Approximately 15 WWII Veterans who were a part of the Battle of the Bulge visited Fort Riley Friday.
The Veterans toured the historic post and met with “Big Red One” soldiers before going through one of the training simulators.
The tour started with a greeting from Col. Andrew Cole, Fort Riley Garrison Commander.
“We are so grateful for your service and the legacy’s you have left across the United States Military,” Cole said. “The motto of the 1st Infantry Division is ‘No Mission to Difficult, No Sacrifice to Great, Duty First.’ Regardless of whether you served with the “Big Red One” each of you veterans selflessly demonstrated Duty First as you were brave, responsible, and on point for our nation and we are truly inspired by you and eternally in your debt.”
The Veteran’s then got to sit and talk with current “Big Red One” Soldiers.
Spc. Christian Bush explained that from talking to the Veterans he has realized that Soldiers now a day’s don’t have it nearly as bad.
“We have all of this special gear and everything, they didn’t. They were out there in just coats, some of them just shoes. Us now, we have boots that will protect for cold weather and different types of equipment to keep ourselves warm. What they went through is just terrible,” Bush said.
One of the Veterans, Jim Sharp of Manhattan was a Combat Infantryman in Company B, 1st Infantry Division during Battle of the Bulge.
“We didn’t have any idea what we were getting into. We just knew that it was cold as billy hell, and snow was 18 inches deep and here we were fighting panzer tanks and Hitler’s SS Troops. It was pretty tough to both fight to stay alive and the cold weather, mostly in a fox hole.”
Sharp said that his message to the current soldiers is that they should be proud for serving for our country. “As a soldier 60 some years ago I still receive thanks for my service and we should thank them for their service.”
The Veterans then got a chance to go through some of the training simulators and pick up and fire a M-16 rifle.
Veteran Harold O’Malley said that he was surprised with how heavy the rifle was,”of course I’m 91 years old,” he added.
“I trained with a .30 caliber Garand. We’d go to the field and shoot. We didn’t have anything like this, no automatic or anything like that. It was all manual and prone and like that. That was how you learned how to shoot a gun,” O’Malley explained.
Following the run through the simulator the Veterans and Soldiers had lunch and then visited the museums on post.
The Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944 was the costliest single battle for the Allies in World War II, and was Germany’s final desperate attempt to turn the tide of war in its favor following the DDay Invasion the previous June.