From the June 24, 2016, Rockford (Illinois) Star by Sarah Wolf.
The 103rd Division, 2nd Battalion, 410th Infantry had their first reunion with a group of eight men from Company G in a Chicago hotel in 1946..
John LaVelle was one of those men and his son, Mike LaVelle, said, "Supposedly they partied and trashed the place, vowing to do the same thing again the next year."
Needless to say, the reunion is much more tame these recent years, as are World War II reunions all over the country. These young men are getting quite old. World War II veterans are mostly in their 90s and are dying at the rate of 430 a day.
Once, as many as 200 veterans and their families attended this group's reunion. This year's week-long event was held at the Rockford Holiday Inn.
Only four veterans attended it: Bert Miller, 94, Mike Egan, 96, Fred Kann, 91 and Charlie Atkinson, 92. The last two were in Company G. Kann spent a year in a hospital in the war after he stepped on a mine.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
No comments:
Post a Comment