envelopes addressed to Hitler." "Come to find out, that place was full of big art..." "... Rembrandtandallthosepeople hanging on the wall." "Old soldiers like us, we don't recognize a painting when we see it." "The 1 01st Airborne Division uncovers Hermann Goering's art collection hidden in a subterranean chamber." "Twelve hundred artworks worth millions are included." "The treasures will go back to rightful owners in pillaged nations." "We found a warehouse full of gin and vodka and stuff like that." "Wasn't much whiskey." "Those people don't like it." "And we took it all and set up a bar." "Had seven truckloads of champagne and cognac..." "... outofthewinecellars out of the Eagle's Nest." "So we stayed pretty well oiled for a while." "Oh, that champagne was good." "Oh, that was good." "I started drinking it one day, and I drank until about midnight that night." "I went to the back and went to sleep." "I didn't wake up the next day." "I made a two-day thing out of it." "It didn't taste like it would hurt you." "It tasted like ginger ale." "That was the only time I remember, when I was in service..." "... thatthecompanyfellout in their underwear." "We didn't even have to dress, you know." "Everybody was looped, and so we fell out in line formation in our underwear." "They're enjoying themselves." "They're at peace with the world." "They have a big, happy, satisfied grin on their face." "It was a paradise for a soldier to move into." "I had no problem with the looting, because I came down through Germany." "And I had seen the Holocaust." "And I had seen what the Germans had done to the Jewish race." "And I had seen what they had done to the displaced persons..." "... andwhattheyhad done in their occupation of France." "And what they had done to their occupation in Holland, Belgium." "So that by taking over their homes for a few nights..." "... tobeddownmymen...." "And if they picked up a few trinkets, I had no problem." "Nobody has ever taken their time to tell you how to handle a surrender." "We'll talk about it when we get there." "Here we are." "How do you handle this?" "The German army was a well-disciplined army." "Those prisoners that come down out of the Alps..." "... theycamedowninformation." "They marched down." "They didn't drag down or nothing like that." "They came down as defeated soldiers." "We thought the Germans were the evilest people in the world..." "... butasthewar wentalong,wefound out also, it wasn't the Germans..." "... perse,it wasthe SS and the special troops." "They were the ones that could kill their own people..." "... andtheregularGerman soldier was not that way." "One of those prisoners handed me this little book..." "... anditwasaCatholic prayer book for the Mass." "And I realized, "Hey, I haven't got Nazis here. I've got some Catholics. "" "And I've got a Catholic good enough to stick one of these in his pocket." "I've thought we might've been friends." "We might've had a lot in common." "We might've liked to fish." "He might've liked to hunt." "You never know." "They did what they were supposed to, and I did what I was supposed to." "But under different circumstances, we might've been good friends." "I have a great deal of respect for them as soldiers." "They were very good soldiers." "But they're still enemy..." "... sotheymust be controlled as prisoners." "When it reached the level of surrender for company..." "... andsmallerunits..." "... Iwasassignedthismajor..." "... andwhenhe walkedin..." "... hepresentedme thispistol..." "... andoffered his personal surrender..." "... which,naturally, I accepted gratefully." "So that would be the end of the war for his men..." "... andthisis basically the end of the war for my men." "And the significance is..." "... itwasn'tuntillater,afterhegave me his pistol and I had a chance..." "... tolookat it carefully, that I realized this pistol..." "... hadneverbeenfired." "There was no blood on it." "That's the way all wars should end..." "... withanagreement with no blood on it." "And I assure you, this pistol has never, never been fired..." "... sinceI 'vehadit , and it will not be fired." "We didn't come home and flout ourselves." "I didn't come home and say I was a war hero." "I came home and went back to it like we did before war." "Just go to work..." "... andliveourlife." "I think it was difficult for most fellows coming back." "They didn't know what they were going to do when they got out. i didn't." "Went to work for a coal company." "Did some bartendering and ran a pool hall." "Took up a course in ornamental horticulture." "It didn't pay very much, but I met a lot of nice people." "I went to work where l was working before the war." "It was Caterpillar Tractor Company." "I became an industrial arts and social studies teacher." "The spring of '46, I took a boat to Ketchikan, Alaska." "I went to work for the government, a letter carrier for 37 years." "I built homes. I was in construction." "I went into hard work, tedious work." "I'd done everything." "You name it, I done it." "I ended up working on the waterfront." "I went with the ClA in Washington." "Got my degree in 1 948." "After the war, I taught for almost 30 years." "Got a job working for Nixon Nitration Works." "I was making $ 75 a week." "We've never become wealthy in life..." "... butwehavealotofotherwealth that means more than that." "Everyone done well, I done well too, thank God." "I want to welcome you..." "... toourbanquettonighttocelebrate the ending of a fine reunion." "Thank you all for coming." "I want to extend the best wishes to all the men from company E506." "I love you, God bless you all." "Thank you." "The purpose the reunions serve..." "... istogiveusa chancetoget  together and talk to each other." "We relive some of the Army experiences." "But we have great respect..." "... and,youmightsay , affection for each other." "The type of affection you get when you've lived through..." "... manydangerous situations together..." "... andhavelearnedthat you can rely on each other." "If you see them today, that bond's there." "The bond you can't explain." "Soon as you see them, you're thinking of battles, thinking of it to yourself." "The men stand out amongst each other." "There's an intimacy develops and like nothing that I've ever experienced..." "... notincollege,not with any other group of people." "We're a strange bunch of dudes, as far as I'm concerned." "To be this close after all these years, that's the thing that gets me..." "... iswe'relikebrothers." "I'm back in my youth now." "When I get to these guys, I'm back when I went in the service." "It's fantastic." "I'd like to make 20 more reunions." "We had a lot of real good times in there." "Those are the times you really remember, you know?" "A lot of those is what we kid each other about at these reunions a lot." "And then you had a lot of bad times." "My family didn't know anything about it..." "... andI justdidn'ttellthem ." "I just, you know, figured it was something..." "... thatdidn'tneedtalkingabout." "It was done, over with." "We didn't know Shifty the way the men knew Shifty, you know." "He started talking about it just in the last five or six years." "Last five, I'd say." "It was like he-- That was another life, you know." "He was another person, and we weren't aware of the stuff he went through..." "... thingshehadseen." "It didn't even dawn on me that he had killed people." "I really admire my dad, my daddy." "He's a good guy." "He's a real strong guy." "We travel a lot, and we've been to France and to that cemetery." "It's incredible." "There's crosses upon crosses lined up perfectly..." "... asfaras theeye can see ,and then there's a cliff and the ocean." "These weren't just anonymous statistics." "These were people I knew, and I told my daughter, I said:" ""This guy here died at age 1 9 or 20. "" "A whole life never lived." "No family..." "... nothing." "No children..." "... noopportunityto havesatisfaction in building a life, nothing." "When I went there, I said, "Dad, my gosh, you were so lucky. "" "He looked at me and said, "Yeah, I'm very lucky. "" "And he started crying." "These guys have been together in the absolute base experiences..." "... ofhumanexistence." "They were there with each other..." "... thinkingyou'regonnadie orseeing people dying all around you." "And there they went day after day..." "... andI admirethatand heldmyfather, even on his tombstone..." "... asSgt.JoeToye." "506 pir 1 01 st Airborne Division." "That's what he wanted on his tombstone. lt meant that much to him." "How it happened that those various individuals..." "... endedupin ECompany, I don't know." "But as you know, every Army unit thinks it's the best..." "... butweknewwewere thebest." "I think about the guys more than anything." "I think about most of them every day." "It's something that's etched in your memory, I guess." "It'll never leave either." "Am I proud of having served in that outfit?" "You bet your life." "I wore that eagle on my right shoulder for 1 8 years." "Probably the proudest thing in my whole life..." "... washavingbeen in Easy Company 506." "The heroes had crosses over their heads..." "... theonesthatare buried in the cemeteries." "Those are the true heroes, not us." "We're just part of the works." "And we thank God we got back alive." "That's all." "How would you like to be a mother or a father to a son never come back?" "The son and the mother and the father are the heroes of World War ll..." "... nottheguysthatcome home ." "Let me say this..." "... Ibelievethere'svery, very few heroes..." "... thatcamebackfromthewar." "They're still over there." "Do you remember the letter that Mike Ranney wrote me?" "Do you remember how he ended it?" ""l cherish the memories of a question my grandson..." "... askedmetheotherday when he said:" "'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" "'" "Grandpa said, 'No..." "... butI served in a company of heroes.' "" "Joe Toye." "Oh, there was a big mick." "And we used to have a few beers at night, and I'd sing." "Guarnere would come over and sing." "He'd say to Guarnere:" ""Guarnere, you're Italian, you don't know this song. "" "Guarnere could sing it better than he did." ""Bridget O'Flynn. "" "How's it go?" "Now, that's the song Toye liked, and that's what we sang." "You only needed a sisal of beer." "Two beers you were drunk..." "... becauseyouwere in great physical condition." "You were too piqued, you know..." "... andtwobeersyou wereashigh as Georgia pine, you know."