Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day and I thought I'd take a moment to talk about my favorite veteran - Howard Gaertner.  Who also happens to be my dad.  Dad has been gone now for more than eleven years already but I'm sure he'd appreciate the mention. 

This picture was taken on September 13, 1945 at Reims, France.  That's seventy-six years ago - an eternity by today's standards.  That's dad on the right and his best friend - Donald Darnieder - a classmate from Cathedral High School in Milwaukee.   

 

Germany had surrendered in the spring of that year and Japan had surrendered a month earlier.  At the time this picture was taken dad was all of 21 years of age.  He'd already spent three months in combat - including the invasion at Normandy, the battle of the hedgerows, the breakout of the bocage at Saint-Lô, the dash across northern France with Patton's forces and the liberation of Belgium.  He was evacuated to England after being wounded in the Meuse River crossing in September of 1944 and returned to be part of the Army of Occupation.  This was turning out to be an exceedingly long deployment and a boatload of experience for a previously skinny depression-era kid who was drafted after graduating high school.  

 

Thinking of dad today and giving a shout out to all of my acquaintances and friends who have toiled in the armed services of our nation.