The Southsider Voice
Visit us at these places!
  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Sports
    • Car Nutz
    • Stilley Goes Trackside
    • Southside Deaths
    • Personal Recollections
    • Reminiscing
  • About the Voice
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • Newspaper Archive
  • Classifieds

For U.S. troops, home for the holidays is often just a wish

12/6/2018

0 Comments

 
The holiday season means family time for most Americans, but that’s not the case for military personnel who can’t return home to eat turkey dinners, open presents or participate in other traditions. It’s a situation veterans who served in decades past can identify with, as they too found themselves far from home between Thanks-giving and New Year’s Day, often under harrowing conditions. For 95-year-old Art Schmitz, for example, Christmas Eve 1944 was “just another day under re” because the Battle of the Bulge was
well underway.

“Several other soldiers and I were holed up in a house in Bastogne, Belgium, singing Christmas carols when we heard the drone of approaching planes. Grabbing our rifles a little tighter, for all the good that would do, we held our breath and waited,” said Schmitz, author of the memoir “A Tourist in Uniform: World War II Memories.”

The first plane dropped areas, lighting up the night skies. The soldiers scrambled to the cellar stairs, falling down the steps as bombs exploded and parts of the house collapsed above them. “On Christmas morning we discovered that the house had taken a direct hit from a 500-pound bomb that landed on the toilet, splitting it in two,” Schmitz said. “The bomb just about demolished the house, but it didn’t explode."

After surviving that Christmas Eve, Schmitz recalls making it to the mess hall for a much-needed Christmas Day meal and then being handed a copy of Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe’s holiday message to his troops. The conclusion read: “We are giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present and being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas.”

Today, there are about 1.3 million active military personnel, and about 200,000 of those are deployed overseas. Each holiday season a number of organizations provide support to the troops and their families and also accept donations from Americans who want to help. A few of those include:* The USO, which delivers holiday care packages during various holidays throughout the year.* Operation Gratitude sends care packages to troops overseas, veterans, military families and others. Each package contains snacks, hygiene products, handmade items and letters of support.

Editor’s note: Schmitz is a retired teacher who earned a master’s degree
 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in exceptional education for the
mentally challenged student. He is an avid stamp collector and fisherman who has fished in 191 bodies of water on three countries.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    Arts & Entertainment
    Lead Story
    Sports: 500
    Sports: Basketball
    Sports: Track

    RSS Feed

 DROP OFF: The Toy Drop 6025 Madison Ave., Suite D
Indianapolis, IN  46227  |  317-781-0023
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 17187, Indianapolis, IN 46217

ads@southsidervoice.com | news@southsidervoice.com
Website by IndyTeleData, Inc.