Art LeSage : WW2 Veteran Interview on WDIO Duluth, Minn.

Art LeSage was a 16-year-old farm boy from Morris, Minnesota, who decided to join the Minnesota National Guard.

It was 1938, and he told us it was because there was a little money in it.
So he enlisted, and through training, became a paratrooper and a second lieutenant.
Then WWII hit. He was eventually assigned to the 82nd Airborne, and shipped overseas. His first mission, was jumping into Sicily.
"We didn't know what was going on. Hadn't been in combat in our life. Our plane was being hit. We were lucky. There was 27 or 29 planes knocked down by our own navy," he remembers.
He made it, and the troops advanced through Sicily.

Then he went in on landing crafts in Anzio, which is up in Italy.
It was there, in January of 1944, he was wounded and captured.
He said he was taken to a prisoner of war camp in Germany first, then to a different one in Poland. It was for officers.
"They treated us OK. They didn't torture us. But there was never enough food. I lost 30 pounds or so. And it was cold. There was no heat in the buildings. Many men froze their feet," he said.
He figured they would have really starved if they didn't get the Red Cross parcels. "I'd trade out the cigarettes for a candy bar," he said with a smile.
The camp was called Oflag 64, and held about 1400 men.
A year after he was sent there, the Germans decided to march the prisoners out.
"We figured it was because the Russians were advancing," he said. So the group was marched out. They stayed the first night in a farming community in Poland. They were to sleep outside. That's when LeSage teamed up with a buddy, named Lt. Goman.
"We both said, we gotta get out of here. So in the middle of the night, we snuck out," he said.
They stayed with a Polish family, who he recalled was wonderful.
Then, a few days later, they heard Russians were marching up the road. He and Lt. Goman went out to meet them, figuring they were allies. But they did not get a warm welcome.
"Their guns were drawn, and we tried to explain we were Americans. I saw a Studebaker truck, and started yelling, Studebaker! American! Roosevelt!" LeSage remembered.
Finally, comprehension dawns, and everyone calmed down.
The Russians took them to Warsaw, where they saw the total destruction of the city. Again, they stayed with Polish families. It was still several months later before he was able to make it back home in Minnesota, in April of 1945.
He's very proud of his military background, and is involved in various groups like the VFW.
LeSage said he was still having problems with his feet, from when they were so cold in Poland, and was getting help from a veterans service officer in Alexandria. It came up that LeSage never got his medals. The officer said he wanted to make it right. So with help from the army, LeSage finally received his medals late last year.
"It really brought back memories. I've been able to share more with my kids now, than I ever had before," he said.
LeSage now lives in Duluth, to be closer to his daughter.
The army is honoring his service with a medals ceremony on Saturday, at the armory on Airpark Boulevard. The event will be at 2pm.

The Video: http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S2490337.shtml?cat=0?video=YHI&t=a

 

here we go again with that Small World thing!

 

Found it's always best to give credit where credit is due.
I've even passed along kudos to that face book thing. It hurt, but I did it.

 

I think you'll find this to be true throughout the site. None of us is anxious to take credit for the work of others. Generally speaking, we give credit where it is due.