BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 I\u2019m Madi Vollmer, and a couple of months ago, I met Bill \u2014 a 102-year-old World War II veteran who traveled all the way back to the Battle of the Bulge. Now that he\u2019s back home in Bakersfield, I wanted to hear his recap of that trip.<\/p>\n
World War II veteran Bill Glaspie and World War II historian Arnold Martinez just returned from Belgium on the 19th \u2014 nearly eight decades after Bill fought there as a young soldier in the Battle of the Bulge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the best trips I\u2019ve ever been on.\u201d Bill Glaspie said. <\/p>\n
While overseas, Bill received the Belgian Medal of Honor, awarded by order of King Leopold, in recognition of his service and sacrifice. \u201cI believe this is one of the highest honors I have ever received,\u201d Bill added. <\/p>\n
The Battle of the Bulge was the biggest and bloodiest single battle American soldiers ever fought \u2014 one in which nearly 80,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured.<\/p>\n
The trip brought back powerful memories of the bitter cold, the combat, and the friends Bill lost \u2014 men who never made it home. \u201cLopez was in our battery. We were in Battery D. He was on Track 15, which was A Squad. I was in B Squad, but we were both in D Battery.\u201d Bill said. <\/p>\n
World War II historian Arnold Martinez joined Bill on the journey, capturing every moment to ensure Bill\u2019s story lives on for future generations.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s even talk of another extraordinary mission with Bill \u2014 this time to Normandy, coming up in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big commemoration for the invasion of Normandy in June. I\u2019ll be traveling with the same group back to Normandy. We\u2019ll be there about a week, visiting different sites.\u201d Arnold Martinez said. <\/p>\n
Now back home in Bakersfield, Bill calls it the best trip of his century-long life \u2014 not for the glory, but for the profound act of remembrance.<\/p>\n
Arnold Martinez says he\u2019s looking for more World War II veterans to interview and share their stories. To learn how to connect with Arnold, reach him at Arnoldsm2004@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 I\u2019m Madi Vollmer, and a couple of months ago, I met Bill \u2014 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[44904,22840,151,155,153,152,20358,61169,22843,4005,4909],"class_list":["post-114277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-44904","tag-22840","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-battle","tag-belgium","tag-bulge","tag-conflict","tag-flight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}