Here is a letter from one of my Veteran friends, Allen Cramer…
Thank you so much, Tricia, for including me in your Veterans’ Day greeting. It was very touching. As these special days unfold each year they never cease to amaze me that so much time as gone by since I was a soldier in Europe in World War II.
The war was over in 1945, I was still alive, and I would soon be going home. I was all of twenty years old with two and one-half years of Army service. Now sixty-one years have passed, Natalie and I will soon be celebrating our sixtieth wedding anniversary and our two sons are both well into their fifties.
But no regrets, we continue to enjoy a somewhat quieter lifestyle but still very rewarding. I would like to attach a picture of Natalie and me taken in our living room just before we left for a large family dinner to celebrate Natalie’s 80th birthday last month on Oct. 14. Stay well, and don’t forget to let me know when your website with WWII stories of the veterans is up and running.
Allen
P.S. I loved seeing your picture that accompanied the Veterans’ Day greeting. It is great and we will save it in our permanent files.
Allen began his WWII service in the Army in June of 1943. He was in the 11th Armored Division that took part in liberating Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps in Austria in the spring of 1945.
To learn more about some of my other veteran friends go here and to learn more
about the concentration camps go to the From Dust and Ashes website, http://www.goyerink.com/triciagoyer/www/dustandashes/news.html. Also, watch for more of Allen Cramer’s story on Unforgettable Stories from World War II.
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