This my friends is Mr. Gene Thomas, who is my personal friend and a WWII Vet of the 101st Airborne Division, 506th PIR, 1st Battalion, Able Company. I met Gene two years ago at a WWII Symposium when I was a freshman at Appalachian State. Gene jumped on D-Day fought through Normandy, jumped into Holland and survived at Bastonge. He was a guard at Nuremburg and he also fought with the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea. Gene has two purple hearts, two Bronze stars, a silver star, and a Presidential Unit Citation. Gene lives only 30 minutes away from Boone, NC in Avery County. Just a quick story about how Gene and I first met, I walk into the building of this symposium and there 60-70 vets seated and standing along this hallway in the Broyhill Center. There are paintings hanging up honoring the soldiers, and the vets have tables setup with frames and all their medals, awards, unit patches, and dog tags. Well several other vets have their souvenirs set out, and one guy in particular, another close friend named Sam Wotherspoon, has anything you can think of. Sam served in the 3rd Infantry Division alongside Audie Murphy. Anyways Sam has the Nazi Flag he got off a panzer tank that's probably 45in by 20in, and on this flag are the different medals and buttons he got off of German soldiers. Sam will just hand me stuff and say "Here ya go buddy have a gift." He's handed me Hitler Youth pins, different pins and an Iron Cross First Class. But back to my story so I talk to Sam about what he did and he's amazed about the information I know about the war, so he puts his arm around me and says, "Follow me son." I gladly obey and he takes me to this paratrooper and says, "Hey Gene check this kid out, he knows about everything we did over there." I ask him what regiment he was a part of and he says "506th, Able Company Mortar Man."
When Gene said Able Company I started thinking and I had recently just finished Don Burgett's book Curahee, so I asked, "Sir, you wouldn't happen to be Gene Thomas would you?" He replies, "How the hell did you know my name?" and I told him I just finished reading a book about him and Don and he was so impressed and overjoyed that a young man knew who he was. We talked awhile and I got their numbers, and we went out to eat the following week. Well these guys invited me to come to their WWII Roundtable meetings on the first Friday of each month. I've been to every single one since August of 2012 and tonight at a Dinner with the Vets they made me an official member of their Roundtable. One of the running jokes that they all kid me about is that in my previous life I was either a paratrooper or pilot during the war, and they get a kick out of that joke too. But tonight those guys and gals told me something that really stuck to me. They told me that I was one of the finest young men they've ever met and it was an honor for them to be in my presence. They said that everytime they see me, I put a smile on their faces and they know I will listen and devour every word that they tell me. I teared up a little tonight because these guys told me in a way I was one of them and that they look at me like a son. It was one of the biggest honors I've ever received in my opinion and something I'll never forget.
If any of you guys are ever in Boone I'd love for you guys to meet some of the vets we have, they are very humble and very fun to be around, they love meeting people interested in what they did over there. Let me know if any of y'all are ever up here, and I'll let you guys meet some of these guys and gals.
