July 16, 2025 • 35 mins
Hal Urban grew up in a poor family hit hard by the Great Depression. Joining the military meant he would finally get three meals per day. He enlisted in the Army hoping to become a pilot, but less than perfect eyesight scuttled those dreams. He was trained on .50 caliber guns mounted on haltracks to protect American tanks and other convoys. Assigned to the 11th Armored Division, Urban arrived in Europe in late 1944 and was quickly sent to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Sgt. Urban explains what combat was like with his guns - the sounds, the smells and more. He also describes the bitter cold at the Battle of the Bulge and how that impacted him. Urban tells us how he was injured and missed the final days of the Bulge but returned to his unit after the battle.
Urban details what he saw during the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria near the end of the war and how that experience remains very vivid by meeting people who were liberated and returning to the camp years later.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Sgt. Urban explains what combat was like with his guns - the sounds, the smells and more. He also describes the bitter cold at the Battle of the Bulge and how that impacted him. Urban tells us how he was injured and missed the final days of the Bulge but returned to his unit after the battle.
Urban details what he saw during the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria near the end of the war and how that experience remains very vivid by meeting people who were liberated and returning to the camp years later.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Sergeant Harold hal Urban. He's a US
Army veteran who served in the eleventh Armored Division of
General Patten's third Infantry Division. He was wounded at the
Battle of the Bulge and was briefly part of the
liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp near the end of the war.
(00:32):
Hal Urban was born in Illinois in nineteen twenty four.
He was seventeen when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on
December seventh, nineteen forty one.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was in high school. I heard that. Of course
we didn't know where Pearl Harbor was, And as soon
as I was eighteen, I had listed and I left
high school to go to war.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
When he was finally eligible to enlist, Urban immediately had
designs on joining the army, but he did not end
up in the part of the army where he wanted
to be.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I started flying a little bit, you know, when I
was younger. I wanted to get the Air Corps. My
eyes were twenty twenty, so I just joined the Army.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Soon. Urban was training hard, learning to operate fifty caliber guns.
But the first thing this depression era kid was excited
about was getting three meals a day.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It was very interesting. I came from the very poor
Favly during the Depression. I mean we were hungry. So
when I got the army, I thought I was a heaven.
Three meals a day, close war, place to sleep. I traded.
(01:56):
He was basic World War two. You were trade. You
were there to ard to kill, that's all. You didn't
have a choice of being a plomber or electrics. You
went there word how to kill a certain weapons. I
did all right. I enjoyed it, and so they kept
(02:21):
theirs Kadri. I made corporal and then I made I
was a trill sergeant. I forget the time they needed
two beds for an out to going overseas. O my
buddy that I volunteered. That was a five to seventy
fifth Eddy aircraft outfit, self propelled at Fort Pols, Texas.
(02:46):
I was traded on half tracks M sixties at fifties.
I M sixty had the four to fifties on electric
turret and the sixties had two fifties at the thirty
seven mil there on a manual turn. So we had
to ord The sergeants had to ord those first, and
(03:09):
then we got our med from New York, and then
we had to trade them for combat.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Urban says he and the other men were taught to
field strip the fifty caliber guns while blindfolded, but he
says they also got a lot of time in shooting
in preparation for combat.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, you did a little bit every day. You're spilled
off a lot of time on fire rage. In New Mexico.
We were traded to fire at airplages because there stravy.
So your first you were you, Yeah, you fire out
a sleeve being toad and then you had a little
(03:46):
model airplays that you shot at.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
By the fall of nineteen forty four, Urban and his
unit were on their way to the European Theater, with
a brief stop in England along the way.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, we went to Liverpool where we got all new
but and it takes time, it said Cosmolid Greece, So
we had to give all ready to go, and then
we Convoid down to Southampton and we loaded on the
LSTs across the channel and we lad at Sherburg Fress
(04:22):
just before the battle the ball started.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Urban and his team never quite made it to bast Own.
They were positioned about eleven miles away near a town
called Chaneau. He vividly remembers the intensity of the mortars
and artillery coming from both sides.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
We were hooing an awful lot because we were protecting
other convoys from aircraft. A lot of artillery fire. That
scary stuff. And but I remember too where they exploded
by power streeks the snow, and they don't old boom.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
The compression of the airs is you know, a powerful thing,
and that's scary. I think that was the scariest thing
is mortar fire and artry.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
The fifty caliber guns were mounted on a half track
and moved along with the tanks to protect them from
German airstrikes. Urban usually didn't fire the guns himself, but
it was up to him to confirm and identify the targets.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I had to direct the fire and give the command
to fire not fire. I used to teach in the
military aircraft identification from silhouettes, so that's why there was
no roof on the half track. I'd be able to
stand up and give him the orders. I had to
identify the play first and give the error fire. Adult
(05:53):
fire that part. When I got out of the hospital,
the bell the ball was over. We were used a
more for what we were traded for protecting convoys, and
that wasn't too bad. But the valve the ball, you know,
we're up with tanks. We were made to take that
(06:15):
kind of stuff, you know. The m for Servan had
three inches of the front. We had a half an
inch and a cor ridge on the side, so almost
anything goes through the halftag.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Eighty years later, Urban recalls what he saw and the
commotion that comes with war, but he was also quick
to remember the smell that immediately takes him back to
the battlefield.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Power power spells with the artillery shells was covered in
they pushed the air or something that like you say,
it wasn't a bag, it was a.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And then the streaks of shrapnel going across the snow.
And the tree bursts were the worse. You can get
behind your half track or a take for bursts on
the ground, but a tree burst comes downd at you.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I think that was what we feared. The bust, the
artillery and border they can follow you as the borders
at all, as your.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Movie, as the first time combatant at the bulls. That's
also where Urban fired real shots at the enemy for
the first time. But his first attempt at shooting a
German soldier turned out not to be as successful as
Urban first thought. In fact, he was very fortunate to survive.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, we were fired mostly on aircraft, and at one
time we did see uh, maybe a platuit run across
the field way out. So you opened up with the
fifty dolurs to reach them. And the first jerremedi shot
(07:57):
as we first got in to a combat. So I
got all by halftrack, the snowy and all the cord
of my eye, I saw this crop in a trench,
so I withdraw that fired three rods into him. He
never moved. He was frozen. He was frozen to death.
(08:20):
But he had a potato masher. That's a hadredde on
his chest. I'll fight it. Hit that.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You heard Urban mentioned the frozen body of the German soldier,
and his wasn't the only body the Germans left behind
on the frozen battlefield. Urban and his fellow soldiers were
initially amused by such sites, but not for long.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, you know, before you good, the combat is freezing.
You'd see frozen Germans were picked up and you, oh
see this is fun, this good game. And one morning
we were crossing his fields all snow and we call
(09:02):
the weapons carrier. They carried two stretches. They come up
to ask of something, and these were Americans, all bleeding,
tore it up. Yeah, it was a different a different story.
Then you really asked, this is real, this is the game,
so said on. You're scared, you don't want to die.
(09:24):
You're eighteen years old, but you do what you do,
what you're trained to do, because you had to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
What these stories highlight, of course, is the brutal cold
at the bulge, and hal Urban remembers it, well, it
was miserable.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Your feet are ice cold, your rashes were frozen. Open
up a can of beads to see rashes and take
your trench to die. Dig out some frozen beads for
evolve and eat it. We lived on rashes, you know,
and I couldn't make a fire get away your position.
(10:00):
Every night you would stop. You lay down with your
overcoat and the snow to sleep. And then the Durmayy
cause had played. We called bedcheck, Charlie, you know, trying
to find you. So guys couldn't smoke. I never spoke,
couldn't make any fire or nothing. Ah. I think there
(10:24):
was no no light at the end of the tunnel.
You were gonna be there until it was over to
your shot or killed. So it was depressing, felt scary.
I didn't see anybody like the movies making jokes. Be
(10:47):
cool though you were dirty. Of course, the trolls didn't
smell at at that age. You didn't grow much of
a beard yet, you know. But you didn't say I
don't remember washing cars. It's coals. So I used to
give a lot of talks to schools, and the best
(11:08):
people talk to little kids, like what girls says, little girl,
we're just leave, I said, outside? Where does she goes
the toilet? I said outside? Or they girls are little kids?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, we never saw it. The only American with it
we saw us at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
That's Sergeant Hal Urban, a US Army veteran of World
War Two and the Battle of the Bulge. Later we'll
hear Urban's memories of mouth House and concentration camp. But
up next Urban is wounded at the Bulge and misses
the rest of the fight. I'm Greg Corumbus and This
is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sixty Seconds of Service.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Sixty Seconds of Service's presented by T Mobile, recognizing these steadfast,
edication and sacrifices made by service members and their families.
T mobile is committed to supporting acts of duty veterans
and military spouses. Visit T mobile dot com slash military
to learn more.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
After losing several battle buddies to suicide, Joshua Parrish created Vetlife,
a Michigan based nonprofit that connects veterans with vital benefits.
His flagship event, Vetfest, draws thousands annually and links veterans
to VA reps, midtal health counselors, and employers. He also
mentors at risk veterans and navigating post service identity shifts.
(12:30):
Parrish's mix of grit, compassion and realism has saved lives
and created a support network where vets feel seen. Today's
sixty Seconds of Service is brought to you by Prevagen.
Prevagen is the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand.
You can find Prevagen and the Vitamin Aisle in stores everywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus, our guest in
this edition. Is Sergeant hal Urban, who served on a
fifty caliber gun team and the eleventh Armer Division with
Patent's third Infantry Division during World War Two. He is
a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and briefly
helped to liberate Mouthouse and concentration Camp. The Battle of
the Bulge began in mid December nineteen forty four, and
(13:11):
for more than two weeks hal Urban braved the German
onslaught and the frigid weather that would come to an
end in early January nineteen forty five, when an injury
sidelined Urban for weeks.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
We didn't know where we were. You know, I have
a radio in my half day did work, and so
you just follow the convoy and you protect them from aircraft.
And what do we got? South west of mouse Stone
at Channoul, Belgium. That's the wheay to do most of
(13:47):
our fighting. And I got hit. It was a piece
of shroud who went threw my leg and so I
was out of it. And I went to a hospital
in France for five weeks, and they were so busy
for the val the balls that after five weeks I
(14:07):
had to leave. My wounds were still bleeding. A little
on crutches, and I headed towards by Alta. I had
to go replacement depo for new combat boots, and a
major there kept me another week. So he stopped the
bleeding and I could hobble without the crutches, so I
(14:30):
went right back to bowfit the front line.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
At the hospital back in France, conditions were not exactly
state of the art. Urban remembers the most painful moment
for him on his road to recovery.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So today sewed me up. It was fifty sixty stitches
and they had to do it without novaca everything, And
you want to die, you want to scream, oh baba,
and all these guys are laughing at toards start turning.
So the surgeons. I was sure, Holly, what what drew
(15:06):
my leg? And was a shot? He said it was shrapnel.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
While he was recuperating, the Allies finished thwarting Hitler's last
offensive gas but the bulge. The Germans had far more manpower,
plenty of weapons, and the element of surprise. So how
did the Americans not only survive the operation but defeat it?
Urban considered that question while also describing the lethal German
(15:32):
tiger tanks, which he says were easily the most powerful
tanks in the battle.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We had more equipment and we had more supplies. They
ran off fuel, you know, that might have been a
big chaser too. And there these tiger tanks. Was the
eighty eight sor that was scary, you know. They had
steel treads that we had rover treads. And if you
(16:00):
heard of coven you got all the way you could
stop at eighty eight. It was so powerful, high velocity.
Leaven had a pill in the hospital he took called
the Blue eighty eights knock. Yet we were traded on
of Buzukas tube. We didn't heavy at our halftrack. We
(16:24):
just had the fifty calbers and then Africa a hospital
had a sixty to fifty with the thirty seven.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
After ditching his crutches, Urban was soon back with his unit,
pushing across Germany and eventually into Austria. He says they
did not face much enemy resistance while crossing the Rhine
and other critical barriers. Urban also admits he and it's
been often had no idea where they were because they
simply had one objective in mind.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I don't remember where we were for resistance. He didn't
know where you were your moves. Sometimes at night follow
the half tracks were the takes up ahead of you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
As we mentioned, Urban usually didn't fire the fifty caliber guns,
but sometimes he did, and in the final weeks of
the war he officially shot down his first enemy plane.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
We were a Convoyd just before the war ended, and
I was orders I think battalion in a little valley.
So we set up around there and my men were
on the guns attired. So I got on the fifty
(17:39):
with one of my corporals that's the thirty seven villevator
and two fifty caliber man. So I took the lateral
where the trigger is on your foot, and I heard
of covet. You could tell it a sou So before
you even see a cord of trees, you start getting
your lead. I was getting my lean, he got his elevation,
(18:03):
so I pushed the trigger. Mechesia fired the thirty son
Mildery called. The second round went out, hit the front
of one of the pilots and exploded. So that's the
only one that I actually shot. All yeah, to have
it offsher, see it hit and see it crash.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
That's hal Urban. He's a US Army veteran of the
eleventh Armored Division, which folded into General Patten's third Infantry Division.
His main focus was to protect tanks and other convoys
with fifty caliber guns mounted on half tracks. In just
a moment, Urban will take us through the shooting down
of another plane, one he and his men were convinced
(18:46):
was a cutting edge German aircraft. They were wrong. He
will also share his memories of being at the liberation
of Mauthausen concentration camp. He describes the shocking condition of
the prisoners and how that experience is still impacting him
very much today. We'll also hear about his return to
Mauthausen many years later. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is
(19:09):
Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our
guest in this edition is Hal Urban. He's a US
Army veteran who served on a fifty caliber gun team.
With those guns mounted on half tracks with the US
Army's eleventh Armored Division. They provided protection for American convoys
(19:29):
from German airstrikes. Sergeant Urban shared his experience fighting in
the bitter cold at the Battle of the Bulge and
the intensity of that combat as the Germans made their
last stand. He also explained how he was injured there
and missed the final weeks of the battle, but recovered
in time for the final push through Germany to the
(19:50):
end of the war. Later, Urban will tell us what
he is most proud of from his time and service
to our country, and what concerns him most about America today.
And in a moment we'll hear memories of the liberation
of Mounthausen concentration camp in Austria and how that experience
still impacts him very deeply today. But before we get
to that story, we briefly need to revisit the task
(20:11):
of shooting down planes. You heard his story of taking
down a German plane. On another occasion, Urban and his
men were keenly on the lookout for a specific type
of new German plane. The consequences were tragic.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
We were told for the other war, the Germans have
a new plane called a jet. We had no idea
what a jet. They said, you'll see fire covered at
the back. So one night we're sitting with our gods,
of course, all ready to go, and we heard this noise,
heard a airplane, and we saw fire. That's got to
(20:49):
be a jet, so we opened up on it. It
was a B seventeen, was an English crew. They had
what is about fire, so they were covered out but
to a lot of leather. To him too, that's war
and they crashed, of course, And.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
That was not the only grizzly moment Urban faced. He
was also tasked with finding missing US forces at one point,
and what he found was difficult to see.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
We were somewhere in one of our reconnaissance vehicles of
eight was two recauissant guys. That was did come back
forty first calory. So the captain told me to take
a small take at my half track, see if we
could fight him. So we did go outed at the
(21:36):
territory marty and we filed eb of scout Carlos Gov's
arables shot down to the throat, so we bought him back.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
After pushing further into Germany and Austria, in the spring
of nineteen forty five, American forces began discovering the horrors
of the Nazi Holocaust. Urban says he had absolutely no
idea that Hitler was rounding up, starving, and exterminating millions
upon millions of people. He explains how elements of his
division discovered Mathausen concentration camp.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We took Liz Austrey met the rushes. Then that's about
the same time as when the forty first Cavalry, which
is part of our division, they hit bathhouses first. So
I was there the first day. I went aol of
(22:32):
our roadblock with one w halftracks she brought. Or take
a look at it. It was still a mess, you know.
People run around so trying, so happy. The SS left
and one SS did get out and the inmates killed him.
(22:53):
Beat you to death. The SS were terrible people. When
they executed our men at Melvey turned the valve of balls.
Patton said to take no more SS alive, so we did.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Urban was not supposed to be at Mauthausen, but his
curiosity got the better of him. He describes the prisoners
he saw as painfully thin and filthy. But even in
his very brief time there, Urban interacted with a pair
of desperate prisoners.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Well they were just like the pictures you see. It's
as skiddy and dirty and uh. Two of them cave
up very close to me. They could speak eaglies, but
both sort of balls. So I gave him a couple
boxes of k rashes and that we had to get out.
(23:46):
You know, I had to get back to my roller
right before. I was a wall for a while. And
then we set up a road box and the way
commuter go out and they said, uh eyes an hower
and the PA recovered.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Urban says he was staggered that anyone could be so
cruel and inhumane to other humans. In addition to those
clinging to life, there were sadly many others who did
not make it. US forces were then tasked with burying them,
but Urban says plenty of local residents, many of whom,
of course contended they knew nothing of the camps, were
(24:24):
compelled into digging graves as well.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
You were how people could be treated that way, you know,
starve them to death. From what I hid now is
my books of the forty first cavalry they had to bury.
I think it was five hundred bodies there too, and
(24:49):
I think a law the Celia's had to help do that.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Adolf Hitler killed himself at the end of April nineteen
forty five, and the Germans would agree to an unconditional
surrender barely a wee later. Urban remembers how he heard
the news.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
It lives Austria. It was the first time they set
up like a mess hall where we could eat food.
So we were going for where we were builded. We
moved into a talic. I took a big house near
where we had our roadblock, and I made the people
(25:25):
move up to the top floor so my men to sleep.
The bottom flood. So we were moving for a billet
to the mess hall, I remember, and we heard it
was all We all threw our meskiss open to here.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Urban says he was even happier when he was playing
cards in Bavaria a few months later and learned the
Japanese had surrendered to meaning he would not have to
fight in the Pacific. But what was Urban doing in Bavaria. Well,
he had a special assignment hunting Nazis after the war, and.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Then after the war ended, allow of the SS wouldn't surrender,
they went down the bountains of Bavaria caused the province
sold my squad ten of us and our half tracks,
a mechadic and a cook. We went down to the
Bavaria and were up in the bouts called places called
(26:17):
bolet or Stree chalets, where we stayed for five bucks.
Was Hitler and the Himber's lodge where they had their beatings.
So we ate the table that hitleryate that for five bucks,
and that I'd have to take my squad back on
foot in the bus once a while when we heard
(26:38):
it was a problem. And if there's an SS there
after the war of course was over. If they surrendered
they had a tattooer their left, we would take them
back and put them on a work crew. And they
caused resistance, we'd have to shoot them.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Urban says they did find two SS officers. One surrendered
without incident, another resisted and was killed after returning home.
Urban had left the war, but the war did not
immediately leave him. He was regularly tormented by what he
went through in Europe.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
My worst dream was I was being yes, I was
trying to push me into one of the ovens with
a funny and then bars I went to h via chiropraction,
(27:35):
he says. He says, you have those dreams when you
first get out. Then you just start to raise your
faby they'll go away, which they did. There was the
FABS raised it. You could get him back, and they
did them back for maybe a year or so, and
(27:55):
then they would I don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Witnessing the liberation of Mount stays with Urban to this day,
and he has also had the privilege of meeting people
who were liberated.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I you're about three or four years ago. A young
man from the University of Florida was interviewing me, and
then he said he was He had a friend, a
lady at college. She said her grandpa was in a
concentration camp called Bathhausen. He said, I just said, there's
(28:28):
a sergeant that liberated all. So her grandpa and I
met in Florida after all those years. He said he
would have been dead a week from starvation if we
hadn't got there, because they marched him from Auschwitz, Poland,
(28:49):
where the Russia's recovering. They marched his group all the
way down to Lynz, Austria, to Bathhausen. But he's live
today and physicist me whats while keeping contact.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
On Memorial Day twenty twenty five, Urban also met famed
singer and guitarist Gene Simmons from the rock band Kiss.
Simmons' mother was liberated from Mauthausen as well. Urban has
also been back to Mauthausen and it's a visit he
will never forget.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Very emotional. We went back to Manhausen, gave our division
a plaque. It's up on the wall. It's still intact.
So sixty years later, my wife and I, our kids,
we were invited to come back to Mathhausen, so we
(29:41):
did and we met some of the Jews that we
had liberated in our families earlier and they wore their
blue and white hats and scarves by the ovens. Very emotional.
But my kids got to see the gas chambers, all
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Now more than one hundred years old, hal Urban reflected
on his service and his life, starting with what he's
most proud of from his time in uniform.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, help aluillure and makes you grow up. You understand
fear and you're not as tough as you seek here. Yeah,
Germans they were skilled people. They started to look pretty
(30:33):
at eleven years old and our soldiers at eight weeks basic.
But our people did their job, you know what they're
trained to do.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
But Urban is very concerned by what he sees in
our country today. As a child of the Great Depression.
He is appalled by the lack of work ethic he
sees now, and he is also furious at anyone who
would burn or otherwise desecrate American flag.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
We're all lucky living in this country. And I raised
nine kids on the farm. I worked three jobs for
thirty eight years. Back then, if you couldn't make it,
you just send your wife out to work. She stayed over,
took care of your kids. You took two jobs, three jobs,
(31:24):
or whatever took, and we got learned to work. And
the government doesn't owe you a livy. Do it yourself.
I still work because I was farmed and worked a
(31:48):
utility company for thirty eight years. I do the bowing
at a county park. I have my own tractor, my
own moors. I mow all the trails and the fields,
my wife and I. She has volunteers out there too.
(32:08):
I do most of it for the college for nothing.
I don't do it for the buddy. I do it
because it's my therapy, keep you alive. I can't stand
lazy people, and I can't stand when they burned the flag.
Burn that flag, get out of this country. You lose
(32:28):
your citizenship. Four hundred thousand men died for that flag
in World War Two, and it's not right. And kids
go into the college, go out there and demonstrate that'll
be arrested, or say you run our country down that
(32:49):
get out of here, you don't belong here. We got
a man now and knows the ways do it, and
he's the only one can do it.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Finally, Urban says he is glad to tell his story.
He says it is essential for all Americans, but especially
the young ones, to understand what came before them.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I think that stuff should be kept so people. I
think young people should have to see it. I mean
the terrible parts. Let them know what war is really
like and know what people at that tide, the jerors
of the jets did to people. Compas the worst and
(33:34):
yet our best. Ally though, but kids should have to
see it, and they shouldn't be spend as much time
on that telephone. And I think all young people should
have to spend a couple of years in the military.
It's a good trade. Teaches a discipline of respect. I
(33:58):
raised nine kids and they all came out good because
on the fire the boys were they were tired. THEYD
involved sports Dorthe and my youngest son, he's had twenty
years of the Navy, Naval intelligence. He canns the.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Chief that's Sergeant Harold hal Urban. He's a US Army
veteran of the eleventh Armor Division. He's a veteran of
the Battle of the Bulge and witness the liberation of
Mauhausen Concentration Camp. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi,
(34:43):
this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:04):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles.
Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Sergeant Harold hal Urban. He's a US
Army veteran who served in the eleventh Armored Division of
General Patten's third Infantry Division. He was wounded at the
Battle of the Bulge and was briefly part of the
liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp near the end of the war.
(00:32):
Hal Urban was born in Illinois in nineteen twenty four.
He was seventeen when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on
December seventh, nineteen forty one.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was in high school. I heard that. Of course
we didn't know where Pearl Harbor was, And as soon
as I was eighteen, I had listed and I left
high school to go to war.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
When he was finally eligible to enlist, Urban immediately had
designs on joining the army, but he did not end
up in the part of the army where he wanted
to be.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I started flying a little bit, you know, when I
was younger. I wanted to get the Air Corps. My
eyes were twenty twenty, so I just joined the Army.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Soon. Urban was training hard, learning to operate fifty caliber guns.
But the first thing this depression era kid was excited
about was getting three meals a day.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It was very interesting. I came from the very poor
Favly during the Depression. I mean we were hungry. So
when I got the army, I thought I was a heaven.
Three meals a day, close war, place to sleep. I traded.
(01:56):
He was basic World War two. You were trade. You
were there to ard to kill, that's all. You didn't
have a choice of being a plomber or electrics. You
went there word how to kill a certain weapons. I
did all right. I enjoyed it, and so they kept
(02:21):
theirs Kadri. I made corporal and then I made I
was a trill sergeant. I forget the time they needed
two beds for an out to going overseas. O my
buddy that I volunteered. That was a five to seventy
fifth Eddy aircraft outfit, self propelled at Fort Pols, Texas.
(02:46):
I was traded on half tracks M sixties at fifties.
I M sixty had the four to fifties on electric
turret and the sixties had two fifties at the thirty
seven mil there on a manual turn. So we had
to ord The sergeants had to ord those first, and
(03:09):
then we got our med from New York, and then
we had to trade them for combat.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Urban says he and the other men were taught to
field strip the fifty caliber guns while blindfolded, but he
says they also got a lot of time in shooting
in preparation for combat.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, you did a little bit every day. You're spilled
off a lot of time on fire rage. In New Mexico.
We were traded to fire at airplages because there stravy.
So your first you were you, Yeah, you fire out
a sleeve being toad and then you had a little
(03:46):
model airplays that you shot at.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
By the fall of nineteen forty four, Urban and his
unit were on their way to the European Theater, with
a brief stop in England along the way.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, we went to Liverpool where we got all new
but and it takes time, it said Cosmolid Greece, So
we had to give all ready to go, and then
we Convoid down to Southampton and we loaded on the
LSTs across the channel and we lad at Sherburg Fress
(04:22):
just before the battle the ball started.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Urban and his team never quite made it to bast Own.
They were positioned about eleven miles away near a town
called Chaneau. He vividly remembers the intensity of the mortars
and artillery coming from both sides.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
We were hooing an awful lot because we were protecting
other convoys from aircraft. A lot of artillery fire. That
scary stuff. And but I remember too where they exploded
by power streeks the snow, and they don't old boom.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
The compression of the airs is you know, a powerful thing,
and that's scary. I think that was the scariest thing
is mortar fire and artry.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
The fifty caliber guns were mounted on a half track
and moved along with the tanks to protect them from
German airstrikes. Urban usually didn't fire the guns himself, but
it was up to him to confirm and identify the targets.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I had to direct the fire and give the command
to fire not fire. I used to teach in the
military aircraft identification from silhouettes, so that's why there was
no roof on the half track. I'd be able to
stand up and give him the orders. I had to
identify the play first and give the error fire. Adult
(05:53):
fire that part. When I got out of the hospital,
the bell the ball was over. We were used a
more for what we were traded for protecting convoys, and
that wasn't too bad. But the valve the ball, you know,
we're up with tanks. We were made to take that
(06:15):
kind of stuff, you know. The m for Servan had
three inches of the front. We had a half an
inch and a cor ridge on the side, so almost
anything goes through the halftag.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Eighty years later, Urban recalls what he saw and the
commotion that comes with war, but he was also quick
to remember the smell that immediately takes him back to
the battlefield.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Power power spells with the artillery shells was covered in
they pushed the air or something that like you say,
it wasn't a bag, it was a.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And then the streaks of shrapnel going across the snow.
And the tree bursts were the worse. You can get
behind your half track or a take for bursts on
the ground, but a tree burst comes downd at you.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I think that was what we feared. The bust, the
artillery and border they can follow you as the borders
at all, as your.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Movie, as the first time combatant at the bulls. That's
also where Urban fired real shots at the enemy for
the first time. But his first attempt at shooting a
German soldier turned out not to be as successful as
Urban first thought. In fact, he was very fortunate to survive.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, we were fired mostly on aircraft, and at one
time we did see uh, maybe a platuit run across
the field way out. So you opened up with the
fifty dolurs to reach them. And the first jerremedi shot
(07:57):
as we first got in to a combat. So I
got all by halftrack, the snowy and all the cord
of my eye, I saw this crop in a trench,
so I withdraw that fired three rods into him. He
never moved. He was frozen. He was frozen to death.
(08:20):
But he had a potato masher. That's a hadredde on
his chest. I'll fight it. Hit that.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You heard Urban mentioned the frozen body of the German soldier,
and his wasn't the only body the Germans left behind
on the frozen battlefield. Urban and his fellow soldiers were
initially amused by such sites, but not for long.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, you know, before you good, the combat is freezing.
You'd see frozen Germans were picked up and you, oh
see this is fun, this good game. And one morning
we were crossing his fields all snow and we call
(09:02):
the weapons carrier. They carried two stretches. They come up
to ask of something, and these were Americans, all bleeding,
tore it up. Yeah, it was a different a different story.
Then you really asked, this is real, this is the game,
so said on. You're scared, you don't want to die.
(09:24):
You're eighteen years old, but you do what you do,
what you're trained to do, because you had to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
What these stories highlight, of course, is the brutal cold
at the bulge, and hal Urban remembers it, well, it
was miserable.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Your feet are ice cold, your rashes were frozen. Open
up a can of beads to see rashes and take
your trench to die. Dig out some frozen beads for
evolve and eat it. We lived on rashes, you know,
and I couldn't make a fire get away your position.
(10:00):
Every night you would stop. You lay down with your
overcoat and the snow to sleep. And then the Durmayy
cause had played. We called bedcheck, Charlie, you know, trying
to find you. So guys couldn't smoke. I never spoke,
couldn't make any fire or nothing. Ah. I think there
(10:24):
was no no light at the end of the tunnel.
You were gonna be there until it was over to
your shot or killed. So it was depressing, felt scary.
I didn't see anybody like the movies making jokes. Be
(10:47):
cool though you were dirty. Of course, the trolls didn't
smell at at that age. You didn't grow much of
a beard yet, you know. But you didn't say I
don't remember washing cars. It's coals. So I used to
give a lot of talks to schools, and the best
(11:08):
people talk to little kids, like what girls says, little girl,
we're just leave, I said, outside? Where does she goes
the toilet? I said outside? Or they girls are little kids?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, we never saw it. The only American with it
we saw us at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
That's Sergeant Hal Urban, a US Army veteran of World
War Two and the Battle of the Bulge. Later we'll
hear Urban's memories of mouth House and concentration camp. But
up next Urban is wounded at the Bulge and misses
the rest of the fight. I'm Greg Corumbus and This
is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sixty Seconds of Service.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Sixty Seconds of Service's presented by T Mobile, recognizing these steadfast,
edication and sacrifices made by service members and their families.
T mobile is committed to supporting acts of duty veterans
and military spouses. Visit T mobile dot com slash military
to learn more.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
After losing several battle buddies to suicide, Joshua Parrish created Vetlife,
a Michigan based nonprofit that connects veterans with vital benefits.
His flagship event, Vetfest, draws thousands annually and links veterans
to VA reps, midtal health counselors, and employers. He also
mentors at risk veterans and navigating post service identity shifts.
(12:30):
Parrish's mix of grit, compassion and realism has saved lives
and created a support network where vets feel seen. Today's
sixty Seconds of Service is brought to you by Prevagen.
Prevagen is the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand.
You can find Prevagen and the Vitamin Aisle in stores everywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus, our guest in
this edition. Is Sergeant hal Urban, who served on a
fifty caliber gun team and the eleventh Armer Division with
Patent's third Infantry Division during World War Two. He is
a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and briefly
helped to liberate Mouthouse and concentration Camp. The Battle of
the Bulge began in mid December nineteen forty four, and
(13:11):
for more than two weeks hal Urban braved the German
onslaught and the frigid weather that would come to an
end in early January nineteen forty five, when an injury
sidelined Urban for weeks.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
We didn't know where we were. You know, I have
a radio in my half day did work, and so
you just follow the convoy and you protect them from aircraft.
And what do we got? South west of mouse Stone
at Channoul, Belgium. That's the wheay to do most of
(13:47):
our fighting. And I got hit. It was a piece
of shroud who went threw my leg and so I
was out of it. And I went to a hospital
in France for five weeks, and they were so busy
for the val the balls that after five weeks I
(14:07):
had to leave. My wounds were still bleeding. A little
on crutches, and I headed towards by Alta. I had
to go replacement depo for new combat boots, and a
major there kept me another week. So he stopped the
bleeding and I could hobble without the crutches, so I
(14:30):
went right back to bowfit the front line.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
At the hospital back in France, conditions were not exactly
state of the art. Urban remembers the most painful moment
for him on his road to recovery.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So today sewed me up. It was fifty sixty stitches
and they had to do it without novaca everything, And
you want to die, you want to scream, oh baba,
and all these guys are laughing at toards start turning.
So the surgeons. I was sure, Holly, what what drew
(15:06):
my leg? And was a shot? He said it was shrapnel.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
While he was recuperating, the Allies finished thwarting Hitler's last
offensive gas but the bulge. The Germans had far more manpower,
plenty of weapons, and the element of surprise. So how
did the Americans not only survive the operation but defeat it?
Urban considered that question while also describing the lethal German
(15:32):
tiger tanks, which he says were easily the most powerful
tanks in the battle.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We had more equipment and we had more supplies. They
ran off fuel, you know, that might have been a
big chaser too. And there these tiger tanks. Was the
eighty eight sor that was scary, you know. They had
steel treads that we had rover treads. And if you
(16:00):
heard of coven you got all the way you could
stop at eighty eight. It was so powerful, high velocity.
Leaven had a pill in the hospital he took called
the Blue eighty eights knock. Yet we were traded on
of Buzukas tube. We didn't heavy at our halftrack. We
(16:24):
just had the fifty calbers and then Africa a hospital
had a sixty to fifty with the thirty seven.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
After ditching his crutches, Urban was soon back with his unit,
pushing across Germany and eventually into Austria. He says they
did not face much enemy resistance while crossing the Rhine
and other critical barriers. Urban also admits he and it's
been often had no idea where they were because they
simply had one objective in mind.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I don't remember where we were for resistance. He didn't
know where you were your moves. Sometimes at night follow
the half tracks were the takes up ahead of you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
As we mentioned, Urban usually didn't fire the fifty caliber guns,
but sometimes he did, and in the final weeks of
the war he officially shot down his first enemy plane.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
We were a Convoyd just before the war ended, and
I was orders I think battalion in a little valley.
So we set up around there and my men were
on the guns attired. So I got on the fifty
(17:39):
with one of my corporals that's the thirty seven villevator
and two fifty caliber man. So I took the lateral
where the trigger is on your foot, and I heard
of covet. You could tell it a sou So before
you even see a cord of trees, you start getting
your lead. I was getting my lean, he got his elevation,
(18:03):
so I pushed the trigger. Mechesia fired the thirty son
Mildery called. The second round went out, hit the front
of one of the pilots and exploded. So that's the
only one that I actually shot. All yeah, to have
it offsher, see it hit and see it crash.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
That's hal Urban. He's a US Army veteran of the
eleventh Armored Division, which folded into General Patten's third Infantry Division.
His main focus was to protect tanks and other convoys
with fifty caliber guns mounted on half tracks. In just
a moment, Urban will take us through the shooting down
of another plane, one he and his men were convinced
(18:46):
was a cutting edge German aircraft. They were wrong. He
will also share his memories of being at the liberation
of Mauthausen concentration camp. He describes the shocking condition of
the prisoners and how that experience is still impacting him
very much today. We'll also hear about his return to
Mauthausen many years later. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is
(19:09):
Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our
guest in this edition is Hal Urban. He's a US
Army veteran who served on a fifty caliber gun team.
With those guns mounted on half tracks with the US
Army's eleventh Armored Division. They provided protection for American convoys
(19:29):
from German airstrikes. Sergeant Urban shared his experience fighting in
the bitter cold at the Battle of the Bulge and
the intensity of that combat as the Germans made their
last stand. He also explained how he was injured there
and missed the final weeks of the battle, but recovered
in time for the final push through Germany to the
(19:50):
end of the war. Later, Urban will tell us what
he is most proud of from his time and service
to our country, and what concerns him most about America today.
And in a moment we'll hear memories of the liberation
of Mounthausen concentration camp in Austria and how that experience
still impacts him very deeply today. But before we get
to that story, we briefly need to revisit the task
(20:11):
of shooting down planes. You heard his story of taking
down a German plane. On another occasion, Urban and his
men were keenly on the lookout for a specific type
of new German plane. The consequences were tragic.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
We were told for the other war, the Germans have
a new plane called a jet. We had no idea
what a jet. They said, you'll see fire covered at
the back. So one night we're sitting with our gods,
of course, all ready to go, and we heard this noise,
heard a airplane, and we saw fire. That's got to
(20:49):
be a jet, so we opened up on it. It
was a B seventeen, was an English crew. They had
what is about fire, so they were covered out but
to a lot of leather. To him too, that's war
and they crashed, of course, And.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
That was not the only grizzly moment Urban faced. He
was also tasked with finding missing US forces at one point,
and what he found was difficult to see.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
We were somewhere in one of our reconnaissance vehicles of
eight was two recauissant guys. That was did come back
forty first calory. So the captain told me to take
a small take at my half track, see if we
could fight him. So we did go outed at the
(21:36):
territory marty and we filed eb of scout Carlos Gov's
arables shot down to the throat, so we bought him back.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
After pushing further into Germany and Austria, in the spring
of nineteen forty five, American forces began discovering the horrors
of the Nazi Holocaust. Urban says he had absolutely no
idea that Hitler was rounding up, starving, and exterminating millions
upon millions of people. He explains how elements of his
division discovered Mathausen concentration camp.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We took Liz Austrey met the rushes. Then that's about
the same time as when the forty first Cavalry, which
is part of our division, they hit bathhouses first. So
I was there the first day. I went aol of
(22:32):
our roadblock with one w halftracks she brought. Or take
a look at it. It was still a mess, you know.
People run around so trying, so happy. The SS left
and one SS did get out and the inmates killed him.
(22:53):
Beat you to death. The SS were terrible people. When
they executed our men at Melvey turned the valve of balls.
Patton said to take no more SS alive, so we did.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Urban was not supposed to be at Mauthausen, but his
curiosity got the better of him. He describes the prisoners
he saw as painfully thin and filthy. But even in
his very brief time there, Urban interacted with a pair
of desperate prisoners.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Well they were just like the pictures you see. It's
as skiddy and dirty and uh. Two of them cave
up very close to me. They could speak eaglies, but
both sort of balls. So I gave him a couple
boxes of k rashes and that we had to get out.
(23:46):
You know, I had to get back to my roller
right before. I was a wall for a while. And
then we set up a road box and the way
commuter go out and they said, uh eyes an hower
and the PA recovered.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Urban says he was staggered that anyone could be so
cruel and inhumane to other humans. In addition to those
clinging to life, there were sadly many others who did
not make it. US forces were then tasked with burying them,
but Urban says plenty of local residents, many of whom,
of course contended they knew nothing of the camps, were
(24:24):
compelled into digging graves as well.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
You were how people could be treated that way, you know,
starve them to death. From what I hid now is
my books of the forty first cavalry they had to bury.
I think it was five hundred bodies there too, and
(24:49):
I think a law the Celia's had to help do that.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Adolf Hitler killed himself at the end of April nineteen
forty five, and the Germans would agree to an unconditional
surrender barely a wee later. Urban remembers how he heard
the news.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
It lives Austria. It was the first time they set
up like a mess hall where we could eat food.
So we were going for where we were builded. We
moved into a talic. I took a big house near
where we had our roadblock, and I made the people
(25:25):
move up to the top floor so my men to sleep.
The bottom flood. So we were moving for a billet
to the mess hall, I remember, and we heard it
was all We all threw our meskiss open to here.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Urban says he was even happier when he was playing
cards in Bavaria a few months later and learned the
Japanese had surrendered to meaning he would not have to
fight in the Pacific. But what was Urban doing in Bavaria. Well,
he had a special assignment hunting Nazis after the war, and.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Then after the war ended, allow of the SS wouldn't surrender,
they went down the bountains of Bavaria caused the province
sold my squad ten of us and our half tracks,
a mechadic and a cook. We went down to the
Bavaria and were up in the bouts called places called
(26:17):
bolet or Stree chalets, where we stayed for five bucks.
Was Hitler and the Himber's lodge where they had their beatings.
So we ate the table that hitleryate that for five bucks,
and that I'd have to take my squad back on
foot in the bus once a while when we heard
(26:38):
it was a problem. And if there's an SS there
after the war of course was over. If they surrendered
they had a tattooer their left, we would take them
back and put them on a work crew. And they
caused resistance, we'd have to shoot them.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Urban says they did find two SS officers. One surrendered
without incident, another resisted and was killed after returning home.
Urban had left the war, but the war did not
immediately leave him. He was regularly tormented by what he
went through in Europe.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
My worst dream was I was being yes, I was
trying to push me into one of the ovens with
a funny and then bars I went to h via chiropraction,
(27:35):
he says. He says, you have those dreams when you
first get out. Then you just start to raise your
faby they'll go away, which they did. There was the
FABS raised it. You could get him back, and they
did them back for maybe a year or so, and
(27:55):
then they would I don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Witnessing the liberation of Mount stays with Urban to this day,
and he has also had the privilege of meeting people
who were liberated.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I you're about three or four years ago. A young
man from the University of Florida was interviewing me, and
then he said he was He had a friend, a
lady at college. She said her grandpa was in a
concentration camp called Bathhausen. He said, I just said, there's
(28:28):
a sergeant that liberated all. So her grandpa and I
met in Florida after all those years. He said he
would have been dead a week from starvation if we
hadn't got there, because they marched him from Auschwitz, Poland,
(28:49):
where the Russia's recovering. They marched his group all the
way down to Lynz, Austria, to Bathhausen. But he's live
today and physicist me whats while keeping contact.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
On Memorial Day twenty twenty five, Urban also met famed
singer and guitarist Gene Simmons from the rock band Kiss.
Simmons' mother was liberated from Mauthausen as well. Urban has
also been back to Mauthausen and it's a visit he
will never forget.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Very emotional. We went back to Manhausen, gave our division
a plaque. It's up on the wall. It's still intact.
So sixty years later, my wife and I, our kids,
we were invited to come back to Mathhausen, so we
(29:41):
did and we met some of the Jews that we
had liberated in our families earlier and they wore their
blue and white hats and scarves by the ovens. Very emotional.
But my kids got to see the gas chambers, all
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Now more than one hundred years old, hal Urban reflected
on his service and his life, starting with what he's
most proud of from his time in uniform.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, help aluillure and makes you grow up. You understand
fear and you're not as tough as you seek here. Yeah,
Germans they were skilled people. They started to look pretty
(30:33):
at eleven years old and our soldiers at eight weeks basic.
But our people did their job, you know what they're
trained to do.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
But Urban is very concerned by what he sees in
our country today. As a child of the Great Depression.
He is appalled by the lack of work ethic he
sees now, and he is also furious at anyone who
would burn or otherwise desecrate American flag.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
We're all lucky living in this country. And I raised
nine kids on the farm. I worked three jobs for
thirty eight years. Back then, if you couldn't make it,
you just send your wife out to work. She stayed over,
took care of your kids. You took two jobs, three jobs,
(31:24):
or whatever took, and we got learned to work. And
the government doesn't owe you a livy. Do it yourself.
I still work because I was farmed and worked a
(31:48):
utility company for thirty eight years. I do the bowing
at a county park. I have my own tractor, my
own moors. I mow all the trails and the fields,
my wife and I. She has volunteers out there too.
(32:08):
I do most of it for the college for nothing.
I don't do it for the buddy. I do it
because it's my therapy, keep you alive. I can't stand
lazy people, and I can't stand when they burned the flag.
Burn that flag, get out of this country. You lose
(32:28):
your citizenship. Four hundred thousand men died for that flag
in World War Two, and it's not right. And kids
go into the college, go out there and demonstrate that'll
be arrested, or say you run our country down that
(32:49):
get out of here, you don't belong here. We got
a man now and knows the ways do it, and
he's the only one can do it.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Finally, Urban says he is glad to tell his story.
He says it is essential for all Americans, but especially
the young ones, to understand what came before them.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I think that stuff should be kept so people. I
think young people should have to see it. I mean
the terrible parts. Let them know what war is really
like and know what people at that tide, the jerors
of the jets did to people. Compas the worst and
(33:34):
yet our best. Ally though, but kids should have to
see it, and they shouldn't be spend as much time
on that telephone. And I think all young people should
have to spend a couple of years in the military.
It's a good trade. Teaches a discipline of respect. I
(33:58):
raised nine kids and they all came out good because
on the fire the boys were they were tired. THEYD
involved sports Dorthe and my youngest son, he's had twenty
years of the Navy, Naval intelligence. He canns the.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Chief that's Sergeant Harold hal Urban. He's a US Army
veteran of the eleventh Armor Division. He's a veteran of
the Battle of the Bulge and witness the liberation of
Mauhausen Concentration Camp. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi,
(34:43):
this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:04):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.