Honoring First Lieutenant L. D. Suggs Jr. -- KIA in Battle of the Bulge

Seventy years ago today, January 13, 1945, First Lieutenant L.D. Suggs Jr.

Lt. L.D. Suggs Jr.

was killed in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge while leading a platoon of infantry troops. Lieutenant Suggs was actually a Military Police officer, not Infantry, but like many other officers was pressed into service to beat back the German attack.

I came to know about Lt. Suggs and meet his son in a roundabout way. During World War II my late mother, Annie Lee Richardson Schlatter, was just out of high school and worked at Camp Van Dorn, a training base near her hometown of Centreville, Mississippi. After she passed away in 2007, I found her Camp Van Dorn ID card among her keepsakes. It was signed by Lt. Suggs, who was the camp Provost Marshall.

I was curious to know more about him, and through a Google search learned that he died in the war. I also learned he had a son, L.D. Suggs III, tracked him down and sent him a copy of the card. We met and played golf two years ago while my wife and I were snowbirds in South Carolina, and have become e-mail buddies. I have paid my respects at Lt. Suggs’ grave in Loris, SC.

We can never repay families like the Suggs, who sacrificed so much in defense of our freedom.