The Author
Tom Buresh lives in his hometown, Cedar Rapids, IA with two sons, their spouses and four granddaughters reside. His oldest son, wife and four grandchildren reside in Seattle.
Born in 1949, Tom was a “baby boomer” who suffered with overcrowded schools in his primary education. He entered St. Olaf College in Northfield MN in 1967 earning an economics major, a history minor and (to avoid being drafted for Viet Nam) a ROTC 5-uyear U.S. Air Force commitment. In Law School, Tom "clerked” for the General Counsel of Honeywell, Inc., learning about the newest invention: computers. At that time Honeywell was a “Top 5” computer manufacturer. Here he learned tricks and procedures for complex litigation that underpinned his legal career and this book.
Tom reported to McClellan AFB in Sacramento, CA, in December 1974, one of five major air bases for contracting and major aircraft overhauls. He had a one year “internship” as a “procurement buyer”, where he instead was the Procurement in-house law clerk preparing to litigate two $12 million lawsuits arising from the a Defense Department effort to buy just one portable generator type in certain sizes for all of the military. Tom became lead counsel for the huge and the very small generator contract suits. So began his career in complex litigation and government contracts, where he learned assemble, analyze and present massive amounts of data in simplified, digestible form to judges and juries.
The Early Foundation
Tom turned 5-years old in May 1954, ten years after VE Day and old enough to know many WWII veterans, play “Army” with cap guns, and listen to stories of WWII. In 5th Grade his family hosted a German teenager whose father was a submarine captain lost in WWII. Two uncles and many friends had fought in the “War”. At five years old, the Korean War kept all such things in the news. Boys loved “war movies” on TVs, the Army surplus stores and games as “hit the dirt’.
Besides having a German girl live with us, Tom’s parents took business trips to Europe beginning 1956 as they joined the “slide show” generation. Couples invited guests for drinks, dinner and a slide show of their recent trips. In 1955 “communications” entailed a set of World Book Encyclopedias and a small, black and white TV with just three stations. Tom’s mother took German language night classes and the college classes. The kids took German in high school and college.
Just after 16th birthday, left on a six-week national high school counsel trip with 160 students for four weeks were bussing from England to Holland south through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and then France with a two-week Baltic sail on a WWII troopship with 1,000 students to Stockholm, St. Petersburg (and Moscow) and Copenhagen.
Living in Germany
In the Air Force Tom was transferred to Ramstein AFB, Germany where he and his family lived in the village of Kindsbach just west of Kaiserslautern in the Rhineland Pfalz. At this time, 1978, mini motorhomes were new, Tom bought a new 19 ½ feet van body mobile home he drove from California to New York harbor to be shipped to Germany. Its fiberglass roof rack held seven five-gallon Gerry cans of cheap, air force gasoline at just $.55, versus $2.00 a gallon at a German station. Tom’s family drove 40,000 miles through Europe over two years before camping restrictions arrived. So, it was they slept on the Thames Riverbank with Westminster Abbey to greet them in the morning.
Tom was legal counsel for an Army – Air Force procurement center for bases west of the Rhine. About 25 of the German employees learned English incarcerated for 3 years in U.S. and U.K POW camps. One was a California migrant worker, another worked for a sheepherder in Scotland. They told their WWII stories, but only those when they fought the Soviets (not Americans)- -- it was fascinating to learn the German views WWII; to learn what they thought as Third and Seventh Armies swept through the Rhine-Pfalz area. Tom knew many Germans in Kindsbach. The neighbor had a leg amputated in the war, younger Germans willingly discussed the war of their parents. A good friend, Ludwig, told of being drafted into the German Army at age 14, sent to Metz, France to work on rebuilding the massive concrete forts there. (Tom had never heard anything about “Metz”). In August 1944, Ludwig deserted to walk 100 miles back to Kindsbach to hide in the hills above our village for months until the Americans came. His story was a “turning point’ in Tom’s life.
Motorhome, WWI Battlefield Commission & WWII Memorials Missing in Europe
Tom’s family drove their mini motorhome over 40,000 miles through Europe; Netherlands to Switzerland; France on weekend, holiday trips and dinners at night. There were eight weeklong trips to Italy, south France and Great Britain. After World War I, the U.S. Army formed a “Battlefield Commission” which spent years obtaining and constructing WWI battlefield sites and highway scenic view turnouts with placards. There are many Vauban style concrete forts some built by the French (blue dots) and similar, massive forts built by the Germans from 1871 to WWI in red.
The dotted line shows the part of France that was owned by Germany from 1871 to 1918 – another fact little known in the U.S. since the French were not proud of losing in 1871. When U.S. forces left Verdun (top middle map) in 1944 they were in an area where many supported the Germans with their concrete forts on the Mosel River at Nancy, Metz and Saarbrucken -- all outpost of Hitler’s West Wall border defenses.
So it was that vicious battles were fought along the redline in WWII by one French and two U.S. armies. Yet, there is nothing – just nothing to memorialize the Allied military forces. Visiting France many believe when they leave the memorials, flags and cemeteries at UTAH, OMAHA and Ste Mere Eglise, they have visited the WWII sights in Europe. They say: “Oh, I know all about WWII now!” It is embarrassing; it fits the stereotype of the uncouth American, well-grounded in U.S. history, completely ignorant in European history. A “know-it-all” of nothing. “Seen OMAHA Beach, can check WWII in Europe off my “to-do” list. What next?” In France most WWII historical roadside markers glorify the FFI (French Underground). Arrogance forbade de Gaulle from admitting he needed Allied help in WWII, so that history is not memorialized. There is no route of the U.S. 1st Division!
The WWI and WWII U.S. Battlefield Commissions
The stark difference between the two U.S. Commissions is: the first had Congressional funds to acquire land for battlefield sites and parks with overlooks and informative signs; WWI American soldiers WWI were fittingly memorialized. Millions of Americans, British, Canadian and French national and colonial citizens served in WWII in Europe; tens of thousands were wounded or died. But no Battlefield Commissions formed. It is up to U.S. and European charitable organizations to light and memorialize this path of history. This book shall aid the effort.
Tom is also a Sustaining Member of the Society for Military History at the New Orleans WWII Museum.
He feels that this organization understands the importance of WWII History
