Today's MOZEN: Remembering the Sacrifice

Sgt. Joseph LoBuono, circa 1943

My father rarely spoke of his combat experiences in WWII. He always remembered his service fondly, but rarely of the action he saw. And, being with the combat engineers in Patton's 3rd Army, I'm pretty sure that he saw plenty of it. Perhaps, it was PTSD. But, he passed long before that was a common term. I'll never know why for sure.

One of the things he did share with me was brief, but poignant. Around this time every year, Christmas, he would speak of the cold - how cold it was sleeping in the foxholes during the 3rd Army's glorious march to relieve the Battling Bastards of Bastogne, the 101st Airborne, during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. The 101st was fighting hard at that key rail head and hanging on by their finger nails. Patton knew that if Bastogne was lost perhaps, the battle would be, too. So, he drove his men mercilessly the 100 miles they needed to cover from their current position to reach the village.

And, against horrendous weather and fierce enemy resistance, they made it! My father always remembered the joy of marching into Bastogne on the day of Christmas, 1944. They had saved the 101st, the battle, and, just maybe, the war.

Oddly, one of the things I remember most about my old man was how much he loved the hot weather and HATED the cold. Perhaps, these things are connected.

So, on this Christmas, 2017, warm and well fed, I think of my father and the countless others who spent it near freezing and hungry in the effort to keep us free. And, I pray (in my own way) that no one should ever have to go through that again.

PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO ALL PEOPLE.