My connection to our Army started in 1945, two years before I was born in Wels, Austria. My parents had fled from Hungary, their homeland, before the advancing Soviet armies. Their goal was to reach the American army so that when the war ended, they would hopefully be in the US not the Soviet zone of occupation.
Their journey took them to the picturesque town of Gmunden, Austria which had just been occupied by American soldiers and there they stopped.
Finding shelter in a dairy barn, they eventually secured better accommodations while my father went to work as a bricklayer in a neighboring town.
Finally, four years later, they found a distant relative in Cleveland, Ohio who, with the help of Catholic Charities, sponsored their passage to America. I, meanwhile, was born in Austria in February 1947, early enough to make the crossing with them on a Navy transport ship the USS General S.D. Surgis (AP-137) named after a USMA 1846 graduate.
Forty-seven years later, as the Commander of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, I attended a reunion of the Regiment’s World War II veterans. They brought their albums showing their march through Europe at the head of Patton’s 3rd Army.
“Here is where we ended up”, one veteran related, “in a beautiful little town in Austria, named Gmunden” !
It was then I realized that my parents, so many years earlier, had found refuge in a town occupied by the regiment I then commanded.
Wow, what a great story, Bob! And what good fortune for the US Army that it all unfolded the way it has.
Bob! I’ve known you since my plane from Toledo stopped in Cleveland where you got on on the way to Newark on or about 6/30/1965 for our entry to USMA, but i never knew your family’s story! What a great thing for you and for America! Thanks for telling us!
Lieber Bob:
Erstaunliche Geschichte! Danke sehr!
Beste Wünsche,
Bill : )
Great journey, Bob. Glad you and your family made it. Truely an American story for the ages.
Jim
What a magnificent story and a great telling of it! I am so glad you shared it, Bob. Thanks.
What a great story Bob. Truly, the American dream for your parents, which translated into your service. Both sets of my grandparents migrated to the US from Eastern Europe; my maternal grandparents from Ukraine and my paternal grandparents from Poland in 1909. Your relationship with the 3d Cavalry and Gmunden and that of your parents with Gmunden is amazing.
Bob, I was born in Wurzburg, Germany in December of ’47as my father (Class of ’45) flew the Berlin Air Lift.
But your story is much more exciting. So glad you shared it. We didn’t know.
Your parents’ story would be worthy of a book. They were so fortunate to escape from Hungary.
Bob
You and Maryanne have been a gift to all who were privileged enough to know you. Your story is wonderful and remarkable. Congratulations again for all your success. My best memories are AWC with you and MA and OCing your great unit at NTC.
Bob
What a wonderful story. I personally thank god for you every day. It is an honor and a privilege to call you brother and friend. And the finest of people!!
Such a great revelation about how you and your family reached America. Mine parents both emigrated from Germany. My father fought in the US Army Air Corps in China, Burma and India, and his brother(German Navy) lost his life in the firebombing of Hamburg. My parents returned to a leveled Hamburg in 1950 on the USS Washington, the first ship to sail from NY to Hamburg after the war. We were greeted by surrounding fireboats spraying their water cannons and announcing welcome back to Herman Behncke and family.
Bob, great story about the immigration of the Ivany family. Thanks for sharing. My paternal grandfather Ernest Prosch emigrated to Indiana from Stuttgart Germany in the early 1900’s. My father bombed Stuttgart as an Army Air Corps B-17 pilot with the 92d Bomb Group, 8th Air Force in England. America is a better place due to the Ivany’s settling it here.
Geoff
Bob, thanks for sharing this amazing story. It’s an honor to know you as classmate and friend!
Bob — That must have been a magical moment for you when you realized that the 3rd ACR had liberated your birthplace. What a great story. Thanks
Amazing story, Bob! You and Marianne have served the country well, honoring your roots. Ann & I are fortunate to call you friends.