"I know in northern Luxembourg, just before going into Germany, we had gotten some Christmas packages after the bulls were stopped and turned around. And we got a chess set, and I learned how to play chess." Editor's Note:Witnessing the inmates in…

"And we move out a couple of days, and right up to within a few kilometers of Bastogne, which had been surrounded, and we were about 1:30 at night, and we could see all of this trace of fire and everybody running all around us. And we were wondering…

"During the night, we got an MP motorcycle that came in and gave us new orders. And instead we headed north to Metz. This was in north France, heading towards the Battle of the Bulge, which brought [us close to] the Third Army headquarters. We…

"We got out, and we actually camped in the woods near Rouen about 38 or 40 kilometers outside somewhere, and my unit was self-contained motorized. We had – all of our companies had their own transportation, but we were immediately incorporated…

"And we went over across the channel. And we got off at Le Havre. We went up through Le Havre. The forces had moved on in, and we were able to go up to get off at Rouen, as I remember it."

"And then we got on a train and went on to a little place called Fordingbridge, which was sort of southwest of London and just below Salisbury. And from there we had an opportunity to get our equipment together and take a couple of weekend…

"Actually, when I first got to Europe, I got there by way of Liverpool on a ship that carried 14,000 troops. This was the USS America, and I think it was called the West Point at that time. It was our largest ocean liner. And we took five days to…

"I started out really as a photographer at an air base squadron at Tuskegee, Alabama. And incidentally at Tuskegee it was the training for black pilots. About 1,000 were actually given wings at this institution. It really was not at Tuskegee…

"I ended up getting some more training in camera FLIR at engineering school in Balfour Virginia (sic -- this could be Balls Ford, Virginia), and went overseas with this unit after. The fellows really were ready to eat nails. They had 14 weeks…

"They changed the program, and we were sent to organize an engineer combat battalion in Mississippi, and that's really how I ended up, you might say, going into the phase that I did. But when I got into this engineer combat battalion, we had a…