10/23/2026
Today was super special for me, spending time with my buddy 102-year-old World War II veteran Mr Von.
Von served as a halftrack driver with Company B, 49th Armored Infantry Battalion, 8th Armored Division. He nicknamed his halftrack “Blitzkrieg.”
On March 5 1945, a Day Von remembers so well, just outside of Wesel, Germany, Von was leading a column of halftracks across a field when a Panzerfaust struck the rear of his vehicle. Von was not wounded in the initial blast, but his assistant driver lost his left hand, the squad leader was injured, and three of the infantrymen in the back were killed instantly —including Von’s friend, John Irving Gallagher, who was sitting right behind him. Von remembered hearing John call out. Von didn’t spend any time to look back - his first reaction was to get out of the vehicle.
He opened his door to stand up, and in that exact moment, a German sniper shot Von in the upper right leg. He crawled to cover and waited through the night until he was evacuated the following day.
For 81 years, Von never knew what happened to his squad mates and had never seen a photo of his friend John. After some research with my friend Donald, we discovered that John was also from our home state, Pennsylvania. Today, I took Von to pay his respects at John’s resting place in Bellefonte, PA.
Von hasn’t ever flown on a plane, let alone set foot back in Europe since 1945. But this coming spring, I’m bringing Von back to Germany to stand on the exact ground where this event happened! Two other men from his halftrack are buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery, so Von will finally be able to visit them, too!
More to come on this story!
KeepingHistoryAlive.org
