By NANCY PATRICK “Somewhere at sea”—These words appear at the top of Bill Hahn’s first letter home, dated September 22, 1944, as he looked back at the shores of New York and headed toward Europe. His last set of letters did reveal what I felt sure would happen once he deployed to Europe and faced battles on the ground and
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK My first article about William (Bill) Hahn covered his basic training at Camp Fannin in Tyler, Texas. When I began reading his letters from the second packet the 12th Armored Division Museum gave me, I learned of Bill’s participation in further training in a program called the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). The new program, created to
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(Editor’s Note: This article was written by Loretta Fulton in August 2001 after a trip to Belgium to write about the making of a documentary on Abilenian Bill Grosvenor, who had to ditch his plane in the Belgian soil in November 1943 and escape the Nazis who were chasing him. While there, Loretta visited the grave of her uncle, Paul
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By LORETTA FULTON Just three years after Sharon Densman discovered a connection to a half-brother she never knew, that connection is gone and so are her family ties. The impact of that reality hit hard after the July 22 funeral of James Weldon “Snuffy” Smith. “I had no idea I would feel the feeling I had,” Densman said, “the finality
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Spirit Of Abilene 