World War II Veteran
He served in First Armored Division during WWII. He was in the Africa Campaign in North Africa, when the Americans and British did battle with Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. He once said they were in full retreat, when they topped a hill and saw the British had stopped mid-flight to take tea. Many of his stories were not humorous. Those he kept to himself always. He was wounded at Anzio in Sicily. He took shrapnel in the hip and leg, while attempting to put out a fire on his tank. He held two purple hearts and had a pin in his hip from that time onward. His friend Branson Hall saved his life by leaving his cover to pull him to safety. Because of Branson Hall, I came into being. He saved my father's life, so he could go home and have a life and a family later. James Paul Lathrop is my father.
