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May. 31st, 2010 07:27 pmMONDAY-MEMORIAL DAY
In thinking about our veterans my Dad naturally came to mind and one of my favorite of his war stories.
World War II was done but soldiers were being sent home in order of service and my Dad was one of the younger ones who fought late in the war. He'd been with Patton coming up through Italy and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Anyway, with the treaties signed and all, he and his buddy were on frequent guard duty and was getting bored with it.
One day they saw a notice on the bulletin board for someone to run a 24-hour mess for the truck drivers. Dad and his buddy went to see if they could talk their way into doing this. When asked, could they cook? Did they have any restaurant experience, their answer had to be no, but they had ideas. They thought they could find cooks in the displaced persons camp to oversee in the operation of the mess and this was the plan that was adopted. Business was good so it wasn't long before they'd sought out waitresses from the displaced persons' camp too.
They were set up in a sort of duplex near the road with the kitchen on one side and the dining room on the other. They set up two big urns at the door in the dining room for the drivers. One was coffee and the other was 'something else' which would probably be frowned upon under tighter conditions. They were furnished with the canned goods common to the Army mess and their cooks made good use of it but meat was limited. Our heroes would periodically sign out a half track to go hunting deer in the German woods... using the half tracks' gun folks!
I hardly do justice to the story my Dad told so well but it's a nice memory I have of the old veteran.
In thinking about our veterans my Dad naturally came to mind and one of my favorite of his war stories.
World War II was done but soldiers were being sent home in order of service and my Dad was one of the younger ones who fought late in the war. He'd been with Patton coming up through Italy and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Anyway, with the treaties signed and all, he and his buddy were on frequent guard duty and was getting bored with it.
One day they saw a notice on the bulletin board for someone to run a 24-hour mess for the truck drivers. Dad and his buddy went to see if they could talk their way into doing this. When asked, could they cook? Did they have any restaurant experience, their answer had to be no, but they had ideas. They thought they could find cooks in the displaced persons camp to oversee in the operation of the mess and this was the plan that was adopted. Business was good so it wasn't long before they'd sought out waitresses from the displaced persons' camp too.
They were set up in a sort of duplex near the road with the kitchen on one side and the dining room on the other. They set up two big urns at the door in the dining room for the drivers. One was coffee and the other was 'something else' which would probably be frowned upon under tighter conditions. They were furnished with the canned goods common to the Army mess and their cooks made good use of it but meat was limited. Our heroes would periodically sign out a half track to go hunting deer in the German woods... using the half tracks' gun folks!
I hardly do justice to the story my Dad told so well but it's a nice memory I have of the old veteran.
