It's been 7 years and I've neglected this thread. My apologies. I just wanted to report that George is still doing very well. As time has gone on, he has been interviewed by many different folks, including the Nat'l WWII Museum, and local historians. He wears his WWII Veteran hat and rarely has to pay for meals when he's out in public. The cold weather in Eastern PA hasn't kept him down. His truck battery died in the cold so he went out to charge it so he could plow the driveway. He's still very active! He even came to WWII Weekend at Reading, PA in June 2017 year and did some dancing! I have a photo of he and I at the dance, attached. I didn't expect him to be there, because we were unable to sync up on the phone prior to the event. During the playing of the Army Song, he came out of the crowd and I ran to him after it was over for a hug. It was great to see him again as it's been a few years, even though we talk on the phone.
I also recently started using Ancestry.com to look into my family tree. While I was there, I found the grand-niece of George and shared with her the link to his interview. She was amazed to hear the details and her family is going to get in touch with George soon to talk with him about family information for their family tree. I also looked up his buddy Dick Werner, who died on Oct 5, 1944 in the Netherlands. I was able to find some other family trees that had Dick in them, but none of the owners have gotten back with me yet. George regrets he never reached out to Dick's parents when George made it home to the states. I hope to find someone who might have old photos, letters or memories of Dick, that I can get talking to George. I would love to have George's wish to talk to Dick's family completed. He also wishes he could have seen Dick's grave marker. I found that pretty easily through Ancestry: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56305115/richard-w-werner/photo
Finally, I picked up the book Bridging Hell's Highway: The 326th Engineer Battalion During Operation Market Garden, July 2011, by John Sliz, ISBN: 978-0-9783838-6-2. I didn't know this existed until it turned up on a search I did recently. Amazon delivered it today and it's very small, but has valuable information in it which I want to share with George. I believe we can now identify the exact area and bridge his unit was responsible for.
Happy New Year!
Pat
