On 22 December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, with the Germans surrounding the Belgian town of Bastogne, a German messenger brought a message from his commander to Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, acting commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, demanding his surrender. McAuliffe's response was simply, "Nuts!"Manning a foxhole on the perimeter around Bastogne was nineteen-year-old Army private Vince Speranza, a machine gunner with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. This is Vince's story of the Battle of the Bulge and his life before and after the battle.Vince shares his memories from early childhood through his service in World War II and his life up until now as he stands on the verge of turning 90--a story you will long remember. Vince will be in Bastogne, at his original foxhole, on the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, drinking Airborne Beer, which his actions many years ago inspired.

It all started because of a rifle. The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero’s journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all -- WWII veterans. It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories. For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

The Golden Warrior and the bravest man I ever knew. When Dave and I fought together, no matter how severe the action, he would put his hand on my shoulder, and it gave me a calming effect. He was as fi erce in battle as he was gentle in friendship. Charles E. Eckman, 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles Holtwood, Pennsylvania I remember David as a kind, soft-spoken man and was intrigued that he was also Colonel Michaelis radio operator. All of these men were larger than life! Little is known about Michealis because he was in command of the 502nd for such a short, yet important, time. Peter J. K. Hendrikx, author of Orange is the Color of the Day Pictorial history of the 101st Airborne Liberation of Holland www.heroesatmargraten.com Madame Rolle, owner of Chateau Rollea castle located in Champs outside of Bastogne, Belgium, and was designated as the headquarter command post for the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment when she was a young girlremembered our father operating his radio in her foyer, and said, He was a nice young fellow who kept talking to someone named Roger. Madame Rolle This collection of letters, written by a young 101st Airborne paratrooper soldier to his sweetheart from 1943-1945, is so personal and matter-offact that I almost forgot that David Clinton Tharp was only one of millions of heroes made by World War II. David Tharp certainly deserves a book like this in his honor, and it deserves to be read and praised. It is a mustread for every American, and especially for veterans of war. Palmetto Review

A former World War II army nurse shares her extraordinary life stories visualized from her earliest childhood memories over eighty years ago, to the present. Muriel Engelman begins her fascinating narrative by detailing her journey through childhood during the Great Depression and then transitioning into her structured life as a student nurse. Caring for polio patients in a city hospital she becomes skilled in dealing with difficult patients. Upon graduation she was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and sailed with her hospital unit in late 1943 for England, serving there for six months. Her unit arrived in Normandy, France after D Day, followed the advancing army and eventually operated a 1,000 bed tent hospital in Liege, Belgium. Lighter off-duty moments balanced out the threat of capture and continuous buzz bombs, all while caring for wounded American soldiers. This is all described in excerpts from actual letters penned to her family often by the dim light of a kerosene lantern or flashlight, knowing as she wrote that survival was not a guaranteed possibility. Engelman shares vivid descriptions of the people, settings and memories in a timeless style that will transport anyone back to an era when the future of the world was uncertain, and the bravery of those who sacrificed everything to protect America was not forgotten.

THE GUNS ARE SILENT NOW. Nature is slowly healing the brutal scars that marred Normandy, Holland, and Bastogne. The men who struggled in many of the greatest battles in human history are dwindling in number. One day perhaps all traces of the epic tragedy of World War II will be gone. And that is why this personal account by Donald Deam, who fought in all three battles, is so precious. As he wrote shortly before his death: "This is the story of a one hundred and twelve pound nineteen year old who became a First Sergeant in the 501st Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division. Many years have now passed. My memory often fades and then resurfaces in vivid fashion. I still relive many episodes of the war. I miss the comradeship that existed, something I have never experienced in peacetime. I don't recall many of their faces. Now these memories often bring back a few smiles, but also bring many tears. Too many of these men did not come back." All proceeds from this book will be donated to the 101st Airborne Division in honor of First Sgt. Donald L. Deam.

Fans of Stephen E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers will be drawn to this complex portrait of the controversial Ronald Speirs, an iconic commander of Easy Company during World War II, whose ferocious courage in three foreign conflicts was matched by his devotion to duty and the bittersweet passions of wartime romance. His comrades called him “Killer.” Of the elite paratroopers who served in the venerated “Band of Brothers” during World War II, none were more enigmatic than Ronald Speirs. Rumored to have gunned down enemy prisoners and even one of his own disobedient sergeants, Speirs’ became a foxhole legend amongst his troops. But who was the real Lieutenant Speirs? In Fierce Valor, historians Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr unveil the full story of Easy Company’s longest-serving commander for the first time. Tested by trials of extreme training, military rivalry, and lost love, Speirs’s international odyssey begins as an immigrant child in Prohibition-era Boston, continues through the bloody campaigns in France, Holland, and Germany, and sheds light on his lesser known exploits in Korea, the Cold War, and embattled Laos. Packed with groundbreaking research, Fierce Valor unveils a compelling portrait of an officer defined by boldness on the battlefield and a telling reminder that few soldiers escape the power of their own pasts.

Richard J. Flaherty's been called spook, assassin, dope smuggler, dwarf... but who was he really? Welcome to the strange and shadowy world of covert ops, cover-ups, conspiracies and the smallest and most unconventional man ever to serve in the US military.