Richard Shank
Columnist

This week, America pauses to thank veterans who served in the Armed Forces in all of America’s wars, living or deceased, in wartime or peacetime.
The annual event is called Veterans Day.
The history of this annual observance is a story worth repeating. An armistice agreement ending World War I, known as the Treaty of Versailles, was signed November 11, 1918. News reports of the event pointed out a coincidence that the armistice was ratified during the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
Early in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation naming November 11 as Armistice Day. Nineteen years later, Congress working with President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the day a national holiday, which continues today.
During the next 35 years, America fought two more wars: World War II and the Korean War.
In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the nation to victory in World War II as the Supreme Allied Commander, spearheaded efforts to honor the nation’s veterans of all wars. Ike, as he was affectionately called, signed legislation changing the name to Veterans Day, a designation which remains to this day.
In 1968, legislation was passed changing Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October, an event that I still find hard to understand. Then, in 1975 President Gerald Ford signed legislation reverting the date back to November 11 as prescribed in 1919.
The casualty figures from America’s wars are staggering. Between the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775, and today, nearly 1.2 million Americans paid the supreme sacrifice defending the nation throughout the world. During the Civil War, between 1861 and 1865, when Americans fought Americans, 651,0501 are recorded as battlefield deaths, and an additional 539,054 died as the due to injuries and illness.
The Civil War happened at a time when America’s population was slightly more than 31 million.
September 17, 1862, reputed to be the deadliest day of American warfare, 17,862 were killed in the Battle of Antietam. During the three days of the Battle of Gettysburg, nearly 50,000 Americans perished on both sides.
Growing up in rural Saline County, I have fond memories of visiting with veterans who told of their service. All were very proud of their service in the military as one would expect. Many made friendships with other soldiers, which would remain for a lifetime.
Our closest neighbor on the farm was Walt Harris who told of seeing Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the atomic bomb blast in August 1945. He told of seeing utter destruction from as far as the eye could see in all directions. From what Walt indicated, it was a permanent memory which had no end.
Another neighbor, Bill Gans, served in Alaska during the early days of World War II, in a battle that for unknown reasons, is not often mentioned. From what I have read, the Japanese, after attacking Pearl Harbor in Hawaii December 7, 1941, thought they could keep our attention off the European theatre, by attacking Alaska, then an American territory. If all went as planned, the Japanese could put a quick end to the war.
In 1942, the Japanese came ashore on Alaska’s Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska, but were repelled by American infantrymen, including Bill Gans. Following 21 days of combat, they fled on a foggy night not to be seen again. Some said America had won its first World War II battle on American soil.
Andy Kenison, another neighbor, told of his service as a part of occupational forces in Japan following the end of the war, and told of his involvement working on a crew building a new school for the Japanese.
As a child, I remember Henry Little proudly displayed a World War I veteran tag on the front bumper of his old Ford pickup.
Vern Miller, the state’s legendary Attorney General, told of serving in the Army in the late 1940s guarding the 38th parallel between North and South Korea in what was the days leading up to the Korean War. He said the winter days and nights were cold which went along with a bleak landscape associated with the terrain in that part of the world.
So, during this week, let us thank those who served to maintain our democratic form of government that next year observes a 250th anniversary.
Let us hope our greatest days are ahead.

Bob Ford
Guest Columnist

We at the Kansas Press Association honor those brave men and women who served our country with this Veterans Day special story, thank you for your service!
June 6th, 1944, two minutes past midnight, a C-47 carrying 20 men entered enemy air space over France. It’s the beginning of D-Day. These men are part of the 101st Airborne Division but their mission is different from the large attacking force that will follow, they are Pathfinders.
In modern day warfare Pathfinders lead invasions, identifying, securing and marking Landing Zones ( LZ’s) and Drop Zones (DZ’s), for the attacking paratroops. “First used in World War II, the Pathfinders, like many of the invading paratroopers on D-Day, were scattered all over Normandy,” so states Kevin Drewelow, Director of the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field in Topeka.
Operation Overlord, was the largest amphibious assault in the history of warfare. More than 5,000 allied ships and 13,000 aircraft participated in the historic landing. Full moon, high tide and the deception on where exactly the invasion would take place worked, but there was one variable the allied commanders could not control that caused havoc,…the weather.
Pathfinder’s mission is to set up radio and visual equipment guiding the following paratroopers safely to the ground; it doesn’t always work as planned. Utilizing high frequency radio waves along with red and green holophane lamps, the teams would try to establish a safe and secure LZ. If the area was compromised by the enemy a red light signaled the LZ closed. In the daylight the squad would signal using red and green smoke grenades.
Germans were everywhere in Normandy and the invading troops landed miles off target mostly due to the wind and dense cloud cover. That’s OK according to Lieutenant Dick Winters of Easy Company, “we are paratroopers, we’re supposed to be surrounded.”
Glenn Braddock from Cherryville, Kansas jumped into France early that morning. Of the 150 Pathfinders who went in on June 6, only 58 came out. Braddock survived, his story along with the history of the Pathfinders can be found at the Combat Air Museum.
Operation Overlord was a costly success that saw over 10,000 allied casualties but the troops gained a crucial foothold in Nazi occupied Europe.
The going was tough for the allies fighting off the beach onto hedgerow after hedgerow, months went by with heavy casualties without significant gains. The allies looked for another way to flank the enemy and enter Germany
Operation Market Garden was an airborne invasion plan to drop troops into Holland, designed to end the war by entering Germany from the north. The Pathfinders would be called on again to lead the way.
The Operation was designed to capture a series of bridges, some over the Rhine, then advance a huge force utilizing those bridges into Germany. The strategy was British General Bernard Montgomery, “Monty’s,” brain child to redeem British pride after the Dunkirk debacle.
First to go in was Glenn Babbcock and his Pathfinder team to guide the invading paratroopers. Similar problems that altered D-Day affected Market Garden. Weather, in war it seems it’s always about the weather, when you are planning an invasion with 10’s of thousand men and women, you can’t keep soldiers on stand-by for days waiting for blue skies, if at all possible you gotta GO!
Along with rainy, overcast skies and muddy roads the Nazis had moved a couple Panzer divisions, undiscovered by the allies, into Holland. The most strategic bridge was the Arnhem Bridge over the Rhine, after heavy fighting it was never captured, think, “A Bridge Too Far.” The allies would have to find another way into Germany.
Towards the end of 1944, several allied commanders thought Germany was close to surrendering. The Russians were carving through Poland headed towards Berlin itself while the allies on the western front continued to maneuver eastward.
Hitler however had one last “hail Mary,” assault in him. Maybe the Germans could hold their own on the battlefield one more time,… everyone was tired of fighting. If the Nazi’s could create a stalemate on the front lines, I believe, they wanted to negotiate for peace rather than having to accept a surrender unconditionally.
The Battle of the Bulge would turn out to be America’s costliest battle of the war.
The 101st Airborne was in trouble. Hitler attacked the thin American line through the dense Ardennes forest surprising the allies and ultimately surrounding the “Screaming Eagles,’ in Bastogne Belgium. On December 16, 1944, the Germans threw everything they had left in the West into the attack, think of “Band of Brothers.”
Two Panzer Armies and their 7th Army consisting of 557 tanks and 405,000 men struck. The stunned allies countered with 483 inferior tanks, and 228,000 soldiers who had hoped the war would have been over by Christmas.
As the Germans advanced the American troops held out in Bastogne during horrific weather, making receiving additional units and equipment to the surrounded troops impossible. Time went by as the freezing 101st Airborne held on, without proper winter gear, minimal ammunition and exhausted medicine supplies. As said, it was the highest United States casualty count for a battle of the war, 81,000 brave souls, with losing an additional 800 tanks.The exhausted Germans fared worse, 103,000 soldiers killed, wounded or captured and 550 tanks destroyed.
Two days before Christmas in 1944 the weather cleared, again in came Glenn Baddcock and his fellow Pathfinders to guide a mammoth airdrop. The drop zone had to be precise for our troops and not the enemy, to receive the tons of supplies brought in. Hundreds of C-47 transports in what many called the “Christmas miracle,” battled anti-aircraft fire and what was left of the Luftwaffe to deliver life saving munitions and food. Thanks to the Pathfinders the airlift worked and the rest is history. Germany surrendered a few months later.
Pathfinders are unsung heroes in our military annals, as many front line veterans remain humble concerning their experiences, we honor all those who served, survived and sacrificed through tough times, thank you!
You can find more of Bob’s work on his website, bobfordshistory.com and videos on YouTube, TikTok and Clapper. Bob can be reached at [email protected]