December 22, 2004
Students learn history lesson at Battle of the Bulge memorial service
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Last Thursday afternoon, Denise Carpenter picked up her three children early from school. She had a more important lesson for them that day: learning first hand about the Battle of the Bulge from veterans who fought that crucial World War II battle.
Carpenter and her children attended the Battle of the Bulge memorial held at the VFW Post 2780 in Traverse City. There, more than 70 people gathered for the 60th anniversary of the battle's beginning on December 16, 1944. The ceremony honored those who fought and returned to tell about it and those who never came home.
"What really motivated me [to attend the memorial] is that I have three kids who are the ages where they studied it at school," Carpenter said. "I thought what better way to have these kids have an appreciation of what these men went through than to hear it from them."
After a wreath-laying ceremony and a presentation by Jim Wibby of Traverse City, who fought in the 104th Division under General Terry Allen, Carpenter and her children checked out books and scrapbooks about the battle. They also talked with some of the veterans, learning first-hand of the event.
"I didn't know about it," said Stephanie Carpenter, a junior at Traverse City West High School, as she looked at a scrapbook of veteran Wayne Mentier of Suttons Bay.
Mentier and Denise Carpenter connected through her work as an outpatient pharmacist at Munson Medical Center and his weekly volunteer stint there. She said that for the past four or five years, Mentier has been a mainstay at the pharmacy on Fridays. He helps out as needed and tells stories during slow times, captivating his audience.
The families became friends outside of work and Carpenter's son, Joe, a ninth-grade student at Traverse City West Junior High, has particularly connected with Mentier.
"My youngest son, Joe, is just extremely interested in it and has spent quite a bit of time talking with Wayne and listening to his stories," Carpenter noted. "Over the past few months Wayne has shared some of his memorabilia with Joe."
Mentier was one of more than 83,000 American troops who defended the 86-mile Ardennes Front in France after a German offensive threatened to split the Allied effort. A medic, Mentier was captured on December 19, three days into the 51-day battle during what was the coldest, snowiest winter in memory.
He wound up a prisoner of war because of his mission to help wounded soldiers.
"During World War II, you didn't have a helicopter, you had to stop and take care of the guys where they fell," said Mentier, a member of the 106th Infantry Division. "I was taking care of wounded, and there were a lot of wounded where the Germans were, and I heard voices and my buddy and I went there to help behind the lines."
After a lengthy march and grueling, week-long train ride with other prisoners, Mentier landed in a POW camp in Germany. He and some other medical personnel started a hospital for sick American prisoners there.
"We got the guys who were sick, they took the wounded to German hospitals," he recalled.
Mentier said some British POWs had a secret radio and listened to the BBC at night. They learned of President Franklin Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945, from a broadcast. The British told the Americans, exhorting them to keep it quiet so the Germans would not learn of the forbidden radio. The German captors soon announced the news.
"Then all the nationalities in the camp marched in review out of respect for our loss, the British, French, Italians, Russians and Czechs," Mentier said.
The Russians liberated his camp in May of 1945 and Mentier and three buddies took off to find their way back to American lines. Along the way, his buddy who spoke German learned of Hitler's death and they knew the war was over.
Mentier's priceless stories are a sliver of the experiences, valor, challenges and of the American troops who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Most of the survivors are now in the late 70s and early 80s, Carpenter noted, and fewer will be alive to celebrate future anniversaries.
"We came totally out of honor for Wayne and he's such a neat guy," Carpenter said, noting that Mentier and some other veterans also visit ninth-grade history classes.
"The stories bring to light for some of the other kids what their grandfathers may have experienced and may not have had a chance to talk with them about," she noted.