Aging soldiers facing 'one last battle'

Foundation sends WWII veterans on mission of closure

Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 1, 2007 at midnight

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They went to Europe the first time as young men, ready to fight and maybe even die in the biggest armed conflict the world has known.

Today, they go back as old men, ready to find some perspective on their experiences in World War II, ready to revisit the beaches they stormed, the forests where they fought, the cities they bombed.

Some, such as Stanford "Shep" Waldman, a veteran of the Army's 83rd Infantry Division, saw ground combat in all five major campaigns in Europe. Others, such as Elmer "Lucky" McGinty, fought the war from the air, surviving 29 missions as a radio man and gunner in a B-17.

And still others, such as Edward Tipper, experienced battle as one short, incredibly intense experience: just six days from the moment he parachuted into Normandy on D-Day until he was horribly wounded by mortar fire as his unit fought to take Carentan, France.

They are among 25 World War II veterans - 15 of them with Colorado ties - who embark today on a two-week trip to England, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

The trip was organized by the Greatest Generations Foundation, a Denver-based nonprofit organization started for the sole purpose of returning military veterans to their fields of battle.

"I personally feel that these men have one last battle to fight, and that's the battle to find closure, and the battle that they've been waiting to fight for six decades," said Tim Davis, the Australian-born president of the foundation and one of those who started it.

Today begins the group's sixth trip to foreign battlefields.

For the foreseeable future, the trips will be focused on World War II veterans. The reason is simple: the youngest of them are in their 80s, and time is running out.

In the years ahead, Davis said he expects to begin returning Korean and eventually Vietnam veterans to the battlefields where they fought.

This morning, Waldman, McGinty and Tipper will step onto a United Airlines flight at Denver International Airport to begin the journey. Other veterans will join the group during a layover in Washington, D.C.

Waldman, who landed at Normandy a week after D-Day, has never returned to Europe.

"I'm really anticipating this," he said.

A veteran of every major campaign in Europe, he suffered frozen hands and feet during the Battle of the Bulge and recently filed a claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"I was telling the story to the lady at the VA," he said. "I swear I wasn't in that room anymore. I was back there in Normandy. I'm not an emotional man, but all of a sudden, my eyes were welling up and I was back on the beaches of Normandy again."

Waldman, 82, was sent to see a therapist, who told him he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Now the Denver resident is looking forward to taking another step toward conquering it by actually revisiting the places where he fought.

So is McGinty, 83. He hopes that he'll be able to see the air base in Horham, England, where he flew 29 missions as part of the Eighth Air Force. The chance to return is something the Denver resident relishes, although, like many of his generation, he is reticent to talk about his battle experience as anything special.

"Nobody thought anything of it," he said of his military service. "It's just what happened in your life. Even people back home had to do their part, too, so it was no big deal, you know?

"I think just getting together with all these guys is going to be wonderful."

Tipper, 85, of Lakewood, may not have seen the duration of battle of others, but he and his unit have been remembered in ways that many others have not. A member of E "Easy" Company of the 101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, he and his comrades were memorialized in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

And although he returned to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 - "one great, massive traffic jam," he called it - he's looking forward to a quieter trip this time.

And to spending it with other veterans.

"There's a sort of a bond between all people that have been in combat," he said.

Itinerary

The Greatest Generations Foundation is taking 25 World War II veterans on a two-week European tour beginning today. Along the way, veterans of the various battles will share their stories with others on the trip.

Highlights:

• Today: Leave Denver

• Wednesday: Arrive in London

• Thursday: Take sightseeing tour of London

• Friday: Visit Duxford, England, home of the "Mighty" Eighth Air Force; private tour of Sir Winston Churchill's war rooms

• Saturday: Visit VE Day re-enactment in London; take evening cruise across English Channel to Cherbourg, France

• Sunday: Walk on Omaha Beach; participate in veterans commemoration ceremony

• Monday: Participate in ceremony on Omaha Beach; visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial; take boat tour off the coast of Normandy

• May 8: Tour areas where American troops fought through the hedgerows of France; travel to Reims, France, site where Germany surrendered; travel to Luxembourg

• May 9: Tour the Patton Museum; participate in memorial service

• May 10: Visit the Ardennes Forest and areas where the Battle of the Bulge was fought

• May 11: Travel to Germany, have lunch at Adolf Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat

• May 12: Take sightseeing tour of Munich

• May 13: Visit Dachau concentration camp

• May 14: Return to the United States

Information

• What: The Greatest Generations Foundation

• Who: A Denver-based nonprofit founded to help return veterans to their fields of battle

• How: Using donations to provide all-expenses-paid tours for veterans to various theaters - later this year come trips to Normandy to mark D-Day and to Iwo Jima, Guam and Hawaii to mark the battles in the Pacific

• Why: To honor veterans and help them find perspective and peace about their roles in the battles in which they fought

• More: www.tggf.us

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