My friend's grandfather was in the 502nd Airborne. He jumped in the night before, we got to interview him and recorded lots of questions about his fighting. He was wounded in the bocage shortly into the campaign. While he was on top of a tank trying to show the commander the enemies direction, he was shot in his arms with wooden bullets. He also fought in the battle of the bulge, and was in bastogne. He was wounded there, he caught a piece of shrapnel in his left shoulder blade.
To see his medals and to shake his hand and know his story is something I won't forget.
As to the family history, I remember my grandfather looks up our history often now that he has computer access and he's retired. He found somewhere that we had a union lieutenant during the civil war in our family. I'll call him and see what he says.
Hang on to those papers, lots of history right there.
