It was a stormy night on Lake Garda, in northern Italy......
April 30, 1945.
24 United States soldiers
from the Tenth Mountain Division
were on a mission
carrying supplies and ammunition
to an American military camp near the town of Torbele,
at the northern tip of the lake.
The men were from the 605th Field Artillery Battalion
of which my Dad was a part.
Soon after it left the shore,
the six wheel, two ton amphibian duck boat,
sank to the bottom of the lake.
The water was freezing.
Of the twenty four men, only one survived.
This boat sank just days before the end of fighting in Europe
and the armistice with the Germans on
May 8, 1945,
making it all the more tragic.
My Dad traveled on the truck with those 24 men
to the shores of
Lake Garda that night.
They were riding along making merry,
realizing that the end of their ordeal would soon be over.
The horribleness of war would soon be behind them.
My dad had good writing skills.
Just before he stepped on the boat that fateful night,
someone called his name.....
"Ed, we need you to go back to headquarters to
send an important message for us."
Before he left his friends,
he gave one of them his jacket....
"Here, take this, you will need it more than I will."
I live today because someone called Dad back from that boat
unexpectedly.
Memorial Day
We remember those who died,
who gave their lives for our country.
I am thankful!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Supposedly,
in December of 2012,
sonar equipment found the remains of the boat
lying at a depth of 905 feet,
the reason it had never been found.
A remote controlled camera
found the boat intact and sitting upright
with lots of objects around it.
What a find...
it makes me shiver.
God is sovereign over our lives.
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