Chapter 30 President Barry Veden takes the story of the Bulge on the road
From the time Veden was elected president of the northern Indiana chapter of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, he has been speaking to numerous groups about the battle that occurred in the Ardennes during that coldest of winters seventy years ago.
“I began making presentations to organizations such as the Lions Club, local Rotary Clubs, Church groups, retiree associations and AMVETS conventions,” Veden said. “The presentations have been received nicely. It’s amazing to me how little is known about the battle, or even about World War II for that matter. As president of our local chapter, I feel that is my responsibility to educate as many people as possible about the Battle of the Bulge so that there is a better understanding of what my dad and the thousands of others like him accomplished during the largest land battle ever fought by the United States Army.”
After sending out letters to Assisted Living facilities in the tri-county area of LaPorte, Porter and Lake Counties last year, and receiving a good response, he began speaking to residents in those facilities. “The residents living in those facilities are basically from the World War II generation, and they enjoy hearing about that time in their lives when the world was at war, and how we were victorious,” Veden said. “I’ve been invited back to speak to some of them two and three times.”
In November of last year, Veden was the keynote speaker at the first meeting of a veteran’s organization at the company from where he had retired ten years earlier. “There were about forty veterans in attendance at that inaugural meeting. Most of them had fought in either Iraq or Afghanistan; some of them in both wars, and they were very receptive to my talk about the battle.” “I’m going to continue my mission of speaking to as many groups about the Battle of the Bulge as I can. I owe that to the men in our chapter,” he said.
Barry Veden is the son of Edward Veden, a staff sergeant with the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division. Edward was on the Siegfried Line on the morning of December 16, 1944, and faced the initial assault by the German Wehrmacht that day. During the ensuing 41-day battle, he was seriously wounded and spent the rest of the war in a hospital in England recovering from his wounds.
Submitted by Doris Davis, Associate