Some years ago Melvin Brenner wrote this letter to the editor of the Golden Acorn News.

Dear Editor,

I have been in awe of all you guys out there who are able to recall in great detail the specifics and chronology of our adventure in the ETO. I cannot do that but rather I recall bits and pieces of some of the events.

Here are the things I remember:

• ASTP in Auburn, NY: Being housed in Case Mansion and marching to classes at 6:30 each morning singing at the top of our voices. I am not sure the local residents appreciated that.

• Getting leave before reporting to Ft. Benning for basic. People thought I was a Boy Scout.

• Basic training at Ft. Benning and wearing my own shoes for five weeks because they could not find 5 ½ EEEs. Eventually I got 5 pair.

• The forced march at the conclusion of basic: 4 miles in 50 minutes with field pack and rifle. It felt great.

• Arriving at Ft. Jackson at the end of basic after ASTP was largely shut down and not having the slightest idea where I was or that I was in the 87th.

• Being assigned to a rifle platoon and being presented with the BAR. When it rained I carried it upside down and it dragged on the ground.

• Spending night after night in the orderly room with steel brush and steel wool getting the pits out of the bore. Right! Long hours at bayonet drill. Crawling through the obstacle course.

• Being seasick on the Elizabeth and Col. Moran not being able to get me out of the cot. “F___ him! Let him lay there and die.”

• The tarpaper barracks in Leek, England. I have no idea what I did in the six weeks there. I saw them again in 1978. They were about to be torn down and replaced.

• Tents in the Apple orchard in France.

• Doing guard duty in Metz and seeing five or six people get out of a miniature car. I was stunned.

• Entering Fort Driant.

• First day in combat when Sgt. James T. Hunt (West Point, GA) was killed next to a cross we told him to avoid. He went there saying, “They can’t kill me!”

• Being blown into the air by an 88 explosion that same day and coming down unharmed.

• Someone in our platoon being killed by our own artillery. We had gone too far and the shrapnel entered under the back of his helmet.

• The horrendous truck ride through rain and snow. Again I, like everybody else, had no idea where I was.

• Being dropped on a snow covered hill and being told to dig in!

• Being COLD!

• Going on patrol near Tillet with Roland I. Gilman (Newark, NJ) and Richard O. Dahl (Ashland, Wis.) at night and mistaking a huge haystack for a building. We did hear the Germans pulling out.

• Assaulting a dug in German position and seeing Lt. Thomas V. Burke (Washington, D.C.) killed.

• Being COLD!

• Carrying, dragging, along with Sgt. (soon to be Lt.) John M. Coleton (Hoosick Falls, NY), our Capt. out of the Bulge. He claimed a bad back. We never saw him again.

• Telling one of my squad members to run up to a fortification in the Siegfried Line and toss a grenade into one of the slits. He did it and returned.

• Getting replacements in the morning and losing them by nightfall.

• Lying on the ground near one of the forts and having a large piece of shrapnel land next to my face, I could feel its heat.

• Pushing away snow and trying to dig a slit trench in the frozen ground. And “sleeping” there.

• Showering in a truck and getting clean long johns.

• Having seconds and thirds of hot food because so many were killed or injured and were no longer on line.

• Spending a night in a foxhole and being so cold that I began to cry. I did not think I could go on.

• Being shot at by a hidden sniper. Gilman and I turned a German field piece around and sent shells into the building. When the sniper gave up and came out I wanted to kill him but could not do it.

• Being in a destroyed Belgium village and telling a woman how terrible it was and having her say to me with such stoicism “Ah, C’est la guerre!”

• Huge piles of manure next to the houses that were attached to the barn.

• The odor of captured Germans.

• Riding on the top of a tank with half my squad and seeing the driver and officer killed by a sniper when they came out of their turrets. I refused to ride on a tank again.

• White flags hanging from German windows.

• Putting our boats in the water to cross the Rhine with a brand new Lieutenant, Lt. Harold R. Patton (Bowen, Ill.)

• The hills and vineyards on the east side of the Rhine.

• Shooting an SS trooper as he came out of a house to inspect the guard, some of whom we had already taken prisoner.

• Losing my front teeth when I broke the rifles of three Germans who I had brought up from a cellar. The butt flew off and hit me in the mouth.

• Crawling up the vineyard and having a German put a rifle to my head. He hesitated and I pushed it away.

• One of our platoon members was killed on the RR tracks in Koblenz. We carried him into a waiting room. Placed him on a table and covered him, After being there a long time we got hungry and ate our rations.

• Hugh Williams (Brooklyn, NY) and I saw a very large brick building and started toward it to investigate but decided to wait for some additional men. It was Ft. Konstantin.

• Finding a wine cellar in Koblenz and trying to drink it dry. Lt. Patton, the newly arrived officer was pissed but understanding.

• Vomiting into my helmet while sleeping in one of the buildings.

• Seeing a group of Germans surrender after a firefight. They took off their helmets and put on caps.

• Firing at a dug in German and missing. Each time he popped up I fired and he ducked. Someone finally got him with a mortar.

• Walking through Plauen and seeing the destruction. I could not feel sympathy.

• Hearing that Roosevelt had died and wondering how that would affect us.

• Hearing that the war would be over the next day and not wanting to die on the last day.

• Crossing Europe in the 40/8 cars and having the bridge made to replace my lost teeth fall out on the railroad tracks as we were leaning out yelling at some GIs on an airfield.

• Boarding the West Point. Being served steaks and getting seasick again.

• Coming up NY harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty and being greeted by fireboats shooting water into the air and bands playing on the decks of ships.

• Being ever grateful for the Bomb!

• Getting my ruptured duck at Ft. Dix.

• Walking up the driveway to my mother’s house and seeing her standing there, tears streaming down her checks. Mine too. I was not yet 21.