Providence College honors ‘Lost Class of 44’ pulled from school to fight war
By G. Wayne Miller
Journal Staff Writer

“As soon as Pearl Harbor happened,” George Fisher, 86, said, “I enlisted in the Army.” It was December 1941. The Army sent him to Providence College for officer training –– and then sent him off to battle before he could earn his degree. On Sunday, that will be rectified when the school awards honorary bachelor’s degrees to him and others in what came to be known as “the Lost Class of ’44.” Fisher, the only member of the class who can make it, tells the story from his home in Palm Beach, Fla.
Military testing after his enrollment, he says, qualified him for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASPT), which entitled a soldier to a college education –– and eventual service in a postwar world in which the Axis had been defeated, or so the young men were promised. “I would come out an officer and help rebuild Europe,” Fisher remembers.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Fisher and nearly 400 other young men were assigned to Unit No. 1188 and sent to PC, in summer 1943. “It was a great life,” Fisher said. “We went to classes all day and studied all night, and we got weekend passes every weekend. It was a wonderful way to spend the war.” Until one day in March 1944, Fisher says.
As the invasion of Normandy loomed, the Army determined it would need its student-soldiers for the conquest of Europe, not what came after. And so college ended for Fisher and friends, without a degree. At 3 a.m. on a day in March 1944, Fisher says, he and his fellow ASTP members were roused from their beds in a PC dorm. “I remember it like yesterday,” Fisher said. Pack your gear, you’re leaving, he was told. “I said, ‘I can’t, I have a test tomorrow.’ He said, ‘You’re going. You can leave your books behind.’ They marched us down to the train station and put us on a windowless train. This was during the war. No one knew where we were going.”
They were going to advanced training, in Tennessee and South Carolina, and then to the 328th Infantry Regiment of the 26th Yankee Division, which landed on Omaha Beach in September 1944, three months after D-Day. “About 30 days later, in October, they trucked us up to the front lines. All of a sudden, I found the Germans were trying to kill me. I realized what combat was all about. We were college kids, don’t forget. This wasn’t our future. We weren’t planning on this.”
As part of Gen. George S. Patton’s legendary Third Army, Fisher and his comrades participated in the Battle of the Bulge, which began in December 1944 and would prove decisive in the defeat of Nazi Germany –– and exceptionally costly, with more than 19,000 American lives lost and more than 47,000 wounded.
Fisher was among the wounded. On Jan. 3, 1945, he said, during an attack on a village in Luxembourg, “a piece of shrapnel tore through my leg and for me, the war was over.” He spent months in hospitals and was discharged in August 1945, when the war finally ended, wearing a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and a Combat Infantry Badge. He was one of the lucky ones: 37 members of the Lost Class of ’44 were killed in action.
Back home, Fisher earned a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, in 1947, and began a career in residential and commercial real estate brokering and management in Manhattan. Retired now with a summer home on Long Island, he and his wife, Annette, recently celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. They have two sons.
In awarding his honorary degree, PC will cite the contributions Fisher and the others in the Lost Class made to their country. “Your steadfast service helped secure the Allied Victory and you returned home to begin the most ambitious and transformational chapter in American history,” the college will proclaim. “You married your sweethearts, started families, built homes and communities, created jobs and fueled the limitless American Dream.
“Today, as the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of this Greatest Generation, we are awed by your accomplishments and inspired by the faith and dignity you personify. Humbled by your profound sense of duty and service, we are deeply grateful for the example you have given us.”
Fisher said he is the only one of the Lost Class who will be present during PC’s Sunday commencement exercises. Some 75 of his friends attended a reunion in 1998, he said, “but 13 years takes a long toll on guys our age.”
He is grateful for health that still permits him to travel. “I think it’s a wonderful thing Providence College is doing,” he said. “It will be a very emotional weekend for me. I’m more or less the last man standing up there.”Sunday’s graduations:

I am doing family history research on my uncle Theodore Ostrowski attempting to follow his history during World War II. My Uncle passed away in 1992, and I have been researching him during the past five years. What I do know about his service from the US Army records is the following. Pvt. Theodore Ostrowski, Troop C, 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Mechanized, 9th Armored Division. He fought in the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns.
To my knowledge, he was a scout during World War II. I know very little about his record from him since he generally did not speak about the war, and my personal, detailed searching to find out about him has mostly been in the last five years or so. I am now looking for persons who may have known him. Please contact me if you have any information about him.
Leo Zafonte
1126 Colina Court
Davis, CA 95618-7113
Telephone 530-747-7113
Email blzafonte@aol.com

The 26th annual World War II Weekend was held again at the Jefferson Barracks Historic Park, from April 15-17. Attendees experienced a wide range of weather, from cold and wet on Saturday, to sunny and warm on Sunday. Due to the weather, crowds were down from last year, but the Gateway Chapter booth got plenty of visitors, located between the battlefield and the parking lot, as we were. We sold a number of copies of Victory Through Valor as well all of our immediate supply of the Everyday Heroes DVDs.
Thanks again to Dave Lavely of the 2nd Rangers Infantry Battalion for plugging the book and our booth to the crowd throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. Kudos also to the Gateway Chapter members who took the time to come out and talk to all the people who came by the booth during the event.

Story and photos submitted by Don Korte, Associate member

left to right
(sitting) Stewart Piper, 26th Infantry Division, 101st Infantry Regiment
(standing) Kent Stephens, 26th Infantry Division, 101st Field Artillery Battalion

left to right
(seated) Marvin Korte, 84th Infantry Division, 334th Infantry Regiment, Company H
(standing) Kent Stephens, 26th Infantry Division, 101st Field Artillery Battalion

I am looking for information about Sergeant Leonard H. Schroll, who served in the 75^th Infantry Division, 290^th Infantry Regiment. Leonard was killed in action on 27 Dec 1944  and some records indicate the site of his death to be in some woods near the Soy-Werpin Road at Hill La Roumiere. If you knew Leonard please contact me.

SSG David C. Hergett, Jr., Illinois Army National Guard, Medic2909@sbcglobal.net

Danny Sijmons, a Belgium citizen has adopted the grave of Arthur H. French, a United State’s soldier who was killed during the Battle of the Bulge. Danny is one of many Belgium citizens who pay homage to their fallen heroes. Every year these goodwill ambassadors visit the site of their adopted grave to show appreciation for their liberation from tyranny.

Morphis A. Jamiel, 7th Armored Division, 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, Company B and a member of the Rhode Island Chapter (24) has been selected for the Officer Candidate School (OCS) Hall of Fame, class of 2011, located at Fort Benning, GA. Induction into the OCS Hall of Fame is the highest honor for an’ OCS graduate. The Hall of Fame recognizes leadership excellence in both military and civilian public service. The Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame honors those graduates of all active Army Officer Candidate Schools who have distinguished themselves in military or civilian pursuits. The Patterson Award dinner at the Benning Conference Center is on April 28, 2011, and the induction ceremony on April 29, 2011.

Three students in the eight grade of the St. Robert Bellarmine School in Bayside, NY composed the following poem in remembrance of all who served during the Battle of the Bulge.

Angela M. Fazio, school principal read the poem during a Veterans’ Ceremony held on December 16, 2010, which was the 66th anniversary of the commencement of the Battle of the Bulge, the largest land battle ever fought by the United States Army.

Belgium’s consul general in Los Angeles hosts an event honoring them for their service. The veterans bring some poignant memories and much self-deprecating humor.
The men filed in slowly, one wearing a vintage green uniform emblazoned with a Purple Heart. Another rolled in on a chair, his head held high with a Veterans of Foreign Wars hat laden with medals. Some had lost frozen fingers, others toes. All had left behind friends 66 years ago in one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of World War II.
These men are the last of a kind, the surviving veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. “Soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge led the free world to victory,” said Geert Criel, Belgium’s consul general in Los Angeles, who hosted 50 members of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge on Saturday, February 5, 2011. “On behalf of my country, I would like to thank every veteran who made a contribution to this historic achievement. For us you are more than soldiers. You are heroes.”
The Battle of the Bulge, Criel said, is emblazoned on memorials, in the names of city streets and in his country’s collective memory. It was a turning point in the war that crushed Hitler’s last-ditch effort to retake Belgium from the advancing U.S. and British armies in the Ardennes region. “We shudder to think: What if Hitler had succeeded,” he said. “It would have prolonged the war and meant misery and death for a lot of people.”
“Many of us made sacrifices,” said Gordon Hearne, president of the Southern California chapter of the veterans group. “Nineteen thousand of us didn’t return.” His voice cracked; his eyes drifted to a distant memory. He paused, held a fist up to his mouth before continuing. “We should remember them.” It was a poignant moment during an otherwise light-hearted event — a place to swap war stories, compare medals and share a common bond of an epic five-week battle involving frigid temperatures and 840,000 GIs. Most exercised the self-deprecating humor of a bygone era.
To hear them tell it, they were all accidental heroes. “I’m surprised they gave me a Purple Heart, given all of the trouble I gave them,” said Dave Lester, 92, of Costa Mesa. “The Germans threw a lot of hand grenades at us; we couldn’t throw them all back.”
Pfc. Pete Howenstein, 86, of Northridge and Sgt. “Bazooka” Joe Pietroforte, 92, of Sherman Oaks wore uniforms flashing with shiny medals and colorful ribbons. Prodded by friends, Howenstein recounted how Gen. George S. Patton pinned him with a Purple Heart after an artillery shell left him with shrapnel in his neck. “Get well and get back to the front,” Howenstein recalled the general saying. Howenstein said the medals and the uniform have brought an unanticipated bonus when he has returned to France for commemorative events. “I put on this uniform and the girls come up to me and hug me and kiss me,” he said.
Only half the members could make it to the lunch, because of troubles getting around. Murray Shapiro, 87, of Chatsworth had helped organize the event and was disappointed he had to skip it because of upcoming knee replacement surgery. “Very few of us are going to make many more meetings,” Shapiro said. “This one was a big deal. It’s the last goodbye, I think.”

by Kenneth Weiss – LA Times – February 6, 2011

The area’s largest indoor military event ever revisits Vietnam and World War II at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory in Plymouth Meeting, PA on Sunday, February 27, 2011. Bill Guarnere who was featured in “Band of Brothers” and is a member of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge was the special guest. Throughout the day Bill talked with many attendees. Military vehicles, exhibits, equipment and wartime memorabilia were on display.