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.

A World War II Memory From Pueblo, Colorado

When I saw a postcard on e-Bay written from the public relations office at the Pueblo Army Airfield in Colorado in 1944, I had to have it. I lived in Pueblo in 2007 – 2010 and worked for a contractor at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot, which evolved from that WWII installation.

Finding the person who wrote the card took some doing. The card was written by “Sgt. M. R. Beckes," and the signature was simply "M.R.B." The Army service number in the return address was illegible. Without a first name or service number I couldn’t find Sgt. Beckes in the National Archives online database of WWII soldiers. (When I finally located Sgt. Beckes’ record in the database the name was garbled and wouldn’t have revealed her anyway.) After wasting a lot of time looking for a man named "Beckes" I realized the service number started with the letter “A,” designating a member of the Women’s Army Corps.

After much searching on Google and Ancestry.com I figured out that the writer was Sgt. Miriam R. Beckes.  Born in 1899, she worked for newspapers in Ohio, including the Columbus Dispatch, prior to joining the Army in 1942. One of the people she worked with at the Dispatch was the noted author James Thurber, famous for his short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

The card was addressed to Lt. Ralph Yakel, Jr., at an address in Colorado Springs, about 35 miles from Pueblo. In the postcard Sgt. Beckes mentioned “your yellow-shuttered house.” It’s likely Lt. Yakel was stationed at one of several military bases in Colorado Springs and Miriam met him in the course of her duties. The photo side of the card depicts the Sand Dune National Monument in the lovely San Luis Valley of southern Colorado.

In the card she makes reference to going to the Broadmoor, a resort hotel in Colorado Springs, and running into the party of Ohio Governor John Bricker. The Broadmoor is near the address where Lt. Yakel lived. Miriam’s card said she went to school with Mrs. Bricker. Gov. Bricker was the Republican vice-presidential nominee, with Thomas Dewey at the head of the ticket, in 1944. They were sacrificial lambs for Franklin Roosevelt, who won the Electoral College 432 - 99.

After the war Miriam continued her journalism career and eventually settled in Seattle. She died in 1986, five days short of her 86^th birthday. While living in Seattle she cared for her father, Rev. Dr. Cyrus Boyd Beckes, who died in 1965 at age 100.

Once I found Miriam’s name it was fairly easy to find a surviving relative. Rev. Beckes’ obituary listed a granddaughter, Sally Beckes Anderson, of Poulsbo, Washington, Miriam’s niece. I wrote to her, she gave me a call, we had a nice chat, and I sent her the postcard. Sally said Miriam enjoyed her time in the service and talked of meeting movie stars, including Clark Gable, who came through on USO tours.

Miriam was primarily a food writer. I found an article she wrote in the Columbus Dispatch in 1947 extolling the virtues of a new culinary wonder -- frozen meals.

Lt. Yakel went on to be a professor of economics at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and died in 1976 at age 72. The house where he lived at 25 Alsace Way in Colorado Springs is still there. I emailed my friend, Kate Snatchko, who lives nearby, and asked her to check it out. She reported that the house looks good, but if it had yellow shutters in 1944 they’ve been painted a different color.

During my time in Pueblo I worked with Marilyn Thompson, public affairs officer for the Army installation, now retired. I’ll have to let Marilyn know this bit of history about one of her predecessors in the Army’s public affairs office.

Columbus Dispatch, April 13, 1947

When there's no one left to remember them

Sometimes when I'm looking for WWII postcards on e-Bay I'll come across one written by a man to his wife or future wife and wonder why this family keepsake is listed for sale. In a few cases it's because the card accidentally got out of the family, but sometimes it's because there' no one left to remember. Such is the case of a card I found today.

It was written on August 10, 1945, just before the war ended. Germany had surrendered on May 8, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9) were driving the Japanese to surrender. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on August 14, formalized on the U.S.S. Missouri on Sept. 2.

The postcard was written from New Mexico by Private John C. (Jack) Coldron to his future wife, Violet Day, in Pennsylvania. The message bemoaned the fact that the train schedule had gone "haywire" and 97 soldiers had an unexpected layover. They had to pay for their own lodging at 50 cents apiece. But he added, "War may be over soon, and then I get to see you soon anyway."

Jack was born in 1915, making him an old man compared to many WWII soldiers. He wasn't drafted until April of 1945 and served less than a year, being discharged in March 1946.

My research showed that John and Violet got married after the war, but it was a long courtship with their wedding taking place in 1952. He worked for the Board of Public Assistance in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Jack died at age 65  in 1981 and Violet at 79 in 1987. They did not have children.

When I first saw the card I concentrated on the message, trying to figure out the story behind the people. When I looked at the photo on the card I realized it's a place I've actually been. The card depicts the Raton Tunnel, a railroad tunnel between Raton, New Mexico and Trinidad, Colorado. I've seen the tunnel entrance several times while traveling I-25 when I lived in Pueblo, Colorado.

The postcard was offered for sale by a large-scale postcard seller in Canada, so I presume someone in the family put it out in an estate sale.  If anyone buys it, I suppose it will be a railroad buff.

New Year's Eve reflections on two American heroes

As 2013 comes to a close I reflect on two men who died in the service of our country on New Year's Eve -- Bill Dail of Knoxville, Tennessee, who died in Vietnam; and Woodrow Hoffer of Monroe, Michigan, killed in action in World War II.

PFC Dail

Marine PFC Willie Fred Dail, Jr. was killed by small arms fire in Vietnam on Dec. 31, 1967. He was barely 19. I didn't know PFC Dail, but we both attended Fulton High School. He was in the Class of '66, two years ahead of me. Looking back I find it unsettling to realize how oblivious I was at that time to the war in Vietnam. On that New Year's Eve I was probably looking forward to a date that night and eagerly awaiting the resumption of basketball season after the holidays. It would never have crossed my mind that a boy who walked the halls with me less than two years earlier had lost his life half a world away.

A year later my attention was focused on Vietnam when my big brother, Joe, went there as an artillery officer. Fortunately he came home safe and sound.

PFC Woodrow Hoffer was killed in action in the Pacific on New Year’s Eve 1944. Eight weeks later on Feb. 27, 1945 his younger brother, Staff Sergeant Marion E. Hoffer, was killed in action in Europe.

I discovered the story of the Hoffer brothers through a postcard Woodrow wrote to a relative during the war. A chapter about them and their family is included in my book, Postcard Memories from World War II: Finding Lost Keepsakes 70 Years Later.

Becky and I had the honor of visiting with relatives of Woodrow and Marion last year. We were struck by how their family, and the entire Monroe community, still honors the memory of these brothers, and all others from Monroe who died in the service of our country.

Woodrow and Marion are buried overseas in cemeteries maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.  Woodrow’s final resting place is at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, and Marion’s grave is in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands.

Back home, their names are inscribed on granite benches placed by the family at a local cemetery, and they are also listed on a World War II memorial in a Monroe park.

As I learned about the Hoffer brothers, I couldn’t help but think about their mother, Mary Derickson Hoffer. When she observed Christmas in 1944 she had three sons in the service – Woodrow, Marion, and Bill.  A fourth son, Melvin, was safe at home. In the next several weeks both Woodrow and Marion were killed in action, and Melvin enlisted after learning of his brothers’ deaths.

Ed Hoffer, nephew of Woodrow and Marion, speaks fondly of his grandmother and her strength: “She had two gold stars and two blue stars on her door.  I can’t fathom her sitting in that house, wondering every   It didn’t hit home for me until I saw ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ How did she live day to day with that pressure?”  (A blue star on the door denoted a son in the service, while a gold star meant a son had been killed in action.)time a car turned around in the driveway if it was Western Union.

Ed’s sister, Norma Stahl, remembers their grandmother’s strength despite having lost two sons and a nephew in the war, and a third son, Norma’s father, in a traffic accident.  Norma wrote: “Grandma lived to be 100 and passed in 1992.  Her beauty, strength, sense of humor, and kindness to others, after suffering so much loss, has always been such an inspiration to me.”

When you toast the New Year, pause to reflect on the Dails and the Hoffers, and all the other families who gave so much to preserve our freedoms.

Honoring William J. Camp

William J. Camp

As we approach Christmas it's a fitting time to honor a soldier who lost his life on the day after Christmas 1944, and the family who still keeps his memory alive.

I recently wrote about Norbert Kuchman, a WWII veteran whose postcards I found on e-Bay. I alerted his son, Dave Kuchman, to the cards and he was able to acquire them. The cards were written by Norbert to an old girlfriend during the war and ended up on e-Bay after being sold in an estate sale after she died.

William and Marian Camp

Dave contacted me recently with a fascinating follow-up to his dad’s story that involves yet another set of postcards in his family. Norbert had a brother-in-law, William J. Camp, who was killed in action December 26, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. Dave had borrowed some of his postcards from a relative, and he shared images of the postcards and the story of “Uncle Bill.” It's quite a story.

Private Camp was born in 1910. His birth name was William John Czarnowsky, but he later changed it to Camp. Like many in his hometown of Rochester, New York, he worked for Eastman Kodak Company. William married Norbert Kuchman’s sister, Marian, on October 30, 1934. He enlisted in the Army on May 22, 1944, and just seven months later while serving with the 121^st Infantry Regiment, 8^th Infantry Division, he was killed when a German shell hit near his foxhole. He left a widow and three sons, all now deceased. He is buried at the American cemetery at Margraten, Netherlands. Marian did not remarry and passed away in 1990.

The postcards Dave showed me (via email) were written between June and August 1944 while Private Camp was in training at Camp Croft near Spartanburg, SC. They were addressed to Private Camp’s middle son, James, who turned four in June 1944, six months before his father died. In one card Private Camp wished James a happy birthday. James died in 1997.

Private Camp wished his son a happy fourth birthday in this card

Dave also sent me a photo of a plaque that hung in Eastman Kodak offices for many years honoring Private Camp and two other employees who were killed in the war.

Private Camp’s postcards are interesting, but another photo Dave shared with me is positively gripping. It’s a photo of his dad, Norbert Kuchman, kneeling at William Camp’s grave in the Netherlands in 1947. Those of us who didn’t live through World War II can never imagine the upheaval it brought to so many families. I can’t fathom the emotions Norbert must have felt as he visited his brother-in-law’s grave. The two of them served in combat in Europe. One came home, one didn't.

In the photo the graves are marked with what appear to be wooden crosses. Today each grave is marked with a marble cross inscribed with the soldier's name. The American Battle Monuments Commission has an excellent web site where you can search for American soldiers who are buried overseas. http://www.abmc.gov/home.php 

Plaque honoring three Eastman Kodak employees who died in World War II

Norbert Kuchman at William Camp's grave in the Netherlands, 1947.

William Camp's grave marker at Margraten

More about William Camp can be found at http://www.adoptiegraven-database.nl/index.php/margraten/american-war-cemetery-margraten-c/19534-camp-william-j

To Norbert Kuchman and William Camp – thank you for serving our country. And kudos to Dave Kuchman for keeping their memory alive, lest we forget.