one letter in his year at Michigan State
University before enlisting."

Multi - Medal Winner

Bale, 21, was wounded three times,
getting a Silver Star and three Purple
Hearts, and probably could have gone
home after his wounds. But he insisted
on returning to action and was killed
near the end of the war while firing a
bazooka at German tanks.
Steinberg, like the others, wants the
post to succeed, "but it may be easier
on everyone if all the posts merged:' he
said.
He hopes the Sept. 12 dinner will be
successful, "but I'm afraid most people
will just come out for a nice evening,
then we won't see them again:'
Maintaining the Bale Post roster is no
easy task. About 16 million Americans
served in the military during WWII, and
they're now dying at a rate of 1,000 to
1,200 a day; 416,000 were killed in the
war.
"Seven of our members have died so
far this year," Stone lamented.
Russman says he shudders when he
receives a phone call from an honor
guard colleague. "It usually means the
honor guard has to get ready for a cer-
emony at a funeral home," he said.
Colman added: "It seems we're
always attending funerals. After all, we
were born in the 1920s and '30s."

Escaped War Wounds

Miraculously, all of the veterans inter-
viewed escaped injury in the war while
serving in both the European and Pacific
theaters, and all earned a spate of med-
als. Russman, who later sold men's cloth-
ing and insurance, was a gunner's-mate
second class on a destroyer and took
part in both the Normandy and south-
ern France invasions. "The highlight of
my time there was meeting the famous
Gen. George Patton:' he said with a
smile.
Arnold, who later was in the luggage
business and an insurance agent, went
Russman one better by meeting Gen.
Dwight Eisenhower after the latter's
plane was forced down by mechanical
trouble at a base near Paris. "Ike struck
up a conversation and asked me if we
should move forward into German'
recalled Arnold, a staff sergeant. "I told
him definitely yes, but you go ahead and
I'll bring up the rear:'
Finkelstein, who spent 58 years
in the auto parts business, was an
army sergeant who sludged his way
through the islands of Guadalcanal and
Luzon, attacking Japanese pill boxes
and eventually helping Gen. Douglas
MacArthur make his famous return to
the Philippines.
Colman, who still practices law,
emerged from the war as a staff sergeant

and later located two of his cousins
who were German concentration camp
survivors and facilitated their entry into
the U.S.

The Usual Anti - Semitism

Steinberg, the post's official historian,
landed at France's Utah Beach on D-Day
and later was awarded a Bronze Star for
heading the Quartermaster Corps, which
kept truck drivers, medics, cooks and
supplies moving through France and
into the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
"We were freezing in Bastone and
had to take coats, gloves and boots off
of dead German soldiers to survive
he said.
Steinberg and his brother later
operated a chemical business for 50
years, supplying materials to the auto
industry.
Stone, like the others, experienced
some anti-Semitism in the army, being
told by a leader in officers' candidate
school that "if there are any Jews here,
you're not gonna make it!" Stone said he
proved him wrong by finishing first in a
class of 285.
In Europe, Stone helped rebuild the
Ludendorff Bridge, a railway bridge
over the Rhine at Remagen, Germany.
The Nazis had blown up the "Bridge
at Remagen" in an attempt to keep the
allies out of Germany.
Eventually becoming a captain, Stone
also was in charge of converting a for-
mer air base in Belgium to an American
engineering depot and was an assistant
commandant of a prisoner-of-war camp
in Belgium.
A Central High track star and later
a champion squash player, Stone was
elected to the Michigan Jewish Sports
Hall of Fame in 2002.
What do the old-time veterans
think of the more recent wars, espe-
cially the fighting still taking place in
Afghanistan? They unanimously favor
getting out of that country, especially in
view of recent reports of Afghan military
and police killing Americans.
"Of course, only our civilian and mili-
tary leaders can make a final judgment
on this," Colman said, "but my gut feel-
ing is to get the heck out of there:'

The
Craig Fahle
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How To Go

PFC. Joseph L. Bale Post #474,
Jewish War Veterans, will hold a
free membership dinner meet-
ing at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept.
12, at Glen Oaks Country Club
in Farmington Hills. Members,
and especially prospective
new members, are welcome.
To RSVP, call Bob Russman at
(248) 432-7374 or Willie Stone
at (248) 892-2536.

WDET is a \oki ,AYNP STATE
service of
UNIVERSrly

September 6 a 2012 11