Hello to anyone still following along...sorry for the delay in posting.   I will continue to fill you in on the remaining days of the trip - which was fantastic.

 Tuesday included a visit to the Patton Memorial and to the Battle of the Bulge Museum in Bastogne. 

Jeff...John...George

We had the fortune to meet some of the people responsible for the museum, and owners of the fine collection of artifacts from the war - of which there were many.  Everything from C rations to baseball reference guides for the GI ("...who won the 1939 World Series?") to uniforms, maps, weapons and dioramas - very well done and again, they made Dad feel welcome, remembered and appreciated.  The video playing in the background is the part that got to me.  It included footage of war scenes - civilians under occupation, airplanes and soldiers on the move in the brutal cold - I felt like at any moment I would see Dad trudge by the camera...

That afternoon, we visited the St. Joseph School in Bastogne.  The kids in the class had some good questions.  They wanted to know about things like where Dad was from - what his parents (German immigrants) thought about his going to war, whether he was scared and whether he prayed a lot.  They also wished him a Happy Birthday and sung to him.  Shortly thereafter, the entire school assembled outside - presented The Vet a cool shirt, then proceeded to mob him for handshakes and numerous salutes.

The Vet fields the tough questions from the kids. They wanted answers...

Here's the mob scene at the school - they all seemed to charge at once

Above and to the right - the St. Joseph School in Bastogne, where the kids were learning history including WWII and the Battle of the Bulge.

If you could see the smoke detector, the little red LED would be on...

We spent part of the afternoon touring various villages, hamlets and towns - looking for the place where The Vet pushed General Patton's jeep out of the snow.  We're pretty sure of one thing - it was not in Compogne as the picture was captioned.   On to Houffalize where a German Panther tank still remains on display - and another monument commemorating the liberation of the town.  

To wrap up the evening we had a wonderful meal with good friends, including a birthday cake (for The Vet) with pyrotechnics belching sparks and flames.  (Yes indeed - it set off the smoke detector immediately above it on the ceiling.)  

   

By the way - the Yankees beat the Reds in the '39 Series...