Omahan's memories of World War II service call for no apologies, embellishments

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A World War II-era photo showing Lee Gutgsell at the bottom left as he and other soldiers repair a tank appears in a book about the Army’s 4th Armored Division.


http://www.omaha.com/columnists/hansen-omahan-s-memories-of-world-war-ii-service-call/article_ebd179df-be77-54e6-8078-b1da1f6ca805.html

POSTED: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2015 1:00 AM | UPDATED: 12:25 AM, MON NOV 9, 2015.
By Matthew Hansen / World-Herald columnist

Lee Gutgsell remembers going to the reunions, back when the 4th Armored Division still had them. He remembers sitting and listening to his buddies tell their favorite World War II stories, the one about a close encounter with Gen. George Patton or a brush with death or even the time a soldier found an elephant hidden inside a German barn.

He was amazed by these stories. He adored them. He didn’t even mind when the stories kept shifting, evolving, expanding.

“Every year when they told the same story, it got bigger and better!”

Lee laughs and says he doesn’t have any amazing war stories. His war wasn’t that exciting, the Omahan thinks. His war was ordinary. Boring, even.

FULL story at link.