[Rhodes22-list] WWII History Buffs

[brad haslett]

There is a great article in todays NY Times Op/Ed page
written by General Pattons grandson on the Battle of
Metz.  Fortress Metz has been involved in about every
war on French soil in the last 400 years but little
has been written about its role in WW2.  One of the
reasons I knew about it was that about a third of the
old photos that my dad never looked at but I spent
hours pouring over as a kid were from Metz.  About ten
years ago I got stuck in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
babysitting a broken airplane and the cab that picked
us up had a 95th Infrantry Division decal on it.  I
asked the cabbie what that was about and he said "oh,
that's the owners old Army unit, he bores us to tears
with stories about it".  Well, that was Dad's old unit
so I got together with the owner and he filled me,
over a few beers, with all the stuff I could never get
out of Dad. My parents 50th wedding anniversary was a
few months later and I told the story of the chance
meeting to my Dad and a handful of his war buddies. 
"That's Kid Shaeffer, all he talked about during the
war was going back to Cedar Rapids and starting a cab
company.  We wondered what happened to him".  Anyway,
small world.  It was interesting to read the account
of Metz in todays paper, a small bit of history that
has fallen through the cracks.

Brad

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