A Cutlass Man ....

Message:



One of them was an ETO bombardier shot down on his third mission staying with his plane, bandaging, morphine and pushing out five unconscious crew members before he jumped out

All survived

He spent 18 months as a slave laborer in a quarry in Poland, slowly starving but still risking punishment for throwing his occasional Red Cross parcel over the fence to the Soviet prisoners who were literally dropping dead from hunger right in front of him through the fence

One time he got a box thrown back

It had a Soviet order of glory second class in it, never knew who it belonged to. He was buried with it

When his shoes wore out, he was allowed to cut down a tree and make wooden shoes for himself. He brought in his last pair for me.

They were still stained with his blood

Got liberated by the Soviets on a death march away from the quarry, turned over to the Americans and spent the summer of 45 gaining weight, bumming around Europe and “screwing any German girl who would have me because I had food.”

No one bothered him because of the POW medal he was awarded a few weeks after liberation

got priority on boats home, but kept giving them up to other guys he met because he was having too much fun. That, in turn, made him very popular

Didn’t go home until it started getting cold

had a stateroom to himself on the trip home.

Yours,