Military Officer - November 2008 - (Page 100)

encore Language Barrier Asking for directions turns out to be more difﬁcult than they expect when these American soldiers run afoul of unstable battle lines in Belgium in World War II. I n World War II, I was assigned to a unit called “T-Force,” an intelligence unit under the 12th Army Group, because I was a German linguist. During the Battle of the Bulge, we received the mission to track German inﬁltrators who had come through our lines dressed in U.S. uniforms, traveling in Jeeps in groups of four. I was assigned to work with another linguist, a native speaker named Floh. Our leader — a captain — and a driver made up the rest of our team. As we patrolled the circle of Dinant, Rochefort, Ciney, and Namur in Belgium, it became obvious the captain wasn’t sure where we were. It was not a good time and place to be lost, because the battle lines were unstable. Luckily, we spotted a unit deployed on a hillside, where a lieutenant had dragged a table into the snow and had maps displayed. We pleaded with our captain to stop. He reluctantly agreed and brought me along to talk to the unit. The driver and Floh stayed at the bottom of the hill. The captain did not want to seem lost, so after he introduced himself as an intelligence ofﬁcer, he asked the lieutenant to give him a brieﬁng on the situation. The lieutenant said: “We just got word there are inﬁltrating Germans running around, four to a Jeep, and you guys ﬁt the description — let me see your intelligence IDs.” The captain explained that we didn’t carry IDs while on patrol and showed his dog tags instead. The lieutenant was not impressed. “Anyone can get dog tags. Recite the sixth Gen100 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2008 eral Order!” he said. I knew the General Orders, but the captain had no idea. “OK,” the lieutenant said, “who won the World Series?” I shook my head, and the captain didn’t know either. “Recite ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’!” the lieutenant then demanded. The captain started off, “Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,” but got stuck. By now, more soldiers had gathered around us. At the bottom of the hill, Floh realized something was wrong, and he came running up the hill at port arms, shouting — in his heavy, Kissinger-type accent — “Vat goes on hier?” That was all that was needed. The soldiers trained their weapons on us, and we raised our hands and became prisoners of the U.S. Army. It took seven hours before the lieutenant could verify our status, and then he told us to get lost. The captain said to us, “I don’t want anyone to say anything about this!” “No, sir,” we replied in unison. But, as we pulled into our unit’s area, our buddies came running out yelling, “Hey, vat goes on hier?” They all had heard, and we could not live that one down! MO — Frank Cohn is a retired Army colonel. He currently is cochair of the Fort Myer, Va., Retiree Council. ILLUSTRATION: ELWOOD SMITH

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - November 2008

Military Officer - November 2008 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Chapters in Action Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Financial Guidebook Out of the Red 7 Year-End Tax Strategies Cover Story: Memory Survives Something to Say MOAA Scholarship Recipients Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - November 2008

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