Henry Walter

Escaping Austria as the Nazis advanced across Europe and outwitting the Gestapo in Czechoslovakia, Henry Walter arrived in America, was drafted and served under General Patton at the Desert Training Center in California. He then joined the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale in Colorado, where he trained troops to ski, rock climb, and cross avalanche slopes. His next assignment was to attend the first class of Military Government at Fort Custer in Michigan, and was then sent to England to teach German and French to officers, with super-secret clearance for D-Day. On D plus one, Walter landed on Omaha Beach and went through France with the 2nd Division, 38th Infantry Regiment. He was at the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the Rhine into Germany and was back with the Czechs for VE Day. Postwar, he stayed to help oversee the occupation, where he met his future wife.