Conundrum Richard Durst, 5th Infantry Division, Army
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Richard Durst, who died in January at age 85, remembers the time when he reacted to an ambush by the Germans near Hoscheid in Luxembourg. When this had happened, a sergeant named Jones was killed by a burst of automatic pistol fire.
"We rushed forward, spraying the area with rifle fire, cursing our would-be killer and casting sidelong glances at our dead comrade. My reaction to the situation was a bit slow. I permitted the men to take the three Germans
prisoner, rather than killing them on the spot. Now I had the onerous task of deciding what to do with them. On the one hand, I wanted desperately to avenge the death of the young former college student who had just saved my life. On the other hand, I realized that I would be committing murder, just like the Germans at Malmedy and scores of other places there in the Ardennes, if I had them shot after having taken them prisoner. Fortunately for them, I couldn't bring myself to kill them. I did, however, order the German who actually shot Jones to carry his bloody body all the way back to the battalion aid station in Lipperscheid. Having to do so might well make him wish he'd never seen an automatic pistol."
"We rushed forward, spraying the area with rifle fire, cursing our would-be killer and casting sidelong glances at our dead comrade. My reaction to the situation was a bit slow. I permitted the men to take the three Germans
prisoner, rather than killing them on the spot. Now I had the onerous task of deciding what to do with them. On the one hand, I wanted desperately to avenge the death of the young former college student who had just saved my life. On the other hand, I realized that I would be committing murder, just like the Germans at Malmedy and scores of other places there in the Ardennes, if I had them shot after having taken them prisoner. Fortunately for them, I couldn't bring myself to kill them. I did, however, order the German who actually shot Jones to carry his bloody body all the way back to the battalion aid station in Lipperscheid. Having to do so might well make him wish he'd never seen an automatic pistol."
'A lousy racket' Arthur Van Haren Jr., Pilot, Navy
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Arthur Van Haren Jr1(1920-92), was a pilot who grew up in a Mexican-American , shot down nine enemy planes during combat in the Pacific Theater. He then practiced law in Phoenix as he now talks about the danger and the violence he had faced in a diary.
"I took off today and almost immediately my plane started throwing oil and then started smoking to high heaven. I had a 500 lb. bomb and that worried me no end 'cause I couldn't get rid of it. The ship told me to land anyway, so I did and my old luck held right out. Just as I hit the deck, the engine burst into flames, but I wasted no time getting out of the darn thing. The boys ganged two more this morning and I wasn't on that hop. I got over the target later in the afternoon and the A.A. (anti-aircraft fire) is still pretty rough. They hit Dennis Floyd head-on. He came down in flames. He was a real fellow. They always seem to get it. It doesn't seem quite fair. He
had a baby he never even got to see. What a lousy racket this is!"
"I took off today and almost immediately my plane started throwing oil and then started smoking to high heaven. I had a 500 lb. bomb and that worried me no end 'cause I couldn't get rid of it. The ship told me to land anyway, so I did and my old luck held right out. Just as I hit the deck, the engine burst into flames, but I wasted no time getting out of the darn thing. The boys ganged two more this morning and I wasn't on that hop. I got over the target later in the afternoon and the A.A. (anti-aircraft fire) is still pretty rough. They hit Dennis Floyd head-on. He came down in flames. He was a real fellow. They always seem to get it. It doesn't seem quite fair. He
had a baby he never even got to see. What a lousy racket this is!"