A friend lost and found.

[quigondon1]

My Grandfather, Milton L Lewis, was a medic with the 424th, Hdq Co, 1st Bn. and i thought you might enjoy this story of one of his experiences. As the story was told to me, I believe on the first day of battle on 12-16-1944 probably in Winterspelt, Germany my Grandfather was separated from one of his friends in his company in the chaos of the attack. They never saw him again and assumed he was killed by artillery fire. Jump forward to 1972, Beaumont, TX on a back road in a chemical plant. My Grandfather was a ship builder, pipefitter and a welder. He was driving down dirt road in the back of the plant when he noticed a man working high up on a telephone pole. He looked up at him when he drove by, the man was looking back. Suddenly my Grandfather slammed on his breaks and jumped out. The man on the pole raced to the bottom and they embraced and tears flowed. It was my Grandfathers friend. As of yet I do not know his name. But he proceeded to tell that after they were separated he was captured in a town (probably Winterspeilt or Steinebruck, Germany but not certain) along with others. They were lined up and thought they were going to be shot. Suddenly American artillery began to fall and all the Germans scattered. Everyone scrambled in an attempt to escape. My Grandfathers friend hid in a basement and eventually was captured again and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp. He then began to tell my Grandfather about his days in the prison camp....but i will have to continue the story later as I do not yet have all the details. Promise to get back with those details later. Don

PS: If anyone has any insights on who this might have been please let me know. Thanks. Obviously they would have been from Texas in the Beaumont, Lumberton or Silsbee area.