Full Circle

Driving back from Alsace to Frankfurt Airport, we were surprised on the Autobahn, in the early morning fog, to be caught in the headlights of a C17 transport landing at Ramstein AFB, as we were passing the Landstuhl exit. Landstuhl is the US military hospital where US casualties from the war in Iraq are transported before repatriation to America.
I had the occasion to visit Landstuhl military hospital in the 70s, when my parents became godparents to Joe Pasco, our American relatives'son . Back then it was a short drive from home in France. We toured the area and noticed the WWII cemetery in town. In it were buried rows after rows of French soldiers who had died in the nearby POW camp.
60 years later, soldiers still suffer and die, in Landstuhl. Full circle....

I am still writing a biography of baron Georges-Felix de Wimpffen, who, besides having been the Governor of Thionville and having successfully defeated the Prussian siege of my hometown in 1792, had also been an officer in the army of General Rochambeau in Virginia, in 1781. As such, he fought valiantly at the battle of Yorktown. After the British surrender, he headed back to Mt Vernon for winter quarters. I happen to live less than 3 miles from Mt Vernon. Full circle..

(Note that at Yorktown, the Metz Artillery regiment and the Royal Deux-Ponts fought side by side with the Forbach regiment, all Lorraine soldiers! Rochambeau had 8,000 troops to Washington 3,5oo, and Lafayette 3,000 against Cornwallis'7,000 lobsterbacks. Admiral de Grasse's blockade of the Chesapeake prevented all British reinforcement .)

During my trip to France, early this month, I had the privilege of visiting Chief Pascal Moretti, a gendarme who created the Moselle River 1944 Association to honor the US veterans of the 95th and 90th Infantry Divisions who liberated the Thionville -Metzervisse area on November 11, 1944. Last year, for the 60th anniversary of a battle that cost Patton's 3rd army 40,000 casualties, he invited over 100 veterans. The celebrations were entirely paid for by 200,000 euros worth of donations from the grateful populations. Entire town populations lined up on roadsides, and wined and dined their erstwhile liberators, with many plaques and statues being inaugurated. Helen Patton, the general's granddaughter, came from nearby Saarbrucken where she now lives.I modestly contributed with some interpretation. Deep feelings of gratitude and friendship between our two nations were in evidence in spite of the ignorant propaganda fueled in some circles.
Dr Beakes, one of the veterans, holds a PhD from Ball State, my US alma mater!.. He was present at the Mairy tank battle on Sep. 9, 1944......My father was sent with a crew to repair the power line in that same village the next day. Dr Beakes lives a few miles from me. Full circle.