Paisley
I'll Lock Up
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- Indianapolis
From the Rocky Mountain News, February 23, 2007:
LONGMONT - The long road that led Thursday to Sgt. Ernest LeRoy Peterson finally getting his World War II medals took a decisive turn at the counter of a local grocery store.
There at the Food Emporium, the 86- year-old Minnesota native struck up a friendship with fellow veteran Jean Murrell, who works at the store.
Peterson was not one to talk much about his WWII service, but Murrell was gradually able to coax out some of the details:
How he took part in the D-Day invasion (his unit, the 531st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 30th Division, landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day plus nine).
How he saw action in the Battle of the Bulge (his unit downed eight Luftwaffe planes in about 10 minutes on Jan. 1, 1945).
The haunting experience of being among the U.S. soldiers who helped liberate the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. (He remembers seeing piles of bones and a room full of eyeglasses.)
Read the rest here.
LONGMONT - The long road that led Thursday to Sgt. Ernest LeRoy Peterson finally getting his World War II medals took a decisive turn at the counter of a local grocery store.
There at the Food Emporium, the 86- year-old Minnesota native struck up a friendship with fellow veteran Jean Murrell, who works at the store.
Peterson was not one to talk much about his WWII service, but Murrell was gradually able to coax out some of the details:
How he took part in the D-Day invasion (his unit, the 531st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 30th Division, landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day plus nine).
How he saw action in the Battle of the Bulge (his unit downed eight Luftwaffe planes in about 10 minutes on Jan. 1, 1945).
The haunting experience of being among the U.S. soldiers who helped liberate the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. (He remembers seeing piles of bones and a room full of eyeglasses.)
Read the rest here.
