A Day To Honor All Veterans: Especially Those Who Liberated My Home Town During World War II

Next Saturday (11 November 2017) will be Veterans Day in the USA and Remembrance Day in the UK. A day to remember all those alive and deceased who served in the armed forces, many of which made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the freedom of others.

Living in the Western world it sometimes is easy to take our freedom and freedoms for granted and to forget that they not always come free. On Veterans Day in the USA, and May 4 in the Netherlands (Dodenherdenking), I always specifically have to think about the men from the 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, 119th Regiment, of the 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory", who were the first allied troops to enter my hometown of Eygelshoven, the Netherlands on 20 September 1944: John M. Nolan, Edward Knocke, Ernie King, Cletus Herrig, David Hedland, Bill Cline, Frank O'Leary, Vic Kwaitkowsky, and Lt. Gail Kuhn.

Although I never met these guys (I was born about 17 years after the fact), and although this is just a small group of the millions who fought on the Allied side during WWII, they are for me representative of the men (and women!) who took up the burden and fight for other people's freedom. It is worth while to check out the history and some interesting facts about the Old Hickory Division, and it's successor The NC National Guard 30th Armor Brigade Combat Team "Old Hickory".

Let us remember these men and women with the lyrics of a WWII song that many of the soldiers knew, and those still alive will remember; whether they were in the Allied or in the Axis armies, in the European Theater of Operations, or in the Pacific Theater of Operations...

Outside the barracks, by the corner light
I'll always stand and wait for you at night
We will create a world for two
I'll wait for you the whole night through
For you, Lili Marlene
For you, Lili Marlene

Bugler tonight don't play the call to arms
I want another evening with her charms
Then we will say goodbye and part
I'll always keep you in my heart
With me, Lili Marlene
With me, Lili Marlene

Give me a rose to show how much you care
Tie to the stem a lock of golden hair
Surely tomorrow, you'll feel blue
But then will come a love that's new
For you, Lili Marlene
For you, Lili Marlene

When we are marching in the mud and cold
And when my pack seems more than I can hold
My love for you renews my might
I'm warm again, my pack is light
It's you, Lili Marlene
It's you, Lili Marlene

My love for you renews my might
I'm warm again, my pack is light
It's you, Lili Marlene
It's you, Lili Marlene

Text (Marlene Dietrich English version) from Google Play Music

Written by Hans Leip, Norbert Schultze