DISTINGUISHED GUESTS OF HONOR
“
They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.”
–
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s official address announcing the Normandy assault
Jack Appel was born in Brooklyn, New York, in September 1923 and graduated from high school early at age 15. He attended New York University and was in his first year of law school when he received his draft notice. Reporting for duty on January 1, 1943, Appel went through basic training at Camp Yaphank in Long Island, New York. Because he had worked for Cities Service Oil Company in New York as a nighttime switchboard operator, he was assigned to the Signal Corps. After a series of transfers and a bout of meningitis that required hospitalization, Appel completed his Signal Corps training at Camp Crowder, Missouri, and was assigned to Company B, 17th Signal Operations Battalion. Appel’s battalion was shipped to England and later crossed the Channel to France. After arriving on the Continent, they supported Headquarters, US First Army, in France, Belgium, and Germany. During the assault into Germany, Appel was transferred from Company B to Company A. When the war in Europe ended, he remained in Germany on occupation duty for a couple of months before returning to the United States. Shortly before he was to begin training for deployment to the Pacific, the Japanese surrendered. In October 1945, Appel was discharged from the Army with the rank of Private First Class.
Edgar Buffman enlisted in the US Navy in 1944. Too young to join on his own, he had to have his mother sign for him to enter the service. Buffman completed his boot camp training at the Naval Training Station Sampson in Sampson, New York, then took gunnery training in Washington, D.C. With his training complete, he was assigned to the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) as part of the original commissioning crew. Buffman’s job aboard the Missouri was helping to man a section of 20-mm Oerlikon antiaircraft guns located amidships. By the end of the war, he was a gun captain supervising the 25 sailors manning the five 20-mm guns in his section. During his time aboard the Missouri, Buffman took part in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa as well as covering air strikes on mainland Japan. Buffman returned to the United States after the war and was discharged from the Navy in 1946 as a Gunner’s Mate Second Class.
Jack Appel Edgar Buffman US Army US Navy
Albert Carr was drafted into the US Army in July 1943. After completing basic training at Camp Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas, he was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, as a rifleman. Carr landed with the 29th Infantry Division across Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. The following day, he was lightly wounded when a German bullet grazed him under the chin. In July 1944, Carr switched specialties to automatic rifleman and began carrying his squad’s Browning Automatic Rifle. That same month, however, he was seriously wounded when a German bullet hit him in the shoulder. After recovering, Carr was able to continue in combat. He took part in the breakout from Normandy and the fighting in Northern France as well as the campaigns in the Rhineland and Central Europe. After the Germans surrendered on May 8, 1945, Carr transitioned from combat soldier to occupation duty. He remained in Europe until September 1945 then returned to the United States. Carr was discharged from the Army the following month with the rank of Private First Class.
John Chupinsky served in the US Army as a fire direction specialist in Company A, 86th Chemical Mortar Battalion. After a brief stay in England, he landed in Normandy across Utah Beach on June 29, 1944, and went into action supporting elements of the US VIII Corps. Over the next nine months, Chupinsky took part in combat operations in Normandy, Northern France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe. In April 1945, while supporting the 69th Infantry Division, Chupinsky’s Company A was one of the first units to meet up with Soviet army infantry forces. By V-E Day, they had pushed all the way to the Czechoslovakian border. Following the German surrender, Chupinsky remained in Europe for several months. He returned to the United States in August 1945 and was discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant.
Albert Carr Dr. John Chupinsky US Army US Army
Kenneth Mar was born in Canton, China, in 1925. Following the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, Mar’s mother sent him to the United States to live with his uncle in Sacramento, California. Upon his arrival, he was held in a detention center and interrogated. When it was shown that his uncle ran a meat market and could cover Mar’s room and board, he was released. Mar learned to speak English while working for his uncle and was still in high school when he was drafted into the US Army. After basic training and some advanced courses, Mar was sent overseas as a replacement. His group arrived in France two weeks after D-Day. There, Mar was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division and went into combat shortly after. Mar and the 2nd Infantry Division moved across France and arrived in Belgium riding in old Fortyand-Eight boxcars. They spent the cold winter months in foxholes. Mar quickly became one of the old guys as new replacements came in. In mid-January 1945, Mar was captured by the Germans and forced to march to a temporary prisoner-of-war compound where Mar was put to work. Later, they were put on another train for transport to Stalag XII-A in Linberg, Germany; when the train broke down, all the prisoners were forced to march. Finally, they were liberated by the Americans. Mar was flown from Germany to France and spent two weeks recovering before being shipped to the United States. Mar was discharged from the Army with the rank of Corporal.
Kenneth Mar
US Army
Charles F. Richardson was drafted into the US Army Air Forces in January 1943. He was trained as a radioman and gunner then assigned to a B-17 crew in the 571st Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force, based out of Framlingham, England. He and his crew flew combat missions on D-Day and during the Battle of the Bulge, a shuttle mission to Russia/Ukraine, then on to Italy. After the war, Richardson was discharged from the Army Air Forces with the rank of Tech Sergeant.
Charles Richardson US Army Air Forces
Edward Tresch Sr. was born in 1927 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He served in the US Merchant Marine from 1944–47. He made two trips on the SS Corozal to the following ports in order: Mobile–New Orleans–Guantanamo Bay–Venezuela–Trinidad–Dutch Guyana. He made one trip on the SS William Travis and one trip aboard the SS Clifford Mallory. During his trip aboard the Travis, he delivered bauxite to the Pacific. His trip aboard the Mallory was postwar. Tresch trained at the US Merchant Seaman Training Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was an able-bodied seaman when he left the Merchant Marine.
Maud Dahme was born into a Jewish family in Amersfoort, Netherlands, in 1936. When Germany ordered all Jews to vacate their homes and get to the train stations, Dahme and her sister, Rita, were told they were going on vacation. The girls were woken up at 3:00 a.m., told to not wear their stars on their coats, and walked with their parents to the next town. They were delivered to a farm where the couple was a bit older and didn’t have kids. The couple explained to the girls that they were to forget their old lives and names and be very careful about what information they spread. They lived with the couple for a while, also taking in an older hidden child who was stored in the barn for some time. They were moved around December 1944 to another family in a small village and were given new names. The Allied bombing in the area became intense at times, creating a very trying time for Dahme. After Germany surrendered, the Dahme sisters returned to the first farmhouse they were hidden at to be received by their parents. Being so young and having been separated for so long, the girls had little memory of their parents. They consented to go with them with the provision that if they didn’t like the couple, they could return to the farmhouse. Fortunately, the family became a cohesive unit and decided to leave the Netherlands, immigrating to the United States in 1950 for a chance to start over. Going to American schools was difficult for the girls as they did not speak English. Their parents declared only English spoken be at home, and Dahme went to a lot of movies to help assimilate with the language. Dahme’s parents did not talk about the war. Dahme started talking about her experiences in 1981 and continues to speak, teach, and travel to make sure that the Holocaust is never forgotten.
Edward Tresch Sr. Maud Dahme US Merchant Marine Holocaust Survivor