It is hard to believe that 10 years have passed since the World War II Memorial Dedication my now-late mother and I attended with the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge.   I recalled this experience from that wonderful tribute to the Greatest Generation, and I’d like to share it with you:

The letter written nearly 60 years ago from Belgium after the Battle of the Bulge remained yellowed and faded among my father’s Army mementos until his death in 1996. At one time, I had it translated for him, and tucked it away in an album to preserve it.

And there it stayed until I decided to bring a copy of it with me to display in the Memorabilia Room at the 2004 VBOB Convention with its simple, but caring message, addressed to my father and the three other soldiers who stayed at the Closset Family’s farm for one week before returning to the front:

“We often speak about you and the time we spent together. We are well and hope you are too…If you have a couple of days’ leave in Belgium, we’d be happy to welcome you (again).”

After visiting Normandy and Belgium with my mother in 2001, and then meeting the Belgian students and veterans at the VBOB convention in May 2004, it haunted me. Was this wonderful family still alive?

I found the answer through the May 2004 issue of the The Bulge Bugle – when I spotted the blurb about the U.S. Army Descendents Association (USAD). I then sent a copy of the letter and its translation to the group’s headquarters in St. Simeon, Belgium.

Less than a week later, I received an e-mail from Marlyse Larock, secretary of the three-year-old organization she and her husband Jacques founded after he searched for his American father – a U.S. soldier named J.F. Chadwick — and wanted to help others do the same.

It was good news. Marlyse found Marie Therese Closset, who was a teenager when she wrote the letter on behalf of her family (five aunts, an uncle, and a sister). Marie Therese, who was 79 and living with her husband an hour from the USAD headquarters, was delighted to hear from me. She said the family worried about the four soldiers and always wondered what had happened to them. She was glad to hear my father made it home.

With Marlyse as our go-between (aka translator), Marie Therese sent me a photograph of three of the soldiers (my father apparently took the picture) and photographs of the Closset Family’s farm near Liege, Belgium. The truck in which the soldiers arrived was hidden behind the farm under a camouflage cover, she said. Seeing these old photographs brought it all to life for me

In turn, I sent her photographs of my father, a newspaper column I wrote about him and his fellow veterans, and copies of his two entries in the World War II Memorial Registry.

Thank you, The Bulge Bugle, for helping me learn more about my father’s war experiences and honoring his memory.

Best regards,
Nancyann Rella, Associate

Daughter of Tech. Sgt. Vincent A. Rella, U.S.Army, 1^st Army, 7^th Corps, 507^th Engineer Company, Light Pontoon, Combat Engineers