Forever Young was founded all because of a TV news story…

In May 2006, Diane Hight saw a story in the national news of an elderly woman riding in a racecar. Having that experience had always been this lady’s dream. Her wish was fulfilled by a senior wish organization in Indiana, Never Too Late. “Instantly, I knew this was what I wanted to do. I’ve had a passion for senior citizens my entire life”, said Hight.

With the guidance of Bob Haverstick, President of Never Too Late, Forever Young Senior Wish came to life in Memphis. The name, Forever Young, speaks for itself; no matter the age, a person always feels young at heart.

Forever Young works to change the image of aging and redefine it with self-confidence, respect, and a hopeful life for seniors. “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future”, reads Jeremiah 29:11.  This verse has become the foundation for the mission.

In October 2009, Forever Young found a huge need in the senior adult community. Many World War II veterans had not seen that National WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. That’s when the mission of the organization changed to honoring senior veterans. Hundreds of WWII and Korea Veterans have now been honored through trips to D.C., Normandy, and Pearl Harbor.

An organization that was birthed out of a news story, is now making news all its own.

Forever Young is a registered 501(c)(3) Public Charitable Organization

Visit their web site

The exhibit will be open 2 to 7 p.m. weekends, Dec. 13,14,20,21, 27 and 28, and 4 to 7 p jn. weekdays Dec. 12,17,18,19,29 and 30.

The exhibit features dozens of photographs of the intense battle during which the outcome of the war was in the balance. The array of images captures the essence of the period, from soldiers’ day-to-day routines to their experiences on the front lines, and includes images of the allies, aggressors and civilians as well.

The conflict began in the Ar­dennes forest in Belgium at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 1944, when top Nazi divisions attacked and pushed back a thinly held American line, thus forming a bulge in the front line, which gave this massive en­counter its name. The allies scram­bled, rallied and pushed back the Germans and by the end of January the battle was over and the Nazi armies destroyed.

The exhibit will run concurrently with the month-long Lasdon Holi­day on the Hill event

Lasdon Park, Arboretum and Veterans Memorial is a Westches­ter County Park that is located on Route 35 in Somers.
For more in­formation call 914-864-7268.

I am Buck Marsh, past member of Company “A” 36^th Armored Infantry Regt., 3^rd Armored Division, having joined the Company on 29^th December in Belgium, two weeks after the Bulge began.  I was assigned to squad “32” which was the second rifle squad of the third platoon.  I was very fortunate, making it all the way to Dessau in late April, receiving only a small piece of panzerfaust shrapnel in my knee without lost time on the line.

Recently, I have been contacted by Bill Sarver Jr., whose father, Lt. Bill Sarver Sr., was killed April 5-6, 1945 while acting as a forward artillery observer with our company.  He was a member of the 67^th Armored Artillery Battalion, having relieved Lt. Hart who had been wounded but was to rejoin our company upon the death of Lt. Sarver.  Being the first scout I had worked with both FOs, more especially Lt. Sarver in the terrible battle of Paderborn where our company “A” suffered nineteen casualties, five of whom were KIA.

Lt. Sarver was killed by small arms fire during a night attack by Co A on a German roadblock just east of Paderborn.  In reading the April 6th morning report there is mention of an enlisted man, Cardeana, whom I am guessing was Lt. Sarver’s radio man.  I am attempting to locate Cardeana, if in fact he is still living, to get a better report on Lt. Sarver’s death, which his family is earnestly seeking. I am hoping that by publishing this inquiry in the next THE BULGE BUGLE someone may step forth that has knowledge of Cardeana or can shed more light on Lt. Sarver’s activities upon his joining the 67^th.  His family would certainly appreciate any information we might be able to relate to them about their father and grandfather, Lt. Bill Sarver.

Thanks for your assistance.

Buck Marsh
bmarsh@whiteconst.com

Dedication program

submitted by John McAuliffe, 87th Infantry Division

Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame

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104th Vets together again

I was contacted last week by a guy I went through the war with and haven’t seen in the 61 years since. His son, who works in Washington, found my name in the course of some of his research and recognized the104th Inf. as being his Dad’s outfit. He checked with his father, who said he knew me, and mailed him the info. It included the fact I was President of the VBOB Chapter in Eustis, FL. so he addressed a letter to that location.

I haven’t missed a VBOB meeting in five years, until our Aug meeting, due to having two teeth extracted the day before. Our treasurer phoned me after the meeting and told me I had a letter there (at the VFW Post) from a “Ralph Rogers.” My old army buddy is the only one I know with that name. I told him to read it to me. It began: “You have got to be the Harry Kirby I served with.” I immediately phoned Ralph and we wasted no time arranging a meeting.

I phoned another of our guys who lives in the area, Al Teller, and invited him to a reunion lunch today at my house in Ocala,FL. We all played in the 104th Infantry Regimental Band, 26th Infantry (“Yankee”) Division. I know the TOO doesn’t provide for a Regimental Band . . . but we had one (CP Security in combat)! Al Teller was the band director, I played a trumpet and Rogers was our bass drummer.

Needless to say it was a great time, and I think our wives enjoyed it as much as we did. So over chicken crepes and wine, we shared photos and rehashed old times for about three hours. There will be more get togethers now that we have made contact.

Harry Kirby

Source: The “Yankee” Division in World War II

I was contacted last week by a guy I went through the war with and haven’t seen in the 61 years since. His son, who works in Washington, found my name in the course of some of his research and recognized the104th Inf. as being his Dad’s outfit. He checked with his father, who said he knew me, and mailed him the info. It included the fact I was President of the VBOB Chapter in Eustis, FL. so he addressed a letter to that location.

I haven’t missed a VBOB meeting in five years, until our Aug meeting, due to having two teeth extracted the day before. Our treasurer phoned me after the meeting and told me I had a letter there (at the VFW Post) from a “Ralph Rogers.” My old army buddy is the only one I know with that name. I told him to read it to me. It began: “You have got to be the Harry Kirby I served with.” I immediately phoned Ralph and we wasted no time arranging a meeting.

I phoned another of our guys who lives in the area, Al Teller, and invited him to a reunion lunch today at my house in Ocala,FL. We all played in the 104th Infantry Regimental Band, 26th Infantry (“Yankee”) Division. I know the TOO doesn’t provide for a Regimental Band . . . but we had one (CP Security in combat)! Al Teller was the band director, I played a trumpet and Rogers was our bass drummer.

Needless to say it was a great time, and I think our wives enjoyed it as much as we did. So over chicken crepes and wine, we shared photos and rehashed old times for about three hours. There will be more get togethers now that we have made contact.

submitted by Harry Kirby

Source: The “Yankee” Division in World War II

http://yd-info.net/page8/page8.html

On October 11, 2014 my father, Harvey S. Meltzer, then living at the Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, MD, with his wife Phyllis, and feeling just fine, went to take a nap in the afternoon so he would have energy for dinner out that night.  He never woke up.  He was 88 years old, and died as peacefully as a man could.  His life was less peaceful, and his experience with the 90^th Division, and in the Battle of the Bulge, went to form the core of his life in so many ways.

It started when he turned 18 and went to opt for accelerated induction in the town he grew up in, Worcester, MA.  He was told there wasn’t anyone listed under the name of Harvey Meltzer and when he went home to ask his parents what was going on, he was told by them that his real birth name was Seymour Harvey Meltzer, not Harvey S. Meltzer.  A neighbor had teased him as a child, so his parents decided to switch his 2 names, forgetting to tell him!  Despite that shock, he nevertheless got to register, and kept his Harvey S. Meltzer name for the rest of his life.

Ultimately, he was assigned to the 42nd infantry division until the night he had his memorable Christmas 1944 dinner in Strasbourg.  Until that moment he had never been close to combat.  But back in camp after dinner that night, his outfit was ordered to wake up and told to board trucks, in which they were driven all night, and then told to get off the trucks.  Not much else was told them (sound familiar to you fellow infantrymen?).  As it turned out he was at that moment being transferred to the 90th Division in Patton’s 3rd Army and headed north into the Battle of the Bulge.  He was part of the 359th Regiment, Company F.

His first experience of combat that he remembers was that his new outfit was ordered into the woods in Luxemburg to relieve the 26^th Yankee Division (he believed), who had to that date been unable to dislodge the Germans from a key point in that sector.  His first taste of combat was a night attack into those woods.  He remembered little of that night, other than the tracers and noise and neberlwerfer shells and death and shooting- all as an 18 year old.

He survived, made it through the Battle of the Bulge, was awarded a purple heart after being hospitalized twice for frostbite of both  his feet, and survived the rest of the war, helping liberate the concentration camp Flossenburg, in Czechoslovakia, in the process.

For many years after the war, he awoke every night with screams and cries and nightmares, but refused to talk about it.  He also refused to visit or return to Europe until middle age, because he could not face his nightmares there.

But, his wartime experience gave him the opportunity to go to college under the GI bill (his family was not well off), and with his accounting degree he ultimately had a very successful career as head of royalties at Columbia Records, part of CBS.  He was married many years to my mother, Pauline, and then many further years to my stepmother Elena, and after she passed away, he again found happiness in his 80s and married his surviving wife, Phyllis.  But during the prime of his life though, he carried all his experiences and memories inside himself, sharing them with very few people.

Then VBOB came along and he went to one of the VBOB reunions in Europe- I believe the 40^th, and it transformed him.  All of a sudden, he became aware that he was not alone anymore- he met so many other veterans who “understood” and who shared his pride and his pain.  And he fell in love with Europe and vacationed there often, after.

He attended the 50^th VBOB anniversary too, and I had the honor of taking my father to the 60^th Anniversary, where we had one of the best weeks of our lives together.  I got to meet so many wonderful veterans, and I got to see the battlegrounds and meet the people of Belgium and Luxemburg, who treated all the veterans as if they were liberators that very week- it was wonderful.

I also got to discover, first hand, where my dad’s first night of combat occurred- it is now a national park in Luxemburg- Shumann’s Eke.  My dad’s outfit, and others, DID push the Germans out, and that was the start of their withdrawal out of Berle, Luxemburg.  He was honored there during our trip, as were others, at the monument located outside the famous woods and by the people of Berle, who carried the torch of memory and thankfulness into our present..

My dad has, ever since VBOB, gotten involved again with his 90^th Division Association reunions too, and his group therapy sessions at the NYC VA (PTSD).   Indeed, his rolodex, upon his death, had more veterans names in it, then anyone else.  My Dad is survived by his wife Phyllis, me and my wife (his daughter-in-law) Wen Xian, his grandsons Zachary and Benjamin, his daughter Sandra and son-in-law Jeff, and his granddaughter Elizabeth, and many friends and family who loved him.  I am attaching 2 pictures of my dad- as a young soldier, and as a very proud older veteran.

I am his son Curt Meltzer, and I wanted to write this Remembrance to Honor my father, and his service during WWII. Thank you all for showing my dad he was not alone- thank you all for your friendship and caring and understanding, and for the Honor to yourselves and our Country that you all have brought with your service.  God bless you.

Curt Meltzer

Edward “Babe” Heffron and William “Wild Bill” Guarnere — two World War II heroes from South Philly immortalized in the book and miniseries Band of Brothers — will be honored with bronze statues somewhere in the city.

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