From the December 26, 2011, Palm Beach (Fla) Daily News "WW II letters a highly personal account of a soldier on the battlefield" by John Nelander.
Private First Class Philip Herzig had a great sense of humor when he described his accomodations in Germany during the closing days of the war. On March 21, 1945, he wrote:
HOTEL FOX HOLE: Air conditioned bedroom and latrine. Finest box lunches (K-Rations). The finest mud in the country. Bring your gun, good hunting. Ladies welcome. Owner and manager, PFC Philip R. Verzig."
Private Verzig wrote more than 300 letters. He died in 2004 and they were discovered in his attic. His wife Helene decided they would make a great book and compiled them: "Your Loving Son, Philip: Letters From an American Soldier in World War II."
The letters start May 23, 1944 after his Army induction at Camp Upton in New York and continue until May 12, 1946, when he wrote "I am finally in the pipe-line" meaning that he was on his way out of the Army.
World War II veterans are dying at the rate of 740 a day and estimates put the number of remaining ones at 1.7 million out of 16 million.
Sad to See Them Go, Even If They Did Live in the Lap of Luxury Like At Hotel Fox Hole. --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.
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