Join us on a remarkable journey as we delve into the life of Andy Negra, a 99-year-old World War II veteran. Travel back in time to the Great Depression and follow Andy’s courageous path through the perils of war in Europe. In this heartfelt episode, Andy shares his personal encounters and pivotal moments that shaped his remarkable life. Discover the heartwarming story of his marriage, a tale of love that blossomed amidst the backdrop of conflict and uncertainty.
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World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and her other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you, and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Munson.
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And welcome to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. The show comes to you because of a trip I took in 2016 with a group from the Denver Police Activities League that accompanied four D-Day veterans back to Normandy, France for the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings. And we turned stateside realizing that each story is unique. It needs to be recorded. It needs to be broadcast. It needs to be archived. Hence, America’s veteran stories. And I am so pleased to have on the line with me World War II veteran Andy Negra. Andy, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you very much for inviting me.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, Andy, let’s start at the beginning. Tell us where were you born and where did you grow up?
SPEAKER 06 :
I was raised in a coal mining area in western Pennsylvania called Abella. From there up until, that was during the Depression. 1930, we moved to a town called Brownsville, Pennsylvania. It’s in the western part. It’s on the Monongahela River. And I grew up there and graduated from high school there. That was the main thing. I remained there until I was drafted in 1943. I graduated out of high school in July of 1943. In August, I was heading for Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
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It didn’t take long, did it? Of course, the Allies had not made the landings in Europe yet, but yet the war was certainly very furious over in the Pacific at that particular time. Andy, tell us a little bit. I’d like our listeners to understand the Depression. You grew up during that. What should people know? What should young people in America know about the Great Depression?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, what they should know is it was a very difficult time. People didn’t have food. They didn’t have work. It was just a country that was at a stalemate. The key that I can remember more than anything, and I’m sure I was either three, four, or five years old at the time, but we were in a tent. My dad was a coal miner. He came from Austria, Hungary, and I’m first generation here. He met my mother, and they married, had four children, and I was the, let’s see, my sister, my older brother, then me, and then a younger brother. I can remember that we were in a big tent, and what we were doing there, I don’t know, but I can remember holding on to my dad’s leg. reason or another but anyhow and things were rough we didn’t have anything i always wondered how i got from what when dad couldn’t have a car didn’t have a car didn’t have the money for a car so we but yet we went from one place to another it’s always been a mystery to me i can’t remember how that happened So the Depression was just a hard time for everybody. Everybody was looking for food. They were looking for jobs and stuff like that. And then I think it was around 1930 that FDR came out with his programs of putting people back to work and starting the country to be back to being active again. It was around that period of time. Beyond that, it was a very difficult time, too. I can remember. I don’t know where we even lived at until 1930. And then in 1930, Dad got a duplex house in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. And that’s where I was raised, through high school and what have you.
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So what year were you born, Andy?
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May the 28th, 1924. You want to guess who was president?
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1924.
SPEAKER 09 :
It wasn’t Coolidge, was it?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, it was. Was it? Oh! Hey, good guesser. Calvin Coolidge was the president. I don’t remember that. I never remembered anything up until 1930 when I was president. Just growing up, and I always enjoy telling the story that among the four of us, I was six years old, and I told my brothers and my one sister, I said, I’m going to finish high school. I said, six years old, I’m telling them. I said, I don’t know what you all are going to do, but I’m going to finish high school. Believe it or not, Jim, I was the only one that graduated out of high school. And that was 1943. The rest of them went their different ways. Life was difficult at the time. But to me, a 19-year-old, well, at my age, things were just normal to me. I lived my day, and most of the time I didn’t worry about anybody else. That’s the way I had my life, I can recall. I had to take care of myself. And to this day, I’m still doing it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and am I doing the calculations correctly that you’re 99 years old?
SPEAKER 06 :
That is correct. I just finished 99.
SPEAKER 09 :
Congratulations. That is pretty awesome. Thank you very much. Your birthday is the day after my birthday, so I love that time.
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When’s your birthday? May the 27th?
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Uh-huh.
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I’ll give you something else amazing. The woman I married, there’s a big story on that if you want to question me later on on that, I’d be happy to. But her birthday was May the 28th. So she was born 1926, two years after I. Wow. She’s a story in itself.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, hopefully we’ll get to that. I want to hear that too. You know what? Let’s go ahead and jump into that right now. Tell us that story.
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Well, the story on that was I was at Fort Meade. I finished basic training and was transferred to Fort Meade, Maryland. And I was walking in the camp at nighttime. It was sort of around 6, 7 o’clock, dark. And I heard music, and I love music. So I followed the music and ended up in the dance hall. And as I walked into the hall, I’m visualizing it with my eyes right now. I looked to the right where the dancing was taking place. And I saw this one… beautiful young girl standing there by herself, clicking her fingers to the music and having a ball. So I said to myself, go on over and ask her to dance. So I walked over and asked her to dance. She looked up at me and said yes. And as we got on the dance floor, the music lasted about, oh, maybe 10, 15 seconds. And I looked down at her and I said, do you want to dance again? She said yes. So we danced again a little bit, and the name of the song they were playing was People Will Say We’re In Love from Oklahoma. And I said to her, believe it or not, Kim, this is the truth. I looked down at her and I said, do you know what? And she looked at me and she says, what? I said, this is going to be our song for the rest of our lives. And believe it or not, later on after we were married, well after that, every time she came up from Washington, D.C. to dance with the soldiers, I was there to greet her. Now, they were not supposed to get friendly with the guys because the guys were going to eventually ship out and the girls would naturally should forget the guy and then dance with the next guy. Well, she told me I could not get down to Washington to visit her. I did. I was 19 years old. You didn’t tell me what I could do and what I could not do at that time. And I did what I wanted to do. I went down, met her grandparents. We became friends. And finally, we left. We had to be shipped out. And like I say, we got real friendly and went to Camp Shanks, New York, and from there over to New York City and got on a boat heading for somewhere. And halfway out, maybe five or six days out, a bunch of us guys, GIs, got on the deck and we started showing pictures of our girlfriends that we were waiting back in U.S.A., So I took my picture out of my wallet and passed it around. And just about halfway around, some guy says, wait a minute. And he reached in his wallet and he pulled out the same picture.
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Oh, what happened then?
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So I said a few choice words to myself, of course. And I said, boy, she must have really done something. Well, to end that part of the story, Later on, after we were married, I asked her about that. And she says to me, she says, honey, you got to realize we didn’t know who was coming back. So we had plans, and I enjoy telling this. We had plan B, plan C, plan D, plan E. So she must have given pictures to a half a dozen different guys because a lot of the guys weren’t going to come back. And she knew that. So she gave pictures to several guys. Fortunately, I was A. I was the top of the list, and I did come back. So we were married for 71 years. And three children still alive, still doing good. Unfortunately, she got dementia about six years ago and died. She had it for 10 years from the time she was 80 years old to the time she was 90 years old. And she passed away at 90. One of the most wonderful, personal, beautiful girls a guy ever met. She was 17 at the time, and I was 19. There’s so many nice things I could say about her, Kim. And I brag about her. I make presentations to various organizations, Rotary, Veterans Group, and stuff like that concerning World War II. But she’s the best part of the story that I tell. when I mention her and show slides of what she looked like. And she was well-built. She was a good-looking girl, well-built, athletic. She knew crafts, loved crafts, loved to cook, loved to bake. A man’s dream, really, in finding the right woman. And I was blessed to have her, really have. Go ahead.
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Well, I just had a couple of questions. First of all, you did not get married until you came back then, right?
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. And then I tell you what, that’s a little interesting story. I was in Rector’s Restaurant in Washington, D.C. in 1946. And we were sitting across from each other. And I says to her, will you marry me? And she says, yes, on one condition. And I says, what’s that? She says, I got a job. You got to get a job first. And I says, OK. She not only helped me find a job. And again, part of this story, she directed me to maritime service and they offered me a job at a thousand dollars a year. And I said to myself, I’m worth more than that. And then she directed me to the Department of Agriculture, and they offered me $1,440 a year. And I said, that’s more like it. So I took the job with the Department of Agriculture. My first paycheck was $58 for two weeks, which meant I was receiving $29 a week. for the Department of Agriculture. Another unusual thing about that, agriculture was and still is, I guess, the second largest government building in the country. Pentagon is the first. And they paid us, believe it or not, in cash at that time. In cash. I don’t know how many people we had in there. But the organization I was with, the agency, had 1,500 people in it. So we got married. Folks couldn’t afford a wedding in a church or anything like that, so we were married by the justices of the peace. And wonderful wedding. Didn’t have much to start off with. Matter of fact, we didn’t have anything to start off with. We didn’t have a place to stay when we got married. But my wife’s sister had an apartment, and she loaned us for the weekend. Her and her husband went away someplace, and we had that for our honeymoon location. And then after that, we started going to work. After a year, she got pregnant and she approached me and says, well, we’re going to have to get a babysitter. And I said, no. She said, why not? I said, we’re not going to have children for somebody else to raise. I said, either you quit your job or I quit my job. But one of us are going to stay with the children. Well, she quit her job, never did go back to work. And I, we made out. And we did quite well for the 71 years we were married. We have three children. The daughter is now 76. The oldest boy is 74. And the youngest boy is 69. We have five, six great-great-grandchildren. That’s five generations, all doing well. And what else can I tell you about my family?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and how many grandchildren?
SPEAKER 06 :
Grandchildren? Well, let’s see. That would be one, two, six, five. Six. Five grandkids. And then we have a great-great. I think we got four. We got six great-greats.
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Oh, that is remarkable. Okay, I’m talking with Andy Negra. He’s a World War II veteran, but just talking about the remarkable story of him and his wife. And we get to have these stories because of amazing sponsors. The Center for American Values is located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. And it was founded for several reasons. One, to honor our Medal of Honor recipients. And they do that through… Over 160 portraits of valor of Medal of Honor recipients. But additionally, they are teaching these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism through many of their educational programs and also their On Values presentations. So for more information about the center, go to AmericanValuesCenter.org. That’s AmericanValuesCenter.org. The official Marine Memorial is located right here in Colorado in Golden at 6th and Colfax. It was dedicated in 1977. And it is time for a facelift. And the USMC Memorial Foundation is working diligently to raise the funds to make that happen. And a great way that you can honor our military, to say thank you to those people who have put their lives on the line or have given their lives for our freedom, is to support the USMC Memorial Foundation. And you can do that by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org.
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Remax Realtor Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Munson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home. Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That’s 303-877-7516.
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All of Kim’s sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
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Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening.
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Ha, ha, ha.
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And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. I have on the line with me Andy Negra. He is a World War II veteran. But before we get back to the conversation, I wanted to mention a nonprofit that I dearly love, and that is the Center for American Values, which is located right here in Pueblo, Colorado. And Pueblo, Colorado is known as the home of heroes. Because there are four Medal of Honor recipients that called Pueblo home. And the Center for American Values is focusing on these values of honor, integrity, and patriotism. And that is why the co-founders, Brad Padula, Emmy award-winning director, documentary producer, and Drew Dix, who is a Medal of Honor recipient for actions he took in the Vietnam War, they decided that they needed to put together a center that talked about these core values and honored our Medal of Honor recipients. So to get more information, go to AmericanValueCenter.org. That’s AmericanValueCenter.org. On the line with me is Andy Negra. He is 99 years old, a World War II veteran. And we just had this fascinating story about him and meeting his wife. But Andy, I was thinking about it. You said you’re five or six days into the ocean. You’re headed to Europe. And you guys are all circled up pulling out pictures of your girlfriends. And you pull out the picture of your girlfriend. And another guy pulls out the same picture. And when you talked with your wife, you ended up marrying her. She said that we weren’t sure who was coming home. And I think just let that sink in, first of all, to our listeners, just what that means exactly. So she said we have plan A, B, C, D, and E and all. But I also have to think, Andy, that you guys having a picture of a girlfriend that you thought you were coming home to, but somebody that you cared about, that had to help morale for each of the GIs, yes?
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I would say so, yes. I know it did me because I didn’t give up on her. The way my attitude was, she’s still my girlfriend. And when I got to France and got into the war, I started writing letters to her, and she began to respond in writing mail back to me as well as eventually sending me care packages with crackers and cigarettes. At that time, I smoked cigarettes. And what have you, little goody things that was coming from her. So I began to feel like, hey, I got somebody back here waiting for me. And I’m assuming the same thing with the other guys would feel the same way if she corresponded with them, too. I don’t know that. I’ll give you another little tidbit on that, Kim. She worked for Selective Service, which drafted the soldiers during World War II. So my thought on that was she not only drafted me, but she married me also.
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I love that, Andy Negri. I love that attitude. Okay, so let’s get over now to you’ve, we talked about you being on the ship to go to Europe, and that was when? That would have been 1942?
SPEAKER 06 :
We got on the ship February, let’s see, 44, 44. Probably 44. Well, 44, right. Well, I can remember, I think the discharge paper says February the 11th we departed U.S., and headed for parts unknown.
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Okay, so you ended up in Europe, and so probably went, what, to England first, or what did the trip look like?
SPEAKER 06 :
No, we went to Barry Wills. Okay. I forget when we landed in Barry Wills. That’s B-A-R-R-Y, I think it is. I’ve seen it spelled B-A-R-R-I-E. But I ended up in a… a replacement camp, and eventually I was sent to the 6th Armored Division, which I became part of the headquarters battery. And that was interesting, too. At the base, when I was transferred to the headquarters battery, You naturally get friends with all the guys. And one of the fellas that I was playing softball with, his mother and my wife’s mother were schoolmates. Guy’s name was Guy Andes. I still remember his name. I remember his wife’s Lucy. I assume they’re both pets now. I don’t know. But anyhow, that was a coincidence. And then also… Right next to our camp was a British anti-aircraft unit made up of nothing but women. And what happened on that hill with us, they shot at the German airplanes that were bombing Cardiff, Wales, which was the capital of Wales. And then several nights, several days, they would be shooting at those bombers of Germans and Germans. causing a lot of ruckus. That was one thing. Another story I can remember very vaguely, but I can remember as we were, I was taking a helmet bath. Now, a helmet bath is you take your helmet, fill it up with water, and then wash yourself to the best that you could. And I can remember that one day I was taking a helmet bath, and then the women next door started shooting. And I grabbed shooting at the airplane and I grabbed my helmet and forgetting I had water in it. And I put it over my head. And there you go. I was soaking wet.
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Oh, my. I guess you probably probably were. So so obviously, if it was women that were manning the anti-aircraft guns. And thinking about the timing, the Allies are preparing for D-Day. And so that’s probably why that occurred. You’re in replacements. So during that time, February 44, and D-Day was June 6, 1944, what was happening with you in your camp?
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Well, during that time, all we did was practice on what we were being trained for. The odd thing about being trained for what I now, the new unit I was assigned to, when I left basic training, I was trained to be a headquarters typist. Otherwise, I was supposed to be in the office doing paperwork. When I left the basic training and transferred out, I never saw a typewriter. I could do 75 words a minute on a manual typewriter. I was good at it at that time. But once… training never saw a typewriter never saw anything relating to that i was assigned to a survey section which i can explain to you later on what exactly what we did but it related to finding the enemy and having our artillery aimed at that particular target and that was part of our duties at that time
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So explain to our listeners that don’t quite understand. There’s infantry and there’s artillery. So explain to our listeners, you know, the difference between the two, the goals of each of the two.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, the infantry are ground troops. Artillery are mechanized. We had 18 105 on our on our tanks. We were mechanized and they were self-fulfilled means that they automatic. Everything was done automatic by pushing, not pushing a button, but doing it in the manner that didn’t take a lot of work. But yet you knew what you had to do. Infantry, everything was on the ground. They rode to their targets, but most of their work was to reach the enemy, push the enemy back, or destroy them. That was the deal. So we rode, infantry walked. Now, in a mechanized, like the armored division, They also rode as much as they could. Otherwise, the infantry were placed on half-tracks or vehicles or trucks and took them as close to the target as they possibly could. And then they got out of the trucks and went after the enemies. My slide presentation shows that a lot, different things that they had to do. Now, I rode a half-track. I rode a half-track for 1,500 miles from the time we landed at Utah Beach to the end of the war, which was at Rocklitz, Germany, on the Maldi River. That was 1,500 miles. So majority of the time there, we rode. I rode. I mean, we were strafed a lot of times, and we did a lot of odds and ends. You did a lot of foxhole and stuff. But once the threat had gone away, we would get into our half track and ride the way forward to wherever we were supposed to go.
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So when did you go on to Utah Beach then?
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July the 18th, 1944. And the reason I remember that is we could not land because we didn’t have a place to land. And when you got heavy tanks like ours were, you had to have a place to land. Well, when we landed in Utah Beach, we landed at Utah Beach, the enemy was about 20 miles away. So we were close. However, the land that we landed on was secure. And as we, and I’ll never forget this, as we landed and we’re getting off of the landing craft, I heard my voice call. And I looked down on the side of the half track, and here’s this guy that lived about four houses away from where I lived back in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. To me, I said to myself, what an amazing thing with the thousands and thousands of soldiers on that landing area. Here’s one from my hometown standing on the side of the thing. His name was George Dankovich. And… And he yelled up, I yelled down, and I never did see him after that. I don’t know what happened, but I know it was an amazing thing to run into him at that time.
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Oh my gosh, that is absolutely remarkable. And again, just all these little stories of what was happening. So you went on probably about six weeks after the initial D-Day landings, and yes, that was secure. I imagine there was a lot of activity going on on those beaches at that time. And so I’m talking with World War II veteran Andy Negra. And a sponsor that I greatly appreciate for America’s Veterans Stories is Hooters Restaurants. They have locations in Loveland, Westminster, and in Aurora on Parker Road. And great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and for happy hour. Great place to get together with your friends to watch the sporting events and just have some great food. In particular, their fish and chips and their nachos are delicious. I hear that their fish tacos are quite good as well. So again, thank you to Hooters Restaurants for their sponsorship of the show.
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Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening. And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. So honored to have on with me, the line with me, World War II veteran Andy Negra. And again, Andy, I think we’ve got this. You were… Being part of Patton’s 3rd Army, the 6th Armored Division, 128th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and Headquarters Battery. So you are now on the beaches, Utah Beach in Europe on June 18, 1944. What happens after that, Andy Negra?
SPEAKER 06 :
Once we landed, our destination at that time was St. Marie, England. And I did visit it on my recent trip to France. And the reason we went there was it was a place to get all of the 6th Armored Division together to begin our operation in the fight. So it took us a week and a half to get all of the units together, otherwise the artillery, the infantry, the mechanics, the service batteries, all of that together. And about a week and a half later, we got orders to have our first project was to reach Brest. Now, Brest was a city fortified by the Germans on the British Channel. And our General Patton told us, that’s your target. We won it. So from that day on, we headed towards Brest. Everything was fine until we reached the town called Avaranchis. Avaranchis, five German Me 109s, which are fighters, a German fighter plane, strafed our column. And I can remember clearly of getting out of the half track because the columns were just vehicle to vehicle all in the head. And that’s what the armored division does. And I got out of the vehicle. I ran out into an open field, hid behind a well. And I don’t know why, but all five of those ME-109s shot at that well, and I was the only guy behind it. When they got through shooting… I got up behind. They missed me, of course. And then I got up and the log that holds the rope that goes down into the well was split in half. And I said to myself, that was close. So anyhow, yeah, that was close. And that was close. And the odd part about it, Kim, was all five of them were shooting at this well. And I couldn’t understand that. I said, our vehicles were hidden underneath the trees. But there I was out there by myself. And whether or not they saw me or not, I don’t know. They must have saw me because they aimed all five of them, took crack at shooting it that well. And good Lord willing, he saved my life. And I got out of that. And I’ll add a little more to it. But I went back to France this year, this summer. a couple weeks ago, I asked them to see if they can find that well. And they’re now looking to see if they can’t find that well. And when I go back next year, good Lord willing, they’re going to take me to that well, and I’m going to look at it and reminisce again a little bit about what happened. So from there, we went on. We went through the hedgerow. We captured general spots. He was trying to round up his soldiers to move him to Brest. Unfortunately, he backed up into one of our units, and we captured the general and put him under arrest. And we went on to Brest. And once we got to Brest, we found out that they were so fortified. The area we went through was fortified with Germans. There was at least 40,000 German soldiers in that area. And they were trying to round them up and move them into the area of the Brest Peninsula. And fortunately, we split that up. The duty to me, in my opinion, of course, I’m no foe, but anyhow, the duty was to split the enemy and let the remnants be left to the guys that are following us, the infantry and whatever was in back of us. So our job was to penetrate, divide, and get to the target. And once we got to Brest, we found out that they had another 25,000, 30,000 Germans inside of the Brest area. And they wanted us to take it, which was only one division. Powers to be found out that we couldn’t do it. So they pulled us out of there and moved us towards Lorient, another port. And I found out later that it took two infantry divisions and two artillery divisions, plus some other divisions, to finally take Brest. And it took over a month and a half to finally capture the Brest Peninsula. So you can see it was a very difficult time at this time. From Lorient, we went on to, we relieved the 4th Infantry, the 4th Armored Division, and they had surrounded Lorient. At that time, I had my first experience with the artillery, I mean with the tank. They had a guy short on that tank, so they pulled me out of the survey section, put me on a tank, and I learned how to load a gun, the barrel of the tank, and shoot. And we were outside of the tank, and then the Germans spotted us, and they started shelling that tank. Well, fortunately, we got back into the tank, and none of us got hit by the shrapnel where the burst of the shells would be above the tank. But none of us got hurt. That was my first experience. I was taught how to load a gun. Otherwise, grab the shell, put it in the barrel, use your fist instead of your fingers, ram the shell into the barrel. Your hand would automatically be pushed out of the way. If you used your fingers… you would lose your fingers. If you use your fingers, you’d lose them. So use your fists. I learned that. Then from Lorient, we went into Nancy. And from Nancy, France, Word got that Patton had heard rumors about the trouble up in the north part of the country and ordered us to get ready to move. From Nancy, we moved to a town called Metz. Metz was a fortified position by the Germans, well-prepared, well-dependent, kill boxes, you name it. But it was taken, and we got there on December 24th. And on December the 24th, this surprised me no end. Trucks rolled up, and we had Christmas Eve at that particular time. Rain, snow, sleet, you name it, it was the worst conditions anybody could be out on. And they brought this turkey and cranberry sauce and stuff and all of the goodies that happened to Christmas Day. And they brought it to me. And to this day, I’m not only thankful, but I feel that they did such a tremendous job in getting it to our troops. Thank you. The next morning, Christmas morning, we headed north, went to Luxembourg, and this was bumper to bumper all the way up the road. They didn’t have paved roads. It was dirt roads, muddy roads, and as I say, it was cold. We got to Luxembourg. We got out of our half tracks, found a place to stay. It was a two-lane bowling alley. We spent the night. Everybody that could get into that bowling alley got into it because, actually, it was still nasty out. Then the next morning, we went into Bastogne. We were there next to the 101st Airborne. We stayed there for two or three weeks, I think it was. And it’s in the history book. I don’t remember all of the days. Kim, but I can remember being in Bastogne. We looked for a place to stay, and we found an old house with the roof gone and everything else, but it was enough to prevent the cold air from reaching us. We all wore all the socks we could wear, the warm sweaters and warm jackets, everything we could, because history shows that this was the coldest and worst winter temperature that that area ever had for a long 30, 40 years. That’s how cold it was and how bad it was. And if you remember history, the ceiling was low, our planes could not be used, and we fought and defended that town.
SPEAKER 09 :
And then on… When you got there, so… I’m familiar with Bastogne, the story, but they’d already been… The 101st Airborne was in trouble, right? Because didn’t that start a little bit earlier in December? And when you said the ceiling was low… What that means is the cloud cover was so low that you couldn’t have any supplies dropped by airplanes. 101st Airborne was in trouble, and so Patton takes you guys up there to help them. Am I getting that correct?
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s correct. Somehow he got word that there was trouble, and we were ordered to get ready and move. So we all naturally got the 6th Armored Division, got together, and we were taking a little break. Another thing history shows that we went 231 straight days without stopping of fighting in the war. 231 days of steady fighting. And so the 6th Armored Division, I was extremely proud. Once I heard all of that, I was extremely proud of the division and what we did. So…
SPEAKER 09 :
That is amazing if you really think about it. 231 days of steady fighting. And, I mean, you talk about trying to find places to sleep, but during that terrible weather and cold, also sometimes you ended up just sleeping in the elements, yes?
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. And it wasn’t that. The houses were all shut up and torn down by artillery shells and the Germans bombing and other things. There wasn’t a building that was… Together, in Bastogne, as I recollected, and we found one that had partial protection, and that’s where we stayed. But you wore all of the clothes, and that’s another incident that happened. They were short a guy on a tank again. So they stuck me on a tank. And I’ll never forget this. That’s how close it was. The sergeant of the tank said, guys, we’re right in the middle of the Germans. We’re on the outskirts of Bastogne. Don’t talk. Don’t do anything to make a noise. Around midnight, I heard voices outside the tank. And sure enough, there were Germans talking right outside that tank. And I’ll never know, understand why they didn’t check that tank out. But all they did was lean against the tank, talk and talk and talk. And we were barely breathing, so we didn’t want to make any noise whatsoever. Got up the next morning and found out that they had left, and we pulled out of that area, if I recall correctly. So that was another adventure of mine that I can… I figured it was a close call. It could have been the end of my life. They had just been curious and tried to get into the tank, but they did not.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, my gosh, that’s remarkable. The good Lord was watching over you. I’m talking with Andy Negra. He is a World War II veteran, and we will be right back with Andy Negra.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening. And welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. I have on the line with me World War II veteran Andy Negra. And we’re talking about Battle of the Bulge. Is there anything else that you think our listeners should know about Battle of the Bulge, Andy?
SPEAKER 06 :
No. Once we started pushing the Germans back… It was strictly offensive from then on. We knew what we were doing. We got to the Yar River. We got to the Siegfried Line. And on our way towards the end of the thing, we came to a concentration camp called Buchenwald. It was the second largest concentration camp of prisoners in Germany. And Auschwitz, I think, was the first and the worst concentration. Well, as we came up on that camp, all I can remember was that it was a big high fence, about 30 feet high, and inside I could see some prisoners just walking slowly by and talking to one another. And there wasn’t a huge crowd in there. I found out later about it. We did not go in. Our particular unit did not go in to see the prisoners or anything else like that. But there are stories that Eisenhower and Bradley and Patton all came to visit that camp. They also got the German local people. that never knew what was going into that camp and they brought those people into that into that camp and showed them the ovens the bodies the pile of bones and all of that stuff they showed those people and those people were astonished that their own german soldiers were doing that to people But anyhow, they got a shot at it, and they finally saw what was going on in there. And the people were told to clean up, too. I think there was a lot more to that story than I could tell because I didn’t witness it. We left there, went to the Maldi River. ended the war there. We couldn’t go beyond the Maldi River because the Russians were coming on the other side. So they stopped us there, and that’s where the war ended as far as we were concerned. And then on the 6th Armored Division… was released and sent back to the States. I did not have enough points to go with them. I was transferred to the 2nd Armored Division. 2nd Armored Division was assigned to go to Berlin. And if you can recall the history on that, there was four countries occupying Berlin at the time. Britain, United States, France. And let’s see, who was the fourth? It was France, Britain, United States, and Russia. Russia was the fourth. We all occupied sections of that town. I had a little experience there of finding a couple of Russian soldiers in our territory, and I had to take them back to the Russian area. I spoke a little Russian at the time. From there, I didn’t have enough points to go with the 2nd Armored Division back to the States. I was transferred to the 36th Infantry Division. 36th Infantry Division was released, and we headed home. I remember going past the Rock of Gibraltar and going on home, landed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, then to Indiantown Gap, got my discharge, transferred from Indiantown Gap. I was released. Got on the train. It was winter. I think it was December of 45. Arrived in Pittsburgh, called his friend of mine. This was 2 o’clock in the morning. Called his friend of mine in Brownsville. He came up from Brownsville, which is about 35, 40 miles at the time. And he picked me up and took me back home. Got settled there a little bit. No big welcome because it was quite a few months or so after the war was ended. I started communicating with my future wife when traveled by train back and forth, a train or bus to go to Syria. Finally made a proposal, which I mentioned to you early. She got me the job. And from then on, had a beautiful life. Not a hard time, but it took us a while to make something of ourselves, and we certainly did. We lived in a government project for several years, finally moved on to a department, finally moved out to Kansas City with the Department of Agriculture. They wanted me there for four years of field training. Came back. They called me back to Washington. Finished out there. Retired at the age of 55 and been retired now for well over 40-some years. Still in fairly good, decent health. Let’s see what else I could tell you. Been happy ever since, unfortunately, when my wife passed away. It did add a little, it added lots of sorrow to my life, but that’s the way life is. And the more I could tell you, Kim, is that the good Lord’s blessed me. I’ve had a beautiful life. I have a lot, a lot of friends. People have been exceptionally good to me, more than sometimes I deserve. But I’m one of these guys, if it’s something good and it’s offered to you, accept it. If it’s something bad, ignore it. I’m a good philosopher.
SPEAKER 09 :
Great advice. We’ve got just a few minutes left, but this year you went back to France for the anniversary for D-Day, and just tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER 06 :
One of the most wonderful things that ever happened to myself. That was very odd and real quickly too, Kim. A friend of mine that lives in this development where I live at called up and he says, Andy, he says, would you like to go to France? And I said, what’s going on? He said, well, they’re getting a bunch of World War II veterans from all over the country and they’re going to fly them to France and they’re going to celebrate D-Day. And I said to myself, well, let me think about it. In the past few years, my children said, no, Dad, it’s too hard for you to go and fly on that airplane for eight straight hours. We don’t think you should go. Well, I said to myself this time. These guys that are going are all in the 90s and maybe in the 100s. They’re going. They’re not in perfect health. So if these guys can go and fly that plane, there is 44 of us, why can’t I? I’m just as good as healthy as they are, and whatever problems they got, I may have the same problem as they do if they don’t have different ones. So I told my family, I’m going. And I made up my mind. I informed this best defense foundation. I notified Delta and I notified Michelin, who is the main sponsor of this trip, that I was going to go. And all arrangements were made. The only difficulty I had was I didn’t have a passport. And when I went to get a passport, I said, how come I need a passport now in World War II? I didn’t need one.
SPEAKER 09 :
True that. Were you not just amazed, and we only have a minute left, Andy, but the welcome and the fact that children in Normandy are still taught about World War II, but the children in America, not so much. So what would you say to that?
SPEAKER 06 :
I say that it’s terrible that the United States don’t teach history. Everyone, while I was there, I addressed a psychology class. Kids were 14 or 15 years old. I addressed to them. I also was greeted by 1,200 kids. When I say I, I was part of the 14th. the 44 guys, but I spoke to them. Every one of those kids down to elementary every year are taught about World War II. They’re taught history. They’re reminded of history. And when we went to visit these 1,200 children, they were all greeting us like you would never, ever believe that we could do it. They waved American flags, French flags, shook our hands. They gave us pictures of me holding my picture of World War II. I was holding it. And I was to pass them out. I had 1,000 of them. And I passed them out to these kids, whoever asked for it. And I had signed many of them. And they were so thankful and so blessed. I was also given two kids to be pen pals. I met one of them, and her name was Camille. One was 14 years old, and one was 11. I met Camille, a 14-year-old, and we became very dear friends. I got her address. I’m going to write to her. The 11-year-old couldn’t, somewhere, someplace else, could not make the reunion of meeting me. They wrote me letters and asked me to meet them and what have you. So that was a wonderful, wonderful experience. And all of those kids, no matter where we went, the highlight of my trip was St. Marie English because over 20,000 people showed up to greet these 44 World War II veterans.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, my gosh. Andy, this is so remarkable. We are out of time. But Andy Negra, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Indeed, we stand on the shoulders of giants, my friends. God bless you and God bless America.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 03 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
