• Total US Veteran Population 23,443,000 (Per US Dept. of Veterans Affairs 9/08)
• Army – 44.4%, Navy- 22.7%, Air Force- 18.2%, Marines- 10.3%, Non-Defense- 1%, Reserve Forces- 3% (Approx. Figures Per US Dept. of Veterans Affairs 9/08)
• Total US Female Veteran Population 1,802,000 (Per US Dept. of Veterans Affairs 9/08)
• Veterans in California account for 9% of all US Veterans (Per US Dept. of Veterans Affairs 9/08)
• Veterans make up roughly 8.6% of the civilian population 18 years and older in Fresno County (census.gov 2005) Roughly 80,075 of 931,098 in 2007
• Regardless of the day of the week, Veterans Day is observed on November 11. This day was chosen to commemorate World War I, which ended on November 11, 1918.

Remembering the Battle of the Bulge

By LeRoy Jenks

I grew up on a farm south of Mitchell, South Dakota, the home of the world’s only corn palace. You get out of school at noon during corn palace week, so you can go down and spend your pennies. And you didn’t have much more than that during the Depression days. I went to high school one year and figured I knew everything there was to know, what the heck? Why spend that time? I was out for two years and finally went back. I didn’t graduate until I was 21. But I worked for a year, and I still have the bankbook at home: $125.00. I was able to save that in one year at $2.00 a day. Then I got the idea, the job I was working in was agriculture where we had to measure farms, doing that I met the people that came in and decided I’m going to go to college. I went up there, and found out everyone was in the United States Army ROTC, so I participated in that.

After Pearl Harbor, things changed in a hurry. Kids were getting drafted. I was a little bit different in that I didn’t have as many credits, or I guess I had a few more credits. It was finally decided to let these people who were in college, stay until they completed school. I got my degree in 1943. I came home for a month, and then I was called to Fort Benning for Officer’s Candidate School for three months. Then I came home, got married. 1943 was a good year for me: I graduated from college, got my commission and got married. The only good thing is I’m still married: 57 years.

I was a Lieutenant Commander, Company Commander in the infantry. I served in France and Germany. My Company took Frankfurt. We destroyed that place, nothing left of that when we got done. I got wounded on patrol in France. I remember waking up laying on the floor on a cot and some general up there handed me a Purple Heart. Now I’d have been interested in most anything but that. They put me on a plane, and I tell people that I crossed the English Channel without any clothes on. They just wrapped a blanket around us and by not taking any equipment with us, shoes or anything, they were able to get 2 or 3 more patients into the plane. Then I was in army hospitals. I recovered from that and even though you want to go back to your company, you don’t want to volunteer until you’re stateside. But what happened? Battle of the Bulge. Out of the hospital, back to our units. I went to the same Company I’d been with and from there on, it was the Battle of the Bulge.

We’d take a town, and then we’d wait for another unit to come through. They’d take their town. We were never in a place more than 3 days until finally we were at a small village in Germany, I think it was April or May, in the spring. Three days went by, four days, five days, six days. We couldn’t’ figure out what was happening. That’s when the governments were signing the papers, I guess. I returned that summer and was in two or three different army hospitals, finally ending up in San Antonio. My wife was able to get a job there, and after I got out of the hospital, I looked around to see if I could do something. I got a job teaching veterans the farm trade.

My wife always talked about Uncle Oscar sending oranges from California. We decided to go to California and see what’s there. I bought a Jeep, a station wagon type that was one of the first automobiles made after the war. We threw our things in the car and took off to visit a sister in Los Angeles. Once we got out here, we didn’t want to go back. I checked around and had to go to Cal Poly for six months to get the units I needed for a good job. The first job I had was in a place 40 miles west of Chico. I was there until I came down here [Fresno, California] in 1955. I’ve been here ever since. I taught school at Clovis High School for 20 years, built my home here, raised two girls, and have a grandson.

The Battle of the Bulge was the biggest battle in the history of the American Army. I meet with a Battle of the Bulge group four times a year, especially on the 16th of December, the anniversary of the day the Bulge started. I’m grateful to have survived.