BOBA Out in the Community

BOBA Historian Jim Triesler, Crater Chapter President Mary Ann Coates Smith, and Bulge Bugle editor Leon Reed represented BOBA at the World War II community event in Midlothian, VA on June 8. Jim Triesler organized the program and made several presentations, which focused on individual experiences during the war. Leon Reed and his wife, Lois Lembo, staffed an exhibit table for BOBA and made a presentation on the role of the 80th division in closing the southern end of the Bulge and breaking the siege of Bastogne. Mary Ann Coates Smith staffed a table of WWII artifacts, including material about her father, James Coates, who was killed in the Malmedy Massacre.

Betsy Rose (left) and Mary Ann Coates Smith (right)