time I returned 10-15 minutes later they had brought several wounded into the house. I crawled down the street to get Rose who was still laying where he had fallen out of the half-track 2 or 3 hours earlier. He was about 90 to 100 feet from the house. He wrapped his arms around my neck and I carried him to safety. He survived and wrote me after the war thanking me for going after him. There were still 3 foxholes full of Germans near the house and we couldn't get at them. By then the tanks came back and started blasting them with big ammunition causing the remaining Germans (about 80-150) to surrender. We were an hour or so behind the tanks in the original convoy. After the tanks went by the Germans had turned the sign around so we took the wrong road and headed right into their ambush. The tanks were radioed right away when the ambush started but it took them 2 or 3 hours to come back and find us.

We regrouped and took what trucks were left and the 2 half-tracks and took off. Our radiator had been shot and was leaking. Corporal Osik put me on on the fender to pour water into the radiator from a 5-gallon can. I was so mad at him. He wasn't hurt at all and I had been nicked two or three times. I was cold, sore and bloody. When we arrived at our destination a short time later they worked on the radiator and machine guns and put me in a field hospital (a tent with 2 rows of beds). They cleaned up my hands and bandaged my ear and sent me back to my squad the next day. I was promoted to Corporal and made gunner to replace Lubimskas.

Twenty five soldiers entered the ambush, 13 left to fight again.

By Carolyn Pierce, Editor
American Postal Workers Union website

As you drive to work each morning and you see the same woman waiting at the bus stop, do you wonder what's her story? Does she choose to ride the bus or use it as a necessity? The angry kid who sacks your groceries, is he mad at his parents about a trivial thing or is he mad at the world because he has no parents? Ah... everyone has a story.

Recently, my husband Mickey asked me to attend a picnic given by his friend Sherri Johnson. You guys know how it is when your partner invites you to a gathering where you don't know anyone and you're not sure if you even want to go. Since my husband has been to so many "postal" activities where he knows no one, I was feeling guilty. I happily went to his function.

After arriving at the picnic and introductions were finished, I started searching for someone to talk with. At a table close by, I saw a guy with an old Nalcrest baseball cap on. Nalcrest is a retirement complex about 12 miles east of Lake Wales in Central Florida. Most of the residents are retired union members of the National Association of Letter Carriers. The gentleman under the baseball cap was Herbert Johnson, father of my husband's friend who is hosting the picnic. Herbert told me he was born in 1913 in Gardner, Mass. I admit he had the clear eyes of a knowledgeable man who could tell a story despite his 88 years.

And so his story goes... I loved being a carrier. I was walking down the street in Hyattville, Maryland when I saw a sign on the door that read, "Postal Carrier Exam Given Inside, Walk-Ins Accepted." I started the next week as a substitute letter carrier. I walked the worst route in town which was 9 miles long. I measured the route once and it was the length of two trips up and down the Washington Monument! The last five years of my Postal career were on a city route full of apartment houses. I gained sixteen pounds eating at the local donut shop but I really missed interacting with the customers on the walking routes as well as the exercise.

I asked Mr. Johnson if he was a veteran. He sat straight and said with a clear, strong voice, "I was a member of the Army's 574th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion. I was a radio operator in World War II and my battalion was credited with seven planes being downed in Germany. We were attached to Patton's Army. Later, I was assigned to a security patrol which worked three police stations outside of Dachau, a Nazi concentration camp. The camp had been closed down and the German guards had gone underground. All of us had been shown pictures from the death camps so we knew what had happened. One night a young polish man who had been displaced by the Germans came to me and said he recognized one of the guards from the camp. The man led me to him and I was able to capture him. I gave the Polish man a bottle of whiskey and a carton of cigarettes for helping us. It was all I had. A few months later the young man came to me again and said that he had seen another German guard. My partner and I were able to pin the guard to a barn with our jeep until we could arrest him. Again, I gave the man whiskey and cigarettes as a reward. It wasn't what I gave him but that I thanked him for his help. If the informant is still alive, I'm sure he is as proud as I am for helping to place these German guards behind bars."

I asked Herbert what made a good soldier. He told me that you must give yourself up for dead. You must realize that everyone is as scared as you are and you must not care if you're going to make it back home. Losing your nerve is a victory for the enemy. "I wa so proud to serve my country."

Yeah, everyone has a story and I am proud Mr. Johnson told his to me! Ask someone about themselves today. You may be surprised at their great story.

…..On the 1st of May, 2 sections of the 1st Platoon of Battery D, 574th Antiaircraft Artillery, Automatic Weapons Battalion, Self Propelled, commanded by First Lieutenant Jansen H. Van Etten, while employed in providing anti-aircraft protection to a battalion of field artillery, engaged a superior force of Germans for three hours until ordered to evacuate their positions by higher headquarters.
…..Upon moving into the city of Reischnach, Germany, which the artillery had selected for it's command post, the section received orders to proceed a short distance outside of town and to set up an antiaircraft defense of the town using their three halftracks. During the process of moving into and organizing their positions, one of the members of the section observed five Germans behind an embankment and immediately took cover while opening fire on them, with his rifle.
…..The enemy opened fire with small arms and machine gun fire from several positions in the surrounding wooded area and from the volume of fire it was estimated that the enemy force consisted of some 75 to 100 men. The nineteen men under Lieutenent Van Etten's command immediately

manned their weapons and poured a steady stream of fire into the enemy positions.
HALF-TRACKS MANNED
…..The platoon commander and three of his men manned one of the half tracks while the other personnel kept pumping lead from their respective vehicles and a nearby house which was used to good advantage until it was rendered untenable by heavy enemy machine gun fire.
…..Two Sherman tanks appeared on the scene after approximately one hour of action and came to the assistance of the anti-aircraft men who, by this time had lost and evacuated two men who suffered leg wounds.
…..After some three hours of action the order was received to evacuate the positions and move back into town. This was accomplished without further casualties or damage to equipment.
…..An ultimatum was given to the Germans which gave them their choice of surrender or being shelled.
…..The following morning at 0800, five SS officers and 230 enlisted men came out of the woods and surrendered. There were 12 dead Germans laying in the woods.