Great story and a great guy to use his ingenuity to get an ice cream treat for his men!
My dad was an "ice creamaholic". How he must've missed it while overseas! I believe he'd have crawled through barbed wire to get it.
After the war, he made up for lost time by knowing the locations of every homemade ice cream stand in Eastern Mass. How he maintained his 6'2" 180lb weight under the ice cream compulsion is an unsolved mystery.
Another mystery was his favorite flavor: frozen pudding. PEEYEW!
Second on the list was black raspberry and third was butter pecan.
I 've many vivid memories of my father pulling up to an "ice cream oasis" in our '57 Chevy, he'd turn to my brother Fran & me in the back seat & ask what we wanted.
I'd say "chocolate!" and he'd say: "Don't you want something else Mary Ann?
You had that last time!" (but - no, I always wanted chocolate). I can still see him standing at the take-out window with his plaid shirt & khaki pants, ordering our cones. Somehow I never could manage to eat more than a third and would stick the cone in front of his face & say: "Here Daddy, I can't eat anymore." He'd eye me with mild
disapproval, but accept it. I can still see him sitting behind that big Chevy steering wheel, placidly consuming 2 ice creams (he'd have consumed a 3rd if it was to be had).
Good & happy memories those!