Hey Misha sent me a photo tonight, so I am posting it here. It was taken with Marko on Misha's 42nd birthday.

Don't ya love the uniforms? I sure do!

This photo was taken earlier in a restored WWII jeep. Pretty cool huh? I want one!

I was talking with George Koskimarki on the phone. He gave me directions to get to his house but my daughters say I only get half of a conversation, so I printed a map from computer.. I arrived to see a dozen condo’s and I was looking for 1212. I knocked on the door, no answer. I got in the car and called George and said I was sitting in front of 1212 and where was he. George said he could see me, that his address is 1224. My normal day.

George wife died last year and my wife died 3 years ago. We talked about our lovely wives and found that both of us met our wives on a blind date. . Then we found George lived near 8 mile and Gratiot where I met my blind date wife. This was also near Hartung Air Field at Gratiot and 10 ½ mile road where I received my pilots licensees. It was a small field but George said he seen a C-47 land there. We talked about the good old timers. He often took his wife and daughter downtown to shop at J. L. Hudson and have lunch in old Hudson store. We had a good time and found I am older than George (a couple of months)

I showed him a picture of my brother K.I.A. with 101st. Now George’s house looks like a library of books and boxes, he went in the other room and came back with two names and addresses of two of my brother’s buddy’s. I just finished writing to both of them. George was personal radio operator for General Maxwell Taylor and Taylor got Purple Heart when in a bellower shrapnel in the ass hit him, he had to keep his ass in the air for 10 days.

George took me to lunch at American Restraint 8 mile and Farmington Road, he has special both. \, Second from front. We passed Finish building of 101st monthly lunch and across 8 mile is cemetery his wife is buried in. When we got back to his house, he gave me Hells Highway book signed by him and picture of C-47 dropping paratroopers When I left I said what should I tell Marion, he said tell her that he found two of Roberts Buddy’s.

I gave George e-mail copy of how I met my wife and post of Marion on Feb 16 lunches. He enjoyed reading them all and I could see him smile, he said Marion is a very good writer and she has the ability to get her thoughts down in writing. . As I did, he said every day he thinks of his wife.

papa

Well, I just found out that on some forums you are not allowed to type the word NAZI. Can you believe that? If you are typing anything like the word NAZI or anything else they deem "improper", the WORD FILTER covers your word with, POLITICAL WORD or BAD POLITICAL WORD. Utterly ridiculous.

Can you imagine this happening on a WWII forum? It's nonsense. One guy claims that he has to do that because of the search engines. Whatever, but you won't find that here.

The only thing I have filtered are some of the real naughty words. Obviously you don't want someone coming here and typing F--- Y--. You get my drift.

Anyway, just had to get that off my chest. Sigh. What is this world coming too?

Hi ,

We-uns went to lunch with 101st on the monthly meeting. It was Great !!

The salad was a mixture of jello and something (an unspecified or undetermined amount or extent). It was excellent. The following dinner (Red Buttons " I never had a dinner") and dessert was very good. Marion had all the men coming to my side. That was because she was at my side. Marion and I met more historian,writers like George K. Mark Bando, Don Burgett, Don Straith, Marion, if I missed any, I will put your initials here ( A to Z )

You had to be there but This is too good to let go by.Picture a big burlly soldier told to go down the road where there was many German 88 shells bursting and tell the three man down there to follow him across the road to shelter. Now here is the kicker,,When our burly soldier got scarred his voice would change to high sqweeky tone. Now suppose you were one of the thee under fire, this big burly soldier runs up with arms pointing and yelling in his scared high pitch tone "follow me fella's to safety" It is your choice Would you or wouldn't you.

We had a great time

papa Art

John sent the letter below to me regarding the latest news on the CIB. If you've read anything on my site, you will know that this is a hot topic for those who didn't receive their Combat Infantry Badges. Some vets like my dad DID receive his and some combat engineers who were attached and used as infantry units didn't. Some even within the same units did, while others were denied. We are trying to rectify this injustice.

To read more about it, please visit these forum links:

CIB

CIB Links

Read this page too. Scroll down towards the bottom. You will see a letter from a congressman and the army.

Memories of David Wagner

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I don't know if you heard that the Defense Department has approved a combat badge for those other than Infantry . As of today it is authorized only for those in Iraq but my Congressman is trying to get it made retroactive. It will apply to Armor, Cavalry, Engineers, and Artillery who had the same exposure to combat as Infantry. Of course, as we know, some had more exposure. If you have contacs with a Congressman I think it might be a good idea to contact him for your father.

36 Engineers are rugged......John Fallon II. Capt. USA Ret.