This 1965 documentary was nominated for an Academy Award
Jake Larson featured in NBC documentary
BOBA’s Jake Larson was the star of a documentary on American veterans broadcast by NBC during the Olympics. The documentary is titled “In the Company of Heroes” and first ran about 5 pm (EST) on Saturday, August 3.
Jake was filmed meeting a family that he has befriended over the years and also got the coveted “old veteran stands on the beach and reflects” slot.
Florida Orchestra performs The Ardennes March
Congratulations to BOBA Bulge veteran member Frederick L. Faulkner (3257 SIG SVC CO)! On May 12, 2024, the Florida Orchestra played his Ardennes March for the first time during their Pops in the Park event, their largest concert of the year, and Fred also conducted the Stars and Stripes Forever.
Click here to check out the media coverage.
Fred has composed 3 pieces for concert band that recognize and honor the participants of Pearl Harbor, The Battle of the Bulge and Viet Nam. Having played piano and the reed instruments in concert and jazz bands over the years as a hobby, he decided to write something that would honor these wars that he had lived through and participated in. Fred is a long-standing member of BOBA Chapters 23 and 32.
Bravo, Fred, and thank you for your service!
Help BOBA Be Thrifty
BOBA communicates with members primarily through email, including The Bulge Bugle®. Doing so helps us be thrifty by reducing postage costs. If you have not received emails from us lately, we probably don’t have your email address. Send your current email address to BOBAmembership@gmail.com and we’ll get you back in the loop. Thank you!
Presentation at WWII Museum
BOBA is part of an interesting sounding 3-part program this coming Saturday at the WWII American Experience museum in Gettysburg. I’ll go on at 2 with a talk about how we geared up for WWII. From a standing start (basically, a 150,000 man army armed with World War I weapons in 1937), we created a 16 million person armed forces and out-produced the rest of the world. The story of how we did that is one of the great accomplishments of the 20th century.
Come on out, it should be a great series of talks
Sign up for the Reunion
We’ll have a live link for signup soon, but in the meanwhile, here’s a description of the Reunion’s activity.
BOBA Members Civil War Meetup
What better place to meet a BOBA colleague than at a Civil War Roundtable meeting? That’s what Bugle editor Leon Reed and Lehigh Vally chapter president Steve Savage just did. Leon was there to discuss his new book, Fort Sumter’s Long Shadow: Lincoln Calls for Troops, the North Creates an Army, and the Upper South Reconsiders Secession.
Malmedy massacre victim’s daughter reflects
Their experience in World War II had a lasting impact on the men who served, but that’s not the limit of this war’s effects. The children of World War II soldiers also grew up in the shadow of this war. None were affected more profoundly than children whose fathers perished. In this video, BOBA’s treasurer and invaluable volunteer Mary Ann Coates Smith reflects on the father she never knew, killed in the Malmedy Massacre.
BOBA Member Sgt. Dan Santagata Speaks to Historical Society
Longtime BOBA member Dan Santagata spoke about his WWII experiences to a New York historical society. As our WWII experience fades further and further into our rear view mirror, these personal testimonials assume greater importance. BOB is proud of our active veterans!
BOBA in the Community: Presentation on the Arsenal of Democracy, Gettysburg Public Library
Despite occasional shortages, mostly due to transportation bottlenecks, the American GI in WWII was undoubtedly theist supportedlied soldier ever. And the British, Free French, Russian, and other Allied soldiers were just about as well supplied. BOBA’s editor will be describing how this happened, from the early days of rearmament tooth endif the war and beyond. Tonight at 6:30, Adams County Public Library.
How much we produced (an inconceivable amount) and how we did it. This was a real trip down memory lane. My turf as a Senate staffer was the Defense Production Act, the mobilization act for the Korean War. I spent about three years early in my consulting career studying this issue and even met with some of the whiz kids who managed the effort in World War II. A great story and a lot of information.
The Bulge Soldier
This excerpt from a speech given at the 2001 35th Division reunion by Brig. Gen. William Carlson provides a fine description of the role of the American GI in this brutal battle.
The speech is found on the Division association’s outstanding and comprehensive web page.
http://www.35thinfdivassoc.com/Ardennes/carlson_speech.shtml
“The real story of the Battle of the Bulge is the story of these soldiers and the intense combat action of the small units: the squads, the platoons, the companies, and the soldiers who filled their ranks. For the most part they were children of the 20’s – citizen soldiers, draftees – young men hardly more than boys.
“Resourceful, tough, and tempered as hard as steel in the crucible of the Great Depression, these men were as tough as the times in which they were raised. These are the men who made up the fighting strength of the divisions, carried out the orders of the Generals and engaged the Germans in mortal combat:
Battalion commanders and Company commanders — young, lean, tough, battle-wise and toil-worn.
And Second lieutenants – newly minted officers and gentlemen, some still sporting peach fuzz on their upper lips – too young to require a razor.
And Grizzly NCO’s with faces chiseled and gaunt by the gnawing stress of battle and the rigors of a soldier’s life in combat.
And seasoned troopers, scroungy and unkempt, but battle-hardened, competent and disciplined in the automatic habits of war never learned in school. …
The battle was very personal for them. Concerned with the fearful and consuming task of fighting and staying alive, these men did not think of the battle in terms of the ‘Big Picture’ represented on the situation maps at higher headquarters. They knew only what they could see and hear in the chaos of the battle around them. They knew and understood the earth for which they fought, the advantage of holding the high ground and the protection of the trench or foxhole. They could distinguish the sounds of the German weffers and the screaming sound of incoming German 88’s. …
They knew the overwhelming loneliness of the battlefield, the feeling of despair, confusion and uncertainty that prevails in units in retreat. And they knew that feeling of utter exhaustion — the inability of the soldier’s flesh and blood to continue on, yet they must, or die.
Even Mother Nature was their enemy with bitterly cold weather. The ground was frozen solid. The skies were gray. The days were short, with daylight at 8 and darkness by 4. The nights were long and frigid and snow, knee-deep, covered the battlefield. GI’s, their bodies numb, were blue-lipped and chilled to the bone. …
When the chips were down and the situation was desperate, the American soldier, molded in the adversity of the Great Depression, proved to be unusually adept at taking charge of the situation and “going into business for himself” on the battlefield. GIs on that battlefield were craftier than crows in a cornfield.
These are the soldiers who, when their officers lay dead and their sergeants turned white, held the enemy at bay in the days when the heavens were falling and the battlefield was in flames with all the fire and noise humanly possible for over a million warriors to create.
For a brief moment in history, these men held our nation’s destiny in their hands. They did not fail us. Theirs was the face of victory. Super heroes—super patriots. Their legacy – victory, victory in the greatest battle ever fought by the United States Army.
But the cost of victory was high. There, on that cold, brutal field of battle, 19,000 young Americans answered the angel’s trumpet call and had their rendezvous with death.
Back home in America, Western Union telegraph lines hummed with those dreaded messages of sadness: “The Secretary of War regrets to inform you” — telegrams that forever shattered the lives of the innocent, bringing tears and sadness to homes across our land. Aged mothers and the youthful wives must bear the burden of grief throughout the remainder of their lives.
We muster here tonight to honor and pay tribute to all those brave young warriors who served with honor and won that battle. We are reminded of what their journey through life has left behind for us.
The warriors of “the greatest generation”, a generation that is taking their final curtain calls and soon will leave the stage of life. They have passed “Old Glory” on to the next generation unsoiled, their swords untarnished, their legacy a great nation under God, with liberty, justice and freedom for all.
David Bailey’s story
One of the fun things about being “the new guy” is that you get to be amazed by stories that are probably commonplace to everyone else. I ran across David Bailey’s amazing survival story in the VBOB book, Battle of the Bulge: True Stories from the Men and Women Who Survived. His niece, Carolyn Truesdale, mentioned this video of his reunion many years later with the woman who saved him.
Bulge Monument, PA Military Museum
The Pennsylvania Military Museum is an attractive facility in Boalsburg, right around the corner from State College. There is a particular focus on the 28th Division.
Its collection includes good exhibits on WWII and its extensive grounds contain a number of monuments, including one Bulge monument erected by our predecessor, VBOB. Its regular programs include a 28th Division commemoration, in May, and a WWII weekend, usually held on Memorial Day.
BOBA is looking for ways to become more involved in this museum’s programs.
Bugle deadline
We hope our distribution issues are behind us and we’re now at work on the next issue of the Bugle. This next issue will contain a report on the January 2024 commemoration and Gettysburg conference; plans for what’s going to be a truly outstanding reunion in St. Charles, Missouri; news on the departures of some valued members and on the activities of some who are very much with us; chapter news; and an exciting new feature profiling our division members. And much more.
The deadline is March 10, but if I know you’re sending something, you can have a few more days. For those sending me material, please:
- If you’ve already set me something, remind me what you sent and when. I’ve been assembling folders of material but I’d like a cross check to be sure I haven’t missed anything.
- If you know of an event we should mention, please notify me of the basics: what it is, when and where, point of contact. This can include things like World War II shows, air shows, conferences, new museum exhibits, etc. Or it can include major member milestones: 100th birthdays, awards, etc.
- If you’re planning to submit something, let me know right away. E mail me about topic, length, photos, etc., and let me know when I can expect it.
Reach me at boba.editor@gmail.com
Video on Bulge conference
The World War II American Experience museum produced a short video on the conference.