A Reluctant Hero's Footsteps

Book excerpt: In 2011, by chance I discovered the after-action reports of the 329th Infantry Regiment, my father’s World War II unit, on the Internet. An idea was born: use these to reconstruct my father’s path in Europe. I would take my three children, Richard, Mary, and Stephen, on a trip to retrace those footsteps. This book is about our travels, but it is much more. It documents the life of a man and his family, the history of a unit, and how, through research and luck, we were able piece together the story. As far as possible, I tell the tale of my father’s life with pictures and artifacts from that life. In parallel, I relate the history of the unit he joined in combat, inserting pictures where I can. In fitting all the records together with the trip itself, I discovered my father in new ways and built a memory for my children. In an appendix, I give you a guide as to how you can do this for your veterans as well.