My father's war
Like very many people of my generation, I grew up with stories of World War II. My father had been a soldier in the infantry in the Third Army commanded by Gen. George Patton. As such, he walked over a good part of Europe and saw quite a lot of action. It was the defining experience of his life and he talked about it until the day he died - perhaps to rid himself of some of the memories that haunted his dreams. I got tired of all those stories after a while and began to tune them out, but things that are embedded in one's memory in early childhood are never really forgotten. Bits and pieces come back to me at unexpected moments and I often wish I had listened more carefully to what he had to say and that I had taken notes. Still, some images are hard to forget. I remember him talking about his regiment's attempt to cross the Moselle River . It was a hard fight. He and one of his buddies had taken shelter behind two trees along the river. There ensued an intense firefight in whi...