thedrifter
03-24-08, 08:15 AM
Carlsbad veteran prepared for trip to World War II Memorial
By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer
CARLSBAD ---- The infantry company already was down several men by the time James Stephens and his fellow soldiers reached the blown-out bridge over the Danube River.
"We had to run hard enough to get to the top and go down to the other side without sliding off and going into the river," Stephens said about the precarious trek over the top of the bridge, which was leaning at an angle and damaged at both ends.
"We made it across, and fortunately didn't have too much problems. That's where I received the Bronze Star."
Stephens would earn two Bronze Stars in World War II, the first for warning a platoon about a planned German counterattack and another for serving in a combat infantry unit during a major battle.
After fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, he also was among the first Americans at the infamous Dachau concentration camp.
Sixty-three years after his heroic actions during the march through Germany, Stephens is looking forward to one more journey.
Decades have passed, the old uniform no longer fits and he has to strain to hear because of a lingering injury he sustained from a mortar blast.
But at 86, Stephens will once again be treated like a hero.
Living history
Stephens has never seen the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., but on April 18 he will leave his Carlsbad home with his daughter, Sue Jenkins, and fly to Baltimore where he will rendezvous with other veterans on their way to the nation's capital.
The trip was organized and funded by Honor Flight, a nonprofit program created by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and retired Air Force captain.
Morse retired from the Air Force in 1998 and was working at a small clinic in Springfield, Ohio, when the memorial opened in 2004. After asking veterans who were his patients if they planned to ever see it, Morse repeatedly heard them say they would like to go if they had the money and strength.
A private pilot, Morse volunteered to fly some of his patients to Washington to see the memorial, and soon he was recruiting other pilots to do the same. Naming the program Honor Flight, he and other pilots flew 12 World War II veterans to see the memorial in 2005. Within three months, the program had flown 300 veterans.
Since then, the program has flown about 7,000 veterans to see the memorial, said James McLaughlin, the program's vice president in Ohio.
"It's astounding," McLaughlin said during a telephone interview last week of the veterans' reaction to seeing the memorial. "They tell us at the end of the day that it's one of their most memorable days of their lives. And it gives them a sense of closure."
'Wall of stars'
The most poignant moments for the veterans occurs when they see the memorial's Freedom Wall with 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war, McLaughlin said.
"When they're standing there looking at the wall of stars, it represents their buddies. They go home and talk to their families about things they've never talked about. Some of the wives say, 'My God, this man won't shut up now!' "
Flights take place April through November, with four flight days a month. Last November saw the program's busiest day with 993 people, including veterans and their escorts. Money is raised privately, with fundraisers often including school and church events such as baby-sitting, shoveling snow and bake sales.
The veterans don't pay a dime, but their escorts ---- three for every eight veterans ---- are asked to pay no more than $300 to accompany them.
Stephens has been on a waiting list since June to make the trip. At 86, he was given high priority, and will be in a group of between 500 and 600 people on the trip from April 18-20.
The Bulge, Dachau
After enlisting in the Army in 1942, Stephens trained in electronics and communications before shipping overseas in 1945.
His first night in a combat zone was spent in a foxhole with another new soldier. Stephens said the normal practice of pairing veteran soldiers with rookies was impossible because of the lack of men.
"The company was down to very low strength when we joined it," he said. "They had 200 when we went over from the original company. Seven of them came back without getting killed or wounded."
The fighting was part of the Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 26, 1945, the last major German offense on the western front. By the time the Allies broke through the line and continued their advance toward Berlin, 19,000 Americans were dead.
"It was only a few days there before we were shoving off on an attack to the German line, and they started shelling us," he said. "I heard a round coming in and I flattened out in a plow furrow, and this mortar hit 3 feet from my head and exploded. The shrapnel went right over my back."
The mortar killed a buddy nearby and left Stephens nearly deaf for the rest of the day, though he didn't report his injury. His hearing never fully recovered.
After several days of fighting, the men crossed the Danube and entered the German town of Gunzburg. The enemy was on the run, but the Americans believed it was up to something.
"Early in the evening, we got word that it looked like a counterattack was organizing right out past one of our platoons on security," he said. "Had they come in there on a surprise, it would have been really rough."
Under sniper fire and artillery shelling, Stephens and another soldier walked about a mile to look for the imperiled Americans.
"It was pretty dark there, no lights, and the only thing we could do was go by instinct," he said. Coming upon the house where they believed the Americans to be, Stephens told his partner to cover him and made a break for the door.
"It was always frightening, but of course you get to the point where things don't bother you too much," he said. "You've got a job to do, and you just do it."
Stephens' actions earned him a Bronze Star for valor, the fourth-highest combat award.
Stephens also helped capture a disguised German soldier in Gunzburg after he and another soldier noticed something strange about a man they saw step into a street about 50 feet ahead. The man wore civilian clothes, but his heels made the tale-tell sparks of hobnail boots worn by German soldiers.
"Let's get him," Stephens told his buddy.
"We had on rubber-healed boots. We sneaked up behind him, stuck a rifle in his back and told him to halt. He threw up both hands and we took him in."
'Skin and bone'
On April 29, 1945, another company reached the Dachau concentration camp. Stephens, who was in F Company, 253 Infantry of the 63rd Division, wasn't far behind.
"They were mostly just skin and bone," he said about the prisoners. "A few were still strong enough to get around. One fellow who spoke very good English came out and talked to us."
The Americans gave the prisoners all the food they had, not knowing where they would get their own next meal.
"You were just floored at the conditions," he said. "You want to do everything you can to help them. In our case, it was very little. Most of us had a pack or two of K rations. It wasn't the most appetizing food in the world, but you could sustain on them."
Medics tended to the prisoners, but some died before they could be treated. Stephens remembers seeing gas chambers used to kill prisoners and a room filled with piles of shoes and clothes.
"You try to wipe a lot of it out of your mind and you try not to talk about it, but it's something that you never forget," he said. "It was a long time before I could even talk about it."
After a day in Dachau, it was time for Stephens' company to move on.
Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and Victory in Europe Day was celebrated May 8. Stephens had advanced to the German town of Tauberbishofsheim, then was sent to Paris where he worked on communication machines for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. By then, the 253 Infantry had lost 1,187 of its 4,025 men.
As a civilian, he repaired teletype machines for The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times before retiring in 1979. He and his wife, Vesta, moved to Carlsbad. The couple married in 1943.
Last chance
Time is running out for veterans to see the memorial created in their honor, said McLaughlin, noting reports that show as many as 1,200 World War II survivors die every day.
"We've had a few pass away on our waiting list in the past few weeks," he said about the list of 6,000. World War II veterans are given priority, although veterans of any war who have a terminal disease are moved to the front of the line.
The trips to the memorial are a way of saying thanks to the veterans of World War II, something McLaughlin said is long overdue.
Recalling a conversation a few months back, McLaughlin said a man called asking about a trip. After learning he was a veteran, McLaughlin said, "Well first of all, thank you for your service."
The line went quiet for 15 seconds. McLaughlin asked if the man was still there.
A teary voice at the other end finally said, "Nobody's ever said that to me."
For more information about Honor Flight, visit the Web site www.HonorFlight.org, e-mail McLaughlin at viceprez@honorflight.org or write to Honor Flight Inc., 300 E. Auburn Ave., Springfield, Ohio, 45504.
Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer
CARLSBAD ---- The infantry company already was down several men by the time James Stephens and his fellow soldiers reached the blown-out bridge over the Danube River.
"We had to run hard enough to get to the top and go down to the other side without sliding off and going into the river," Stephens said about the precarious trek over the top of the bridge, which was leaning at an angle and damaged at both ends.
"We made it across, and fortunately didn't have too much problems. That's where I received the Bronze Star."
Stephens would earn two Bronze Stars in World War II, the first for warning a platoon about a planned German counterattack and another for serving in a combat infantry unit during a major battle.
After fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, he also was among the first Americans at the infamous Dachau concentration camp.
Sixty-three years after his heroic actions during the march through Germany, Stephens is looking forward to one more journey.
Decades have passed, the old uniform no longer fits and he has to strain to hear because of a lingering injury he sustained from a mortar blast.
But at 86, Stephens will once again be treated like a hero.
Living history
Stephens has never seen the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., but on April 18 he will leave his Carlsbad home with his daughter, Sue Jenkins, and fly to Baltimore where he will rendezvous with other veterans on their way to the nation's capital.
The trip was organized and funded by Honor Flight, a nonprofit program created by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and retired Air Force captain.
Morse retired from the Air Force in 1998 and was working at a small clinic in Springfield, Ohio, when the memorial opened in 2004. After asking veterans who were his patients if they planned to ever see it, Morse repeatedly heard them say they would like to go if they had the money and strength.
A private pilot, Morse volunteered to fly some of his patients to Washington to see the memorial, and soon he was recruiting other pilots to do the same. Naming the program Honor Flight, he and other pilots flew 12 World War II veterans to see the memorial in 2005. Within three months, the program had flown 300 veterans.
Since then, the program has flown about 7,000 veterans to see the memorial, said James McLaughlin, the program's vice president in Ohio.
"It's astounding," McLaughlin said during a telephone interview last week of the veterans' reaction to seeing the memorial. "They tell us at the end of the day that it's one of their most memorable days of their lives. And it gives them a sense of closure."
'Wall of stars'
The most poignant moments for the veterans occurs when they see the memorial's Freedom Wall with 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war, McLaughlin said.
"When they're standing there looking at the wall of stars, it represents their buddies. They go home and talk to their families about things they've never talked about. Some of the wives say, 'My God, this man won't shut up now!' "
Flights take place April through November, with four flight days a month. Last November saw the program's busiest day with 993 people, including veterans and their escorts. Money is raised privately, with fundraisers often including school and church events such as baby-sitting, shoveling snow and bake sales.
The veterans don't pay a dime, but their escorts ---- three for every eight veterans ---- are asked to pay no more than $300 to accompany them.
Stephens has been on a waiting list since June to make the trip. At 86, he was given high priority, and will be in a group of between 500 and 600 people on the trip from April 18-20.
The Bulge, Dachau
After enlisting in the Army in 1942, Stephens trained in electronics and communications before shipping overseas in 1945.
His first night in a combat zone was spent in a foxhole with another new soldier. Stephens said the normal practice of pairing veteran soldiers with rookies was impossible because of the lack of men.
"The company was down to very low strength when we joined it," he said. "They had 200 when we went over from the original company. Seven of them came back without getting killed or wounded."
The fighting was part of the Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 26, 1945, the last major German offense on the western front. By the time the Allies broke through the line and continued their advance toward Berlin, 19,000 Americans were dead.
"It was only a few days there before we were shoving off on an attack to the German line, and they started shelling us," he said. "I heard a round coming in and I flattened out in a plow furrow, and this mortar hit 3 feet from my head and exploded. The shrapnel went right over my back."
The mortar killed a buddy nearby and left Stephens nearly deaf for the rest of the day, though he didn't report his injury. His hearing never fully recovered.
After several days of fighting, the men crossed the Danube and entered the German town of Gunzburg. The enemy was on the run, but the Americans believed it was up to something.
"Early in the evening, we got word that it looked like a counterattack was organizing right out past one of our platoons on security," he said. "Had they come in there on a surprise, it would have been really rough."
Under sniper fire and artillery shelling, Stephens and another soldier walked about a mile to look for the imperiled Americans.
"It was pretty dark there, no lights, and the only thing we could do was go by instinct," he said. Coming upon the house where they believed the Americans to be, Stephens told his partner to cover him and made a break for the door.
"It was always frightening, but of course you get to the point where things don't bother you too much," he said. "You've got a job to do, and you just do it."
Stephens' actions earned him a Bronze Star for valor, the fourth-highest combat award.
Stephens also helped capture a disguised German soldier in Gunzburg after he and another soldier noticed something strange about a man they saw step into a street about 50 feet ahead. The man wore civilian clothes, but his heels made the tale-tell sparks of hobnail boots worn by German soldiers.
"Let's get him," Stephens told his buddy.
"We had on rubber-healed boots. We sneaked up behind him, stuck a rifle in his back and told him to halt. He threw up both hands and we took him in."
'Skin and bone'
On April 29, 1945, another company reached the Dachau concentration camp. Stephens, who was in F Company, 253 Infantry of the 63rd Division, wasn't far behind.
"They were mostly just skin and bone," he said about the prisoners. "A few were still strong enough to get around. One fellow who spoke very good English came out and talked to us."
The Americans gave the prisoners all the food they had, not knowing where they would get their own next meal.
"You were just floored at the conditions," he said. "You want to do everything you can to help them. In our case, it was very little. Most of us had a pack or two of K rations. It wasn't the most appetizing food in the world, but you could sustain on them."
Medics tended to the prisoners, but some died before they could be treated. Stephens remembers seeing gas chambers used to kill prisoners and a room filled with piles of shoes and clothes.
"You try to wipe a lot of it out of your mind and you try not to talk about it, but it's something that you never forget," he said. "It was a long time before I could even talk about it."
After a day in Dachau, it was time for Stephens' company to move on.
Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and Victory in Europe Day was celebrated May 8. Stephens had advanced to the German town of Tauberbishofsheim, then was sent to Paris where he worked on communication machines for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. By then, the 253 Infantry had lost 1,187 of its 4,025 men.
As a civilian, he repaired teletype machines for The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times before retiring in 1979. He and his wife, Vesta, moved to Carlsbad. The couple married in 1943.
Last chance
Time is running out for veterans to see the memorial created in their honor, said McLaughlin, noting reports that show as many as 1,200 World War II survivors die every day.
"We've had a few pass away on our waiting list in the past few weeks," he said about the list of 6,000. World War II veterans are given priority, although veterans of any war who have a terminal disease are moved to the front of the line.
The trips to the memorial are a way of saying thanks to the veterans of World War II, something McLaughlin said is long overdue.
Recalling a conversation a few months back, McLaughlin said a man called asking about a trip. After learning he was a veteran, McLaughlin said, "Well first of all, thank you for your service."
The line went quiet for 15 seconds. McLaughlin asked if the man was still there.
A teary voice at the other end finally said, "Nobody's ever said that to me."
For more information about Honor Flight, visit the Web site www.HonorFlight.org, e-mail McLaughlin at viceprez@honorflight.org or write to Honor Flight Inc., 300 E. Auburn Ave., Springfield, Ohio, 45504.
Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.
Ellie