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'Veterans Day

ON THE COVER

Known But To God

Memories from page A15

By Donald Golde

(Dedicated to all soldiers who have died, but most especially those I served with in
WWII — Darby's Rangers and the First Special Service Force.)

I see the six black horses coming down the road.
They are pulling a caisson, with a very heavy load.
I see the six black horses pulling to the side,
And I wonder whose son is this, the soldier who has died.
I hear the bugle blowing. I hear the cannon roaring.
I hear the drums rolling o'er the plain.
While a soldier lies at rest, with his arms across his chest,
By a hallow grave, and no one knows his name.
I hear the rifle fire from the valley overhead.
I see the body lying there, poor soldier boy is dead.
I see a flag-draped coffin sitting to the side,
And I wonder whose son is this, this soldier who had died.

Ranger beret worn by Donald Golde

right foot amputated in the hospital.
Later, this heroic act would be the reason
Golde began to care about medals. The
knowledge that the two stretcher-bearers
received a Bronze Star and Distinguished
Service Cross for their efforts while he did
not, still haunts him to this day, although
he did receive other medals for different
episodes in the war.
To add insult to injury, while he was at
a veteran's reunion in Florida in 2000, he
overheard a former colonel speak of the
time a general pulled a man out of a mine-
field in Anzio. Without hesitation, before
the colonel could even finish the word
"out," Golde boldly interrupted: "I pulled
him out of that minefield."
Asked for proof of the events, he wrote
down everything that had occurred
and included letters from eyewit-
nesses. Congressman Joe Knollenberg,
R-Bloomfield Township, has nominated
Golde for the Congressional Medal of
Honor. There has been no resolution of his
case.

Faith In The Trenches
"I never believed in God too much;' Golde
said. As a boy on the farm, he didn't prac-
tice many Jewish customs. And being a Jew
born on Christmas Day didn't sit well with
his faith, either. But, during WWII, as his

trench foot grew worse, Golde turned to
God to help heal his injuries.
Golde remembers making this promise:
"You know, God, I don't believe in You very
much, but if You pull me through this, I
will always believe in You."
He still honors that promise.
"To this day, even if I don't belong to
one [synagogue], I still make sure to wear
a yarmulke [out of respect] when I'm in a
synagogue," he said.
After Anzio and the attack on Cisternia,
Golde and 200 others became members
of the First Special Service Force. In total,
there were 1,150 Americans and 1,150
Canadians. The Rangers were disbanded
in 1945.
Golde was medically discharged Feb. 24,
1945, and sent home on a hospital ship. He
was wounded twice by shrapnel — on the
side of his head and in his hand — and
the bottoms of his feet were cut off from
trench foot. He spent eight months recover-
ing in Army hospitals.
In 1953, when he was 28, Golde married
Bernie Alper, 21, of Detroit. The two met
at a party she was hosting. They have two
children, Lori and David, and three grand-
children.
Combining his love of hunting and fish-
ing with an interest in machinery, Golde
started a business that manufactures

specialty fishing nets. The factory still
makes sporting equipment in Detroit, and
Golde frequently hangs out there. When his
son took over the business, he renamed it
Ranger Products, after his father's WWII
unit.

Reliving The Past
In 1994, while reading a military maga-
zine, Golde saw a photograph of Arlington
Cemetery with its many grave markers.
He wondered if anyone had ever written a
poem or song about Army cemeteries, then
decided to write one himself. Using his rec-
ollections, Golde wove a moving poem that
won first place in an international contest
that had 438 entries.
Golde dedicated the poem to Darby's
Rangers and the First Special Service
Force. Often the poem moves listeners to
tears, he said.
He also took on the difficult task of put-
ting music to his words. Using an old-fash-
ioned tape recorder, he created a melody of
minor notes to further express his award-
winning poem. With the help of his guitar
instructor, he managed to get the notes on
paper.
In May, Golde was invited by the Denver-
based Greatest Generation Foundation,
along with 20 other WWII veterans, to
take part in an all-expense-paid trip to

Europe and important war sites. The
group visited England, France, Luxemburg,
Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria.
At the American Military Cemetery in
Luxemburg, a general asked Golde to recite
his poem for the 300-person audience.
Although caught off-guard, he enjoyed
reading it and did so again at the American
Military Museum. A World War II veteran,
Capt. Reed Sundine, stood up and said,
"That poem says it all."
As he reflects on his long life, Golde's
advice to all generations is to "keep your-
self active." Whether physically or mentally,
keeping active is the best thing one can
do to keep young, he said. Although he is
considered a highly disabled veteran, he
follows his own advice.
"I don't give up," he says, with the tough-
ness of a true Ranger. I

Gabriella Ring, 14, is a freshman at Berkley
High School.

Honoring Our Veterans

The Jewish War Veterans
Department of Michigan will host
a public Veterans Day Memorial
Ceremony, 11 a.m., Sunday, Nov.11,
at Great Lakes National Cemetery,
4200 Belford Road, Holly.

Generation To Generation

World War II veteran Donald H. Golde of West
Bloomfield is part of a "disappearing genera-
tion." It's devastating to realize that soon they
no longer will be with us. While they are here,
everybody – especially young people – need
to seize the opportunity to talk to them. Their
experiences educate us and fill us with history,
our own history.
By interviewing Mr. Golde, I know I learned
information I never would have read in a his-
tory textbook.
I've always been interested in the history and
culture of different regions of the world. This
year, I traveled with my mother to meet rela-
tives in Germany, home to Adolf Hitler and his

A16

November 8 • 2007

plot to eliminate the Jews in the 1940s. This
summer, I also went to Washington, D.C., and
visited the World War II Memorial.
While there, a group of WWII vets were visit-
ing, courtesy of Honors Flight, whose mission
is to bring veterans on all-expense-paid trips to
see the memorial built in their honor.
My generation needs to realize that very
soon no one will be left to talk to about their
experiences in World War II or the Holocaust. To
communicate with a primary source, someone
who was really there, is undoubtedly important.
I'm lucky I got my chance with Mr. Golde.

— Gabriella Ring

