Today I saw a presentation by a Holocaust survivor so I was just tonight researching the 3rd armored division, the Spearhead. My wifes grandfather Val Santhouse was an 18 year old tank commander in the 3rd. So many men were lost that he became a commander by default. He lost so many guys on the turret machine gun that he stopped learning names of the replacements. They fought at Normandy, the Bulge, etc. They also liberated the Dora-Mittlebau camp. He still can't really talk about it, or the war in general so I try to read as much as I can. So before I came over to this site I was reading on the 3ad website when I came across the name another member of 3rd armored, Frank Woolner. I have to ask him this weekend if he knew Frank It is a longshot, but he would certainly have know who Frank was after the war and they were both New Englanders, so who knows.
I also found a youtube link on the 3ad site. It gave me chills that Val is very likely in one of the tanks in the video. I dread the day when the last of these guys leave us. We could never do enough to honor them.
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