World War II veterans Bill Harrison at left, Dan McBride, second from right, and Alfredo Legarda, at right, with author Mary Alice Murphy, second from left.
The Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society recently honored local veterans of World War II at the society's annual meeting/banquet and membership drive, and local journalist and author Mary Alice Murphy, who has chronicled many of their stories in her book “God’s Umbrella.”
The WW II veterans in attendance included James W. “Bill” Harrison, Dan McBride, and Alfredo Legarda. Harrison served in the U.S. Navy, and worked closely with Admiral Chester Nimitz and his public relations staff and had a seat close to history as he helped tell the world about such events as the Battle of Midway, which stopped the Japanese advance across the Pacific in June 1942.
McBride served in the famed elite 101st Airborne Division and parachuted into Normandy the night before D-Day, June 6, 1944. He also took part in Operation Market Garden in Holland a few months later, and then while still in a leg cast, hurried to Bastogne, Belgium to assist in the desperate defense of that town, that ultimately stopped the German advance during the Battle of the Bulge, in December, 1944. Although wounded three times, he was still with his company when the war ended in May 1945, one of the nine remaining soldiers of his company, which had numbered 116 on D-Day. In the final days of the war, he was among the American soldiers who occupied Hitler’s Eagles Nest hideaway high in the Austrian Alps. He even was able to take a ride in one of Hitler’s cars “before our officers arrived and stopped the fun.”
Legarda enlisted in the Army “because he was going to get drafted anyway,” at age seventeen. After training, he was assigned to another elite Army unit, the 10th Mountain Division, especially trained for service in mountainous terrain of central and southern Europe. After landing at Naples, Italy, the division fought its way northward through the Apennine Mountain Range of Italy, against some of the toughest German troops in the war. Soldiers who served in Italy snickered at Winston Churchill’s description of Italy as “the soft underbelly of Europe,” instead referring to it as “a tough old gut.” Like his other fellow veterans, Legarda is a shining example of why author Tom Brokaw referred to them as “The Greatest Generation.”
The featured speaker of the evening was Doug Hocking of Arizona, who gave an overview of the trials and tribulations of the less known Jicarilla Apache tribe in New Mexico.
The FBHPS will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II throughout the year, with films and other events. For more information, consult the organization website at www.fortbayard.org.