Patriotic Cornucopia: Tribute to A Veteran:
\nRussell Bailey<\/p>\n
Russell Bailey is one high?octane octogenarian. He draws on
\nhis many former years as a teacher and Guidance Counselor in
\nNorth Rose, when he relates the challenges he faced as a Prisoner
\nof War during WWII. The 8th Graders at Red Creek Central know,
\nfirst hand, what a dynamic speaker he is, because Russell Bailey
\nhas been sharing his story with each class for the past ten
\nyears.
\n His retirement from North Rose 25?years ago has seen him
\nremain active in the WCTA Credit Union as a Supervisor, as well
\nas many other activities. He devotes much of his time during the
\ngrowing season to his large flower gardens and as a welcomed
\nguest lecturer.
\n Russell was a PFC with the 5th Army’s 36th Infantry Division
\nin Italy for about two months when they crossed the river to
\ninvade France in August of 1944. He was a Browning Automatic
\nRifle (BAR) carrier, when he was captured and detained for nine
\nmonths. As most military men will tell you: the BAR is like a
\nmachine gun, so when the enemy identifies you, you’re their prime<\/p>\n
target; hence, BAR carriers usually have short lives.
\n “April 29, 1945. It was a morning just like any other
\nmorning in southern Germany,” Russell Bailey told the members of the Col. Wm. Prescott Chapter, N.S.D.A.R.
\n“The weather was mild. We sat
\noutside the barracks, looking around as we had done so many
\nmornings. Looking at the barbed wire that encircled the
\ncompound; and the regular German guards, the old men, the
\nWehrmacht, who walked all around the perimeter of the camp. We
\nthought about food, because it was constantly on our minds ? the
\nlack of it.
\n Then, it seemed as if something was different. It wasn’t
\nquite like all the other mornings. The guards that walked around
\nthe camp seemed agitated for some reason. As if they were
\nexpecting something. And then, off in the distance, we heard
\nsmall arms fire. Rifle fire which was Very, very unusual.
\n This camp is located in southern Germany, near Munich in a
\nplace called Moosburg.
\n That morning, when we started hearing the small arms fire,
\nwe heard the German guard holler at us: Your General Patton is
\nhere. All is over.
\n We looked up. We weren’t sure. We’d heard so much talking
\nover the last months, we didn’t know what to believe. I looked
\nover the center of the stalag, the camp to where there was a
\ngreat tower. On the top of that tower was a flag. That flag was
\nthe German swastika. Every morning when we got up, we always saw<\/p>\n
the German swastika flying from the tower over this camp. It was
\nno different this morning.
\n As I looked over in that direction, one of the greatest
\nevents in my life occurred. Slowly, hesitatingly, down came the
\nGerman zwastika. In its place, more quickly, rose the American
\nflag. We had been liberated!”
\n Russell Bailey has lived to tell the tale. He’s even
\neligible to join the Sons of the American Revolution (S.A.R.)s!
\n(NOTE: This is an excerpt from Mr. Bailey’s talk to the Col. Wm. Prescott Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. On June 15, 2005.)
\nColumn To: Ashleah Reitz, Editor,
\n11\/09\/2005 Wayne County STAR Newspaper
\n\tCornucopia
\n\tby Kate Chamberlin
\n \t986-1267 E-mail: KATHRYNGC@JUNO.COM
\n\tCopyright 8 2005 by Kate Chamberlin<\/p>\n
Tribute to A Veteran:
\nRussell Bailey<\/p>\n
Russell Bailey is one high?octane octogenarian. He draws on
\nhis many former years as a teacher and Guidance Counselor in
\nNorth Rose, when he relates the challenges he faced as a Prisoner
\nof War during WWII. The 8th Graders at Red Creek Central know,
\nfirst hand, what a dynamic speaker he is, because Russell Bailey
\nhas been sharing his story with each class for the past ten
\nyears.
\n His retirement from North Rose 25?years ago has seen him
\nremain active in the WCTA Credit Union as a Supervisor, as well
\nas many other activities. He devotes much of his time during the
\ngrowing season to his large flower gardens and as a welcomed
\nguest lecturer.
\n Russell was a PFC with the 5th Army’s 36th Infantry Division
\nin Italy for about two months when they crossed the river to
\ninvade France in August of 1944. He was a Browning Automatic
\nRifle (BAR) carrier, when he was captured and detained for nine
\nmonths. As most military men will tell you: the BAR is like a
\nmachine gun, so when the enemy identifies you, you’re their prime<\/p>\n
target; hence, BAR carriers usually have short lives.
\n “April 29, 1945. It was a morning just like any other
\nmorning in southern Germany,” Russell Bailey told the members of the Col. Wm. Prescott Chapter, N.S.D.A.R.
\n“The weather was mild. We sat
\noutside the barracks, looking around as we had done so many
\nmornings. Looking at the barbed wire that encircled the
\ncompound; and the regular German guards, the old men, the
\nWehrmacht, who walked all around the perimeter of the camp. We
\nthought about food, because it was constantly on our minds ? the
\nlack of it.
\n Then, it seemed as if something was different. It wasn’t
\nquite like all the other mornings. The guards that walked around
\nthe camp seemed agitated for some reason. As if they were
\nexpecting something. And then, off in the distance, we heard
\nsmall arms fire. Rifle fire which was Very, very unusual.
\n This camp is located in southern Germany, near Munich in a
\nplace called Moosburg.
\n That morning, when we started hearing the small arms fire,
\nwe heard the German guard holler at us: Your General Patton is
\nhere. All is over.
\n We looked up. We weren’t sure. We’d heard so much talking
\nover the last months, we didn’t know what to believe. I looked
\nover the center of the stalag, the camp to where there was a
\ngreat tower. On the top of that tower was a flag. That flag was
\nthe German swastika. Every morning when we got up, we always saw<\/p>\n
the German swastika flying from the tower over this camp. It was
\nno different this morning.
\n As I looked over in that direction, one of the greatest
\nevents in my life occurred. Slowly, hesitatingly, down came the
\nGerman zwastika. In its place, more quickly, rose the American
\nflag. We had been liberated!”
\n Russell Bailey has lived to tell the tale. He’s even
\neligible to join the Sons of the American Revolution (S.A.R.)s!
\n(NOTE: This is an excerpt from Mr. Bailey’s talk to the Col. Wm. Prescott Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. On June 15, 2005.)
\nCopyright 2005, 2010 by Kate Chamberlin. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Patriotic Cornucopia: Tribute to A Veteran: Russell Bailey Russell Bailey is one high?octane octogenarian. He draws on his many former years as a teacher and Guidance Counselor in North Rose, when he relates the challenges he faced as a Prisoner of War during WWII. The 8th Graders at Red Creek Central know, first hand, what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}