In this powerful crossover episode, Christian Taylor joins Rob of MovieRob Minute to introduce a very special guest: Ceo Bauer, a 102-year-old WWII veteran of the 95th Infantry Division, 377th Infantry Regiment, I Company—better known as the “Iron Men of Metz.”

Rob begins by asking Ceo about Saving Private Ryan: what he thought of its accuracy, whether it stirred memories, and how Hollywood compares to the realities of war. From there, Ceo opens up about his experiences in Normandy in 1944, his injury at Metz, and the reasons many veterans choose not to share their stories.

For one of the first times, Ceo speaks candidly about what it was like landing at Omaha Beach 100 days after D-Day, the sign that moved him to tears, and the symbolic “pump handle dance” he’s performed across the world. His reflections are raw, sometimes emotional, and always full of wisdom.

This episode also captures something unique: guests in the room listening in—reminding us that these conversations are not just about history, but about keeping memory alive for future generations.

👉 Tune in for Part 1 of this unforgettable conversation, and stay tuned for Part 2 where Ceo continues sharing stories of bravery, loss, and survival.

Documentary First Website, support us by buying merch or watching our films: https://documentaryfirst.com/

Sue, are you okay for us to record this?

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Rob, are you okay for this to be recorded?

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course both audio and

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Wonderful.

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All right.

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uh Rob, I'm going to let you kick this off, but I am going to say my name is Christian

Taylor and I am here with Rob from the movie Rob Minute and the Ceo Bauer, the legendary

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Ceo Bauer of 95th Infantry Division, 377th Infantry Regiment, I Company.

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The Iron Men of Metz

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The Iron Man of Mets.

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Anyway, this is Rob.

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Rob, see you.

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Hello, hello.

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Oh, okay,

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my goodness, he doesn't know about ho ho ho.

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Yeah, well, he doesn't.

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We'll get there.

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We'll get there.

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Let's just, you know, let me, let me do my introduction and then, know, so that, that,

that I have, we can get into the whole thing.

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No problem.

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My time is your time.

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Whatever, however time, however much time you want, we have, you know, so we'll be here

until tomorrow morning.

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Right.

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Ha ha ha.

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Okay.

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One thing at the very end, uh way that I close out my shows is by using the line from

Saving Private Ryan, earn this.

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So I'll say earn this and then you guys will say earn this.

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But that'll be all the way at the end.

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I'll remind you if you forget, not a problem.

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All right.

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Hello everyone and welcome to minute 166 of season eight of Movie Rob Minute, the daily

podcast.

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where we foobar our way through the 1998 Steven Spielberg award-winning film, Saving

Private Ryan, one minute at a time.

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I'm Rob, and joining me today on a very, special episode is, and I'm honored to have, uh

Seale Bower uh as my main guest.

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He is a World War II veteran who fought in Normandy, and we're gonna hear all about

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his stories today and along with CEO, I also have Christian Johnson Taylor, who as many

probably will remember, she was on a few weeks ago.

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uh She's an award winning documentary director and we're going to talk about her film

also.

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We touched upon it uh a few weeks ago, but we will go deeper into it this time because it

also is a movie that features CEO.

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So uh we're going to have a lot of fun today.

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So I want to welcome you both to this episode.

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Thank you, very nice to be here.

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Thank you very much.

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I appreciate it.

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I must say, I don't think I've ever spoken to somebody who's, you know, past the century

mark.

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you know, this is really truly an honor for me.

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It's tough to get here.

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um

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It's easy for you to say.

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Yeah, right, right.

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You gotta be careful.

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Now we need to say that he is a hundred and one.

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We haven't even mentioned that.

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it's very close to a hundred and two.

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That's right.

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Another two months.

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I'll be there.

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Okay, so you literally are twice as old as I am.

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I turned 51 back in January.

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Yeah, well, you gotta be careful.

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We eliminate all hazardous activities.

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uh

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You mean like fighting in Normandy?

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You did that when you were younger.

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I remember hearing something recently that someone said that that's the reason why wars

are fought by young people.

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Yeah.

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Alright, uh why don't we start off with a general question.

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obviously, Christian, we've already talked about this, but Theo, have you ever watched the

movie Saving Private Ryan?

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Yes, I have, yeah.

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More than once, I think, yeah.

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Okay, great.

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And what are your feelings of a movie like that?

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I mean, I know that you weren't on the beach itself uh during that attack, which I'm sure

was harrowing for everyone who was there.

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But what is your opinion of how they depicted the soldiers, the work, everything that they

had to do in Normandy?

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Did it bring back memories, good or bad?

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As far as memories are concerned, I uh have memories and probably the reason I watch uh

movies like that, because uh I can associate with them.

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uh Every movie is different, of course.

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Of course, they're based on uh a story.

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there's the...

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uh

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the movie has to attract attention from the public.

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And so it has to be such that the public will get the story.

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From that standpoint, it's not that realistic except that it's pretty much there.

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So the...

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Certainly, uh you know, for a mission like occurred in Saving Private Ryan there, I

imagine, you know, that it wouldn't uh be that big a deal, you know, to the troops that

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had it.

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In other words, that got it.

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since it was, and so.

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uh

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from a story purpose, you know, it's enhanced.

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What I have to say.

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uh

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I think the battle scenes were good.

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ah You know, they were pretty enhanced.

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ah You know, more uh than would occur normally because uh there was, among other things,

was uh no, during, say, uh I...

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participated in attacks where there was artillery involved and uh what wasn't the freedom

to be moving like was was portrayed in and saving Private Ryan.

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And I'd be somewhat skeptical and uh that they did move quite as much because as I recall

from the movie and uh

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I would be skeptical that they held very many uh theoretical discussions like you have in

a movie.

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There's just not time for that.

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the people involved, their lives are at risk.

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And so they're not gonna be discussing theory about what happened.

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uh

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That has to be in there for the movie.

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Right, it's true, it's very true, 100 % you're right about that.

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why don't you tell us your story.

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My story?

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Well, my story, of course, is uh that uh I landed in Normandy some hundred days after

D-Day with the 95th Division Company.

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I basically did not have combat.

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uh The fighting was up past Paris at the time.

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And uh basically, uh we camped there.

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the whole division and the division is about 14, 15,000 men for four weeks while we waited

to, uh know, uh basically the uh allies overran their supply.

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And so, you know, for a period of four and six weeks there, was, uh you we're out of gas

and out of hills and everything past Paris.

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So, uh

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There was no need for us on the front line until they resumed the offensive.

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And so we camped there and kind of marched around and I even played football.

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We played softball.

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In fact, I played my last football game I could ever play there because I was wounded, you

know, up when we got on the front line and attack up at Metz.

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Metz, France, near the German border.

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So we did that.

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And so uh I have been uh have been back there to where we camped last year, the 80th

anniversary of liberation, uh Christian remembers it, right?

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I actually was taken to by the French to where where a battle occurred.

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uh

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where battle occurred, which they said was where we came, our rifle company camped.

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I'm a bit skeptical of that.

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Looking around, nothing looked familiar, but the battle.

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Well, 80 years have passed.

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The geography does change a little

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the hedgerows, I don't think change that much.

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There's cattle in the fields.

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I was able to do what I call the pump handle dance by a manure pile.

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I did it by a manure pile uh in the hedgerow field, small field, cows in the pasture too.

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So I did that.

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Symbolically, because I'm from a rural county and I grew up as a farmer until I was in the

military at age 19.

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so symbolically, I uh did the pump handle dance, which uh is what I did jumping up and

down the pump handle because back in the 40s, we didn't have power and you got your water

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to drink.

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in your water for your livestock by jumping up and down the pump on the pump handle on the

pump for an hour or two every day.

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Yeah.

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And so even the Mennonites, they won't won't do that anymore here here here in the USA.

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So we but in order to break in order to break the monotony, I wound up

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I wound up imagining that I was dancing with the pretty girls at a square dance and uh

jumped up and down doing what I call a square dance shuffle and singing a little ditty,

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which I'll sing one verse of it to you because there was...

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And this is what my grandpa said they did.

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My grandfather Bauer said they did in Iowa where he grew up.

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If there was no violin or no music, they sang these little ditties.

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But the one I liked was pretty good was rats in the sugar bowl.

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Or this is one a little bit mixed up.

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Rats in the sugar bowl.

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I think it was really ants for my grandfather.

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Two by two rats in the sugar bowl, two by two rats in the sugar bowl, two by two.

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Skip to the loo, my darling.

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And another good one is, ah, little red wagon painted blue, little red wagon painted blue,

little red wagon painted blue, skip to the loo, my darling.

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So I did that.

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That kept you warm in the winter, got water for the cattle.

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Did the other guys in your unit also dance around?

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Say that again?

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Did the other guys in your unit also dance around?

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No, they were, no, no, well, I wasn't doing it for them.

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Hi.

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No, obviously not, but if you were doing it, then maybe,

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I didn't do it there.

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uh I do the pump handle dance, finally kind of to entertain people and keep their

attention now.

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But I would demonstrate it to people and I demonstrate it now every chance I get.

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So I'm doing it for you.

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You'll learn the history lesson.

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There you

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Can you tell Rob, one of the stories I love is when you landed on Omaha Beach in 44 and

you walked off the beach and up the cliff.

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Talk about that because you have a very special experience during that time.

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Yes, did, Christian.

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And I seem to be the only one in my 200-man rifle company that noticed it.

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ah By the way, I was a ground founder, a private first-class rifleman.

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That's most dangerous job in the military.

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Especially General George Patton's Third Army.

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He said he was a rifleman too.

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Did you hear that?

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Is that right?

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No, I didn't.

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In America or in the Israeli army?

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Okay.

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I retired as sergeant.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So, well, yeah, so you know, I'm kind of glad to know that.

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Yeah.

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I know, thankfully I don't have battle experience.

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But to go back to the story, ah landed, we came across from Britain on a British ship and

we landed at Omaha Beach and uh I wondered for a long time, uh you know, I told the guys,

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you know, of our rifle company.

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You know, I can't remember climbing down cargo nets.

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Well, finally, they finally one of them said, you know, listen to me and said, well, we

didn't.

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We got, we were able to land just through the side of uh ship.

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We were able to get on an LCT probably landing craft troops or I.

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landing craft transport, isn't it?

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eh

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and we landed on what I think were termed the Phoenix, which were those uh concrete,

concrete piers towed across from Britain and then sunk uh after the on Omaha.

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Anyway, we landed on those.

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Then our rifle company then walked single file up a path over the shore dune from Omaha.

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in it to, you know, to camp three or four miles.

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We just walked.

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So I'm the only one.

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And I went to a lot of reunions of our rifle company and a lot of 95th division reunions

uh annually.

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So I went to them and uh nobody remembered this little sign about ground level that

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had been placed there.

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Basically what it said was, I've not got a verbatim, but up this path has passed the

finest of America's manhood.

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It's difficult for me to repeat that without tearing up.

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Yeah, I can see.

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Thank you for sharing, even though it's difficult.

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because division after division landed there at Omaha and went up that path.

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uh We were 100 days, but they'd been coming up over that path, single file.

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We passed our Browning automatic rifle down the line uh to help the...

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uh

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running automatic, the BAR man to help them.

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We did that because that's heavy.

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And we riflemen passed it up and down the line.

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For that reason, that's how I remember, you know, that sign.

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uh Also, ah we've been back exactly there.

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uh carloads of...

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of guys of a Marr Rifle Company.

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We went back uh to uh Normandy, commencing in 1987.

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And we agreed that we were at the location where we, at the path, which is now a blacktop.

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You know, can drive down there now.

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ah For symbolism, I did the pump handle dance there too.

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And I'm looking at my niece Kim across the table here.

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He saw me do it and took a picture of it.

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Yeah.

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oh

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places around the world have you done the pump handle?

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ah Every continent except Antarctica.

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Okay.

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I've not been to Antarctica.

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Wow.

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You still have time.

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You can make arrangements.

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He is going back to France in about three months.

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We're going to go back for Normandy.

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So that's going to be one last trip to France, I think.

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Yeah, it'll be a lot.

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That's actually just in a few days from now because this show is airing uh right at the

beginning of June.

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Okay.

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Well, yeah, we're going, actually we're going May 28th through June.

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so you're already there, because today's June 3rd.

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Yep.

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we'll be there.

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And in fact, on June 3rd, today, when people are listening to this, we're going to be in

the town of Carronton, visiting school children there.

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And he will be sharing the same story.

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And it's going to be a very special day because the children really, really love meeting

these veterans.

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They can't wait to take pictures and get autographs.

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for them, it's such an incredible uh special.

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thing.

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So.

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Yeah, they want to touch us.

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They want to touch us.

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How's your...

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Where the French people have...

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uh

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you are French.

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Do you speak French?

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No, no, no.

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And I know better than to try to speak French in France.

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They know more English than we know French.

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In fact, we don't sound like Frenchmen if we try.

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Very true.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Now, you're holding, you're talking about up the hills past the finest American manhood.

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You're holding a sign here and a lot of these men are some of those finest American

manhood.

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So tell them about this.

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Yeah, well, will this picture show?

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For me it's just audio but but on Christian

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Yeah, well, I'm holding the picture of our rifle company.

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And uh so I'm sitting on the front row because I was on KP Kitchen Police.

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They were all lined up to do it.

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And so the cooks and the breakers and the kitchen police, you know, who do the pots and

pans and all the dirty work, uh you know, uh

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We're squeezed in on the front row.

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I can't believe that.

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That's what I did.

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Do you do it in the Israeli army too?

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Of course.

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Of course?

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Of course.

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No.

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Yeah, you gotta eat, yeah.

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Anyway, ah Christian, I think, wants me to tell you that this rifle company and there's

200 men kind of hit a buzzsaw several times.

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And so in this picture, about one out of every three was lost their lives.

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And uh so some...

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We agreed finally, could identify, remember when we got together, we passed the photos

around because there was 30 or so men, we didn't know who they were.

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We couldn't remember who they were, know, they were listed, but we just didn't know who

they were.

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But of this, we know who was killed in the company and, uh you know, the...

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the role and we confirmed that about 60 men lost their lives and almost all of them were

wounded.

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oh During the five months that our rifle company was uh in combat or at least in Europe.

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We went into combat uh in the late October and went through until the uh

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the company went through until the end of the war.

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But for me, November 8, 1944 was my last day.

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And that's when we attack, when General Patton's third army attacked to liberate the city

of Metz, the fortress city of Metz.

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Which occurred, which took about,

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took about two weeks.

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Liberation, uh I think the fifth Army division did the victory parade, although our 95th

Infantry Division was first to enter uh and uh enter the city of Metz uh and capture the

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German headquarters at what was known as the Kassarn.

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By then I was already uh wounded in the hospital, the army hospital.

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you want to retell the story of what happened to you or is that too difficult to- uh

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It's not difficult.

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I've uh told it a lot of times.

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It's history.

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So, know, people do.

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but his personal history.

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you know sometimes...

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Yeah, well, as long as you brought up the subject, a lot of veterans will not talk.

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They vary uh from veteran to veteran, but I will.

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I always did.

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And because I thought people needed to hear it.

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I more think it's my duty to speak.

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That's the reason I'm talking to you.

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Right, of course.

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What's your uh opinion as to why many veterans didn't want to speak about it?

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There are stories of veterans who didn't talk to their families about it.

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They only found out after uh either they passed or much later in life of the heroics of

things that they did while they were fighting in either Europe or in the Pacific.

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oh

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What do you think the reason is that they say that the people, the men of the greatest

generation didn't want to tell their tales, they wanted to keep it to themselves?

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Well, I'd say there are multiple reasons depending on the individual.

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Some of them, traumatic, they may not have remembered.

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Okay.

315

Of course, that would be one thing.

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The other thing that we veterans ran into when we came back to the States,

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it occurred for me.

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The other thing we ran into was that the people didn't really want to listen.

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That's still true today here in the USA.

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They, uh when we started to uh talk about it, they, in a very short time, the thing that I

ran into was that they would

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mention uh one of their relatives or somebody and they've been over there for a long time

and they've never been hit, but they wouldn't listen to you.

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I think in general, uh after a while, they just shut up and just didn't talk.

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So that's still true today.

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In the movie, uh still true today.

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uh

326

In a couple minutes, that's about all you can tell their eyes are grazed over and they're

talking, thinking about something else.

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m Do not listen.

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So if they're not listening, you're not going to talk.

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Well, you just realize, well, they're not listening.

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might just, well, they want to talk about something else.

331

Okay, understood.

332

I'll bet you you'll find the same thing yourself.

333

Of course I do.

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Yeah, you find the same thing yourself back in Israel, I'm sure.

335

Yeah, of course.

336

There are some people who talk about things and some people who won't talk about things

for sure.

337

Obviously, the situation is a little different, but yeah.

338

But by the way, understand you.

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You were in America.

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Time out.

341

Time out.

342

Yeah.

343

Take a break till the dog settles.

344

Come on in.

345

We have some guests that are coming, so stand by.

346

That's OK.

347

Hi.

348

Well, walk right in, sit right down, daddy let your mind roll on.

349

Have you got that?

350

That's in a movie or that's probably in a movie, but it's a song.

351

Walk right in, sit right down.

352

Oh yeah, no, of course I've heard it, yeah, yeah, I have heard it.

353

Say that again.

354

I have heard that song, yes.

355

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.

356

So we're in an Airbnb and these are the owners who came to join us.

357

We wanted them to come listen.

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So.

359

All right, so ah you were about to say.

360

I was talking about a good thing you reminded me about the way veterans wouldn't talk.

361

So uh don't talk.

362

ah Anyway, in my instance, I would talk about after 40 years, uh the veterans in the

363

uh to hold a rifle company reunion in different cities and annual reunions and for a

veteran that is therapy to talk.

364

I'm sure you'll that out yourself.

365

uh

366

heard stories about Easy Company, know, the men from Benda Brothers.

367

They would do that awesome.

368

Right, yeah.

369

By the way, that was a pretty good movie, pretty realistic.

370

There was some things to pick up in that.

371

By the way, uh when they walked into the bulge, they came in in trucks and walked in, they

didn't parachute in.

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uh But there was one of the guys that had, uh I picked it up and I don't think most people

did.

373

One of the guys climbing on a truck, uh the replacement 101st man, ah was kind of acting

as though the other guy that had just joined them was a rookie.

374

Well, he jumped in Normandy.

375

And you probably realized from, uh also from, also realized from,

376

your own experience that you know if you show up at a unit as a replacement, the old boys

are going to regard you as a rookie.

377

That's right, for sure.

378

And you're not even able to tell them, you know, I've been on the army quite a while,

maybe longer than you, you might be.

379

So you would have that occur.

380

uh anyway, uh you know, that was a good movie and then it uh brought them in there and

strategically, I think it was pretty accurate because that did happen.

381

uh

382

You know, uh for me, one of the things people will ask me, you know, well, oh did you

fight in the bulge?

383

And you know what I'm No, I was already wounded in the hospital.

384

So I was lucky.

385

I was lucky.

386

Based on what I've heard, yes, I would agree with that.

387

I was lucky.

388

uh So ah you do that, you know.

389

anyway, I'm kind of losing the thread, the therapy of getting together with your buddies,

then you pass around.

390

uh

391

pass around what happened and you learn always every reunion you would learn something

more.

392

Of course, you wound up getting the replacements that came in and the guys that went that

wound up going through till the end of the war.

393

And by the way, not very many men, uh

394

in that picture got through till the end of the war, a few of them and some of them were

wounded and came back, you know, came back.

395

So you learn from them.

396

I feel the same way about when I'm thinking a lot of times about uh what happened to I

Company uh during combat.

397

I uh wish

398

Wish we had spent more time reminiscing and asking questions of each other, rather than

kind of whooping it up.

399

uh Which is human nature.

400

Yeah, for sure.

401

So yes, you were going to tell us the story of what happened to you.

402

How you got wounded.

403

yeah.

404

I was in Maisiersley Metz, which is uh kind of M-A-I-Z-I-E-R-R-E-S, and that's uh kind of

on the outskirts of the city of Metz, M-E-T-Z.

405

And so near the German border, about a half hour away from the German border, and it's

along the Mosel River.

406

M-O-S-E-L-L-E uh and uh after the Red Ball Express had uh hauled and they'd got enough gas

up, gas and shells up, then uh General Patton could uh resume the offensive.

407

And so really I was hit on the...

408

uh

409

and they had backed up to Metz and used Metz as a uh city of Metz, surrounded by forts,

some 30 or so.

410

Some of them old, but some of them were quite modern.

411

They were French forts, and part of the Maginot Line.

412

And so these forts then were...

413

uh

414

to deter Germany, but then they were turned against us.

415

Those of them that in the line, those of them in the enemy's uh defense line, which they'd

thrown up to defend in France, to keep the army out of Germany.

416

So, uh

417

Basically, uh we went up online, we replaced the 95th division who had entered Maisier's

and had uh been able to clear the town and it wasn't very big, three, 4,000 maybe, know,

418

my estimate.

419

And so for 10 days to two weeks, we patrolled around and had to do it at night.

420

to find out what the situation was, to find out where the minefields were and find out if

we could where their line was, their line.

421

So basically when I was wounded, basically when I was wounded, we had a 10 to 15 minute,

422

artillery barrage on a medieval chateau, which is a strong point uh with a minefield

strung in front of it and uh concertina wire, smooth wire concertina wire strung along the

423

front line.

424

And so as a medieval chateau, it has a history back to...

425

uh

426

back to the mid 1900s, mid century 500 or more years ago.

427

And so we had this artillery barrage and then we went and we were ordered to do it after

dark.

428

uh

429

our, by Patent's headquarters.

430

So it was a strategic thing.

431

And it took me 50 years to find out for sure what the strategy was because we, our

officers did not want to attack at night and you really shouldn't do it.

432

especially in a situation like we had there.

433

So our battalion was to attack.

434

uh We were on the left side of the road down to Metz.

435

It's north of Metz.

436

And there was a slag pile on the other side.

437

There was a slag pile from, you know, ore plant.

438

So that was high.

439

That was the Germans.

440

observation point because it's flat around around there.

441

And so ah basically, we moved out okay.

442

And ah we moved out okay.

443

And by the way, I have uh a book here, which I've got it in it.

444

So you probably should get a copy of it.

445

Somehow maybe Christian can send you one or something.

446

ah

447

But first thing I did was fall in a hellhole from earlier fighting.

448

No one.

449

And I was carrying the bazooka.

450

I wasn't the bazooka man, but I wasn't very well trained in it.

451

when they, when the replacement lieutenant, it was a replacement lieutenant already, who'd

been, because we'd lost our, my first long time lieutenant, we'd lost him uh and five or

452

six other guys.

453

But anyway, when he came, he just came and said, somebody ought to take this.

454

Well, nobody would volunteer, but I did because I thought, jeez, we're leaving.

455

We'd better get it out there.

456

We better take it.

457

So that kept me behind a little bit.

458

And so the first guys to run into fire, run into anything, I think ran into um

459

probably a uh machine gun crew that were in front of the German main line of resistance.

460

So there was fighting there, which uh basically, the first scout, which is my buddy, Steve

Bodner of Cartaret, New Jersey, he was in that first encounter and his leg was literally

461

blown off by machine gun fire.

462

had to be amputated.

463

And then they moved on to uh the Chateau.

464

We knew the line really was at the Chateau and both sides of it so that we'd already uh

been out there and got them to, well, I was on the scouting party that got them to open

465

up, honest.

466

So we got to know where the machine guns roughly were.

467

So, but anyway, when I got out of the hole finally, it was slippery, it was deep, five or

six feet deep.

468

When I finally got out of it, I was all alone.

469

And then I had to move on out and catch up with my squad.

470

And so when I got up, my squad,

471

My uh squad sergeant was cutting the concertina wire, cutting so we could go through it.

472

And so, and I was the first man through.

473

He just said to me, see if you can get through here and I did.

474

And then the two guys that had the ammunition for the bazooka, they came through uh after

me and they said, of course it's dark.

475

you've already lost man and in the dark, you know, it's hard to keep contact.

476

Yeah.

477

we, so I just said to them, they said, what do we do?

478

I said, well, we're supposed to go left around it, around the chateau.

479

And so go left and lay down till some more come through.

480

I don't know whether there's many, many, any more to.

481

thinking about it now where there's any more to come through.

482

But anyway, they did that and just as that, then it would be what amounts to it was a

flare came out.

483

It was a flare that probably might've been pre-programmed to fall on the wire for all

three purposes.

484

it literally fell right where and blazed up right where Kellogg and Ahern

485

And almost simultaneously there was an explosion which wounded me and killed those two

guys.

486

I never took over to see them because they made no sound and they just about had to be

gone.

487

Yeah.

488

And of course I confirmed that when I got eventually later that they both had been killed.

489

So that's basically my story there.

490

of being wounded.

491

But you know.

492

And I had a shrapnel of some probably 30, 40.

493

lot of it was just small, small chunks, but you know, that were superficial.

494

But then I had a wound on my left temple, which had nothing went through.

495

It was.

496

Nothing went through into the body cavity.

497

And so my ear drum was, uh you know, perforated from the explosion so I could hardly hear.

498

I'm about like I can hardly hear today because I've looked at my hearing.

499

I have to ask you to repeat that.

500

so anyway, I put up a call.

501

you know, for help.

502

And the assistant squad leader, a guy named Garigan, uh answered me.

503

He was the only one that answered, ah mainly because oh most of the men were wounded.

504

God, so he, but he answered, uh no, I can't come over and help because I'm wounded and got

to go back.

505

And so he, so he did.

506

That left me alone.

507

inside the German lines, pretty well known, I was in a bad situation.

508

And Christian knows that one of the, I remember, were minute, second, second by second,

what I thought.

509

Because I believe I said, you know, I'm Christian.

510

I think, God, I didn't think you'd do this to me.

511

Well, talk about a sin, you know.

512

That's your fine default with your maker.

513

And so, even at that time, I realized that because uh basically I saved myself by

remembering, you know, that uh

514

God helps them that help themselves.

515

Yep.

516

And so I wound up uh deciding I had a bad wound on my left leg, which I didn't know it at

the time, but it caused me a partial drop foot.

517

The nerve was cut to lift my foot.

518

uh

519

And so, but I crawled back to the wire and stopped to remember and it was smooth wire so

you could just squeeze through, you know, through the wire.

520

But I remember pausing and thinking, well, Jesus is probably booby trapped, I suppose.

521

Here I go again.

522

So, I, but I just, well, what the hell?

523

I gotta go.

524

And uh so I crawled through and then I crawled left to the Chateau Road, Chateau Brew

Road.

525

was Chateau Brew.

526

I crawled left to that and uh it was a gravel street.

527

It's a street now, blacked out.

528

So I crawled out to that and then realized, I'm not dying from...

529

shock, so I guess I could walk.

530

So I got up then but I immediately fell down because of that.

531

Yep.

532

So I fell down and I just proceeded that way.

533

I get up and stagger a few steps and fall down till I got to the, got back to where we

shoved off, which was our outpost at the edge of town.

534

Shoved off from after the artillery barrage.

535

So

536

When I got there, ah was uh quite a weathered, then shells explode there and it was uh

kind of tough to get into that house, which had a secure basement, you know, was damaged

537

up above, but they had real good basements, concrete basements, which were almost pill

pots, there was concrete floors.

538

wow.

539

They had them, I think maybe it was part of the Maginot Line, know, way to go, way to do

things, have houses in the line itself that were, once it was, they'd be damaged up above,

540

but there'd be a, you could be in the basements, you know, troops or people.

541

So anyway, uh I ran into this.

542

guy named Tony Baron, Darren who hadn't gone they were the reserve platoon because the uh

and ah you know, he challenged me and I gave the password back and then I asked him for

543

help.

544

Well, he wouldn't help me.

545

So I proceeded to tell him what a son of a bitch he was.

546

And I do a lot of good, a lot of good swear words because we farmed with horses, you know,

the farm and I really know how to swear.

547

So, but he explained to me, and he had the company runner with him, or his platoon runner

with him, a guy named Ed Steel.

548

so, and he explained to me, well,

549

The attack has failed.

550

I'm going out to find Sergeant Skelton, the first platoon sergeant and bring them back in

the dark he was.

551

So you asked me why people wouldn't talk earlier.

552

You know, I didn't see, I didn't see steel or I didn't see steel because uh

553

I never saw Steele again because he was killed, but I did see Tony, Darren, and so at a

reunion some 45 to 50 years after, you know, after the war.

554

And so Tony didn't seem to remember anything.

555

You know, that's me remembering, but...

556

Tony wouldn't even talk about it.

557

I don't remember anything, he said.

558

Well, evidently it was trauma because what he did was going out through the dark.

559

He stepped out of Bouncing Betty, blew his foot off and it killed Steele.

560

It did.

561

Well, Tony didn't want to talk.

562

I don't remember.