World War II Memorial Day Remembrance – Victoria Sanchez

Victoria Sanchez honors her cousin Laverne who served during World War II and other Memorial Day remembrances.

Episode Transcript

(00:18):
. Catherine: Hello there.
I'm Catherine, your host of this variety show podcast.
Your positive imprint is transforming how we live today for a more sustainabletomorrow through education and information.= Your own positive actions inspire change.
Follow me on Facebook and Instagram, your positive imprint.

(00:39):
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Visit my website, your positive imprint.com and learn more about the podcast and sign up for email updates.
And thank you for listening on apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Pandora.
Well.
Your favorite podcast platform.
Music by the legendary and talented Chris Nole check him out, ChrisNole.com c H R I S N O L E.

(01:08):
Thank you again for listening and for your support of this podcast.
Your positive imprint.
What's your PI.
Today is Memorial day here in the United States, and there's a bit of history on how it came about.
But I'm not going to discuss that today.
Memorial day is a day that we honor those fallen men and women who died serving in the United States military.

(01:29):
But I would like to honor all of the veterans who have served and are serving.
My mom, Victoria Sanchez is on the phone and she's going to share a Memorial day story today.
Hello.
Catherine, I had a cousin

Victoria Sanchez (01:41):
Laverne who served in world war two.
He was on my father's side and his father has served in world war one.
Laverne's father along came World War two and everyone was very patriotic.
Laverne was underage.
He wanted to enlist.

(02:02):
And so his father signed the papers that he could enlist and he enlisted in the air service.
At that time, he was, uh, not quite out of high school.
So his father, , got his diploma during graduation week.
LaVerne did part of his basic training at Harligen Base in Texas.

(02:22):
And from there, he was sent to England and he was a tail gunner ona B25 and then later he transferred to, I think a, B 17 a bomber.
It was a very large bomber and a, I think it was known as the flying fortress or something.
They flew Missions over Germany on Austria, et cetera.

(02:48):
It was the custom after
they completed 50 missions that they would get R&R.
On his 50th mission the plane was shot down on December 11, 1944over Austria, all on board were killed with the exception of two.
And the two were the radio operator and the copilot.

(03:11):
December 24th, 1944, my uncle and aunt got the telegram saying that LaVerne was killed in action.
That was Christmas Eve.
In
1946 his body was returned.
Um, I believe it was January for Memorial service and the whole town turned out for the Memorial

(03:33):
service.
I was young, but I remember they were all there.
It was in the Methodist church.
, LaVerne had a fiance who was crying and crying.
And my aunt told her that LaVerne would have wanted her to get married and to be happy.
So.
His father was, , really devastated.

(03:55):
He and Laverne were going to open after the war, a radio and model.
Uh, but one of those model kit stores in Waterloo, Wisconsin, he never did.
They also never had a Christmas after that.
And Laverne had a younger sister who was in high school at the time.

(04:16):
His brother, Victor served in the us Navy and came home from the war.
So that's the story of Laverne, but I'd like to share some other stories.
Very briefly.
My mother had two brothers who served in world war two.
They were Clarence and Elmer, and they were both doctors.

(04:36):
Elmer was one of the first doctors at Dachau and after several daysof treating the survivors at Dachau, he couldn't take it anymore.
And he had to be transferred to England.
His brother Clarence was also a doctor and was in the Normandy invasion on DDay.

(04:58):
He was in the battle of the bulge and he received the bronze star and the silver star.
My husband's father, Julius served as a pilot on the Jenney Glider in WWI..
My husband Rozier during the Korean war was in air defense command andhe was a navigator our son-in-law Glen served in Vietnam in the U S army.

(05:23):
Our grandson, Michael served in the us Navy first insubmarines in the submarine duty and then in intelligence.
So to all the veterans, I will forever give thanks to all who served and sacrificed you were all heroes.

(05:44):
God bless you all,

Catherine (05:45):
I look forward to sharing Helen Charlie Nellist's positive imprints and information regarding Hadrian's Wall over in the United Kingdom.
Thank you again for listening and supporting this podcast.
Your positive imprint.
What's your PI?