Preserving History

PRESERVING HISTORY
Volunteers staff Battle of the Bulge Memorial Conference Room
By Connie Ballenger
Staff writer

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Photo by Connie Ballenger
Richard Guenter, Dorothy Davis, Hazel Collins, Earle Edmunds and John Bowen volunteer at the Battle of the Bulge Memorial Conference Room at the Post Library. The conference room, which serves as a meeting site and an annex to the Fort George G. Meade Museum, was established in 1988 by the Battle of the Bulge Historical Foundation Inc. headquartered in Davis' home in Rockville, Md.

In response to the United Nations dedication of 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers, Soundoff! is running a series highlighting outstanding volunteer organizations and programs. This article is part of that series.

When Dorothy Davis served as a nurse in a field hospital at the Battle of the Bulge, she worked on soldiers with broken bones, gunshot wounds and frostbite. Many of them never lived through the battle.

Today Davis, as a volunteer at the Battle of the Bulge Memorial Conference Room at the Post Library, sees soldiers who fought at that battle, but who lived into their 70s and 80s.

"It's wonderful to see so many men who had been so badly wounded it did not seem they would survive, spend their lives raising families, having responsible positions and being very productive community members," she said.

The conference room, which serves as a meeting site and an annex to the Fort George G. Meade Museum, was established in 1988 by the Battle of the Bulge Historical Foundation Inc. headquartered in Davis' home in Rockville, Md.

Davis serves as an executive officer of the foundation which collects and categorizes materials to be preserved in the Battle of the Bulge collection at the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle, Pa.

Every year, the foundation holds an Events of Remembrance Commemoration with a banquet on the eve of the beginning of the battle, which started on Dec. 16, 1944. At the commemoration veterans lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

The foundation also answers letters, some from children of deceased soldiers who fought in the battle. They want to know where their father was wounded or killed. Volunteers look for answers at the National Archives II at College Park, Md., and answer the letters. One of the volunteers is John Bowen of Silver Spring, Md., who received the first person of the year honors award from the foundation for his extensive contribution to preserving the history of the battle, which his brother fought in.

Davis and Bowen, along with five other volunteers, staff the conference room 12:30 to 3 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays so that folks may browse through its artifacts.

People are surprised when they learn that some of the volunteers served in the battle, according to Davis.

"They are very interested in all we say," she noted.

One of the room's jewels is a conference table built of Ardennes oak from an area where the battle was fought. The foundation raised funds to have it made by Vincent Gaspar of Stavelot, Belgium. Inlaid in the 16-foot tabletop are patch insignias of 45 major American units that fought in the battle.

One hundred fifty-seven pine trees are carved on the rim of the table to represent the 157 young and old Stavelot citizens massacred by German SS troops at the start of the battle.

Veterans sometimes touch the patches on the table.

"I often say you can tell what unit a person was with because their fingerprints are over that patch," said Davis.

The patches sometimes carry meaning to people who were not at the battle.

A captain at West Point whose grandfather was in the battle came to the room and kept his hand over the patch the whole time he was there, according to Richard Guenter, another volunteer in the conference room.

"During that half hour he was relating back to his grandfather who was deceased," added Guenter.

The room also has 21 chairs made of Ardennes oak.

Other artifacts in the room are a map of the battle site, tiny replicas of tanks, plane and trucks used in World War II and pictures from the battle.

While the room does not attract throngs - it had 286 visitors the first year it opened (1995) and 137 last year - it serves as a solemn place for remembering the battle.

"The veterans who come in are very quiet," said Davis. "They feel a reverence as though they're going into a church."

Davis loves volunteering at the conference room.

"I have the satisfaction of knowing we are preserving the history of the largest land battle ever fought by the U.S. Army," she said.

Earle Edmunds, another veteran of the battle, volunteers because that confrontation still impacts his life.

"Whenever I feel depressed, I think of those five or six real good friends of mine laying in Belgium or France dead (from the battle)," said Edmunds. "I had the opportunity to raise a family. They didn't. The least I can do is volunteer here."

For more information on the foundation or conference room, call Davis, (301) 881-0356. The Battle of the Bulge Historical Foundation's address is P.O. Box 2516, Kensington, MD 20891-0818.