In 1978, my husband and I decided to embark on a wonderful vacation by taking a cruise. As the bell rang for dinner on the first night, we were seated with an elderly couple. We silently wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Little did we know that this trip would be the beginning of a lifetime of friendship between us and a couple who were old enough to be our parents.

The conversation flowed freely. Even though we were from different parts of the country, we found we had much in common. It turned out that the husband, Clint Grant, was a veteran of World War II and had been a photographer arriving with his platoon a few days after the landing on the beaches at Normandy.

Clint, who died in 2010 at the age of 93, was a very interesting and wonderful man. After the war he became an official photographer for the Dallas Morning News. In 1963 he took an iconic photo of President Kennedy with Jacqueline after landing in Dallas on that fateful day. I treasure that photo.

The 12 days of our cruise flew by. Breakfast, lunch and dinner conversations were filled with stories from the war. Clint had also been stationed in England for a time. We decided to stay in touch after returning home from the cruise and did just that.

When the opportunity presented itself to visit England with a tour company, we asked Clint and his wife Myrtis to join us. Clint hadn’t been in England since the war and wanted to visit some old haunts. For two glorious weeks we were treated to the wonderful hospitality and sights and sounds of the UK and its people. By now, the war stories were coming fast and furious from Clint. We continued our friendship over many years, including visiting them in Dallas and touring Italy, and they surprising us at our daughter’s wedding.

By the time we parted ways to go home, I knew something had been stirred in me about the experiences of WWII. In 1997 Frank and I were on a trip that included a visit to the Normandy beaches. There are many battles from WWII that deserve mention, and I now know that the Allied landings on the Normandy coast of German-occupied France on June 6, 1944, was one of the most climactic days of the war.

Returning home, I decided to start a search on the history of the war and read as much as I could. I also found a treasure trove of stories in a newspaper about our veterans who were now being interviewed about their experiences. I read “Dead Reckoning,” a book by Dick Lehr about how Johnny Mitchell and his fighter pilots took on Admiral Yamamoto and avenged the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Some, if not most, of the veterans' stories were incredible. I was able to find many of them through the internet. Of course, some veterans had died, but many were still enjoying their golden years regaling their grandchildren with stories of the war. Others did not want to speak of those awful days, months and years.

By now, our keen interest in the war brought us to visiting WWII museums. A visit to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, is one I will never forget. While there, I met a WWII veteran visiting the museum with his son. Robert Zeller of Toledo flew B-24s in the war. I was able to speak with him at length. Upon returning home, I reconnected with him, and even though he has since died, I have stayed in touch with his daughter.

Subsequent museum visits have been to the Museum of World War II in Natick, Massachusetts, the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Az. The Millville Army Field Museum in Millville, NJ, the Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

I was intrigued by a story I read in the Philadelphia Inquirer a few years ago about a veteran from the Conshohocken area who was killed in France during the war. Dorothy Jaworski had written a compelling biography of her uncle, Stephen W. Jaworski, titled “Just Another Good Soldier.” 

I contacted Dorothy, who sent me a copy of the book, which is very compelling. It tells of the determined effort to find out where Stephen had died. Dorothy has since written two more books about the war in France. Stephen is buried in the American Military Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg, which she and her family have visited several times including Noveant, France, where Stephen was killed in September, 1944.

I have since expanded my knowledge of the military men and women to a Vietnam veteran from Berlin, New Jersey. I love his feel-good story of a veteran who hadn’t received his high school diploma upon graduation because he enlisted in the war. After 50 years, George Schaefer was finally presented with his diploma from Overbrook High School. George has sent me several items connected with his 25th Infantry Division Association. As George reminds us, our veterans are dwindling quickly. God bless them all!

Carol and Frank Peszka, residents of Erdenheim, have put retirement travel on hold due to Covid-19 and plan on virtual travel via PBS for the foreseeable future.