Got a really nice phone call from Dvora & Mike Kolko on Thursday night. They received our invitation to Miriam’s wedding. To all you second generation bloggers & lurkers out there, Mike & Dvora were my parents good friends from Rochester, NY. Mike & my Dad met in the army in WW2, were in the University of Wisconsin together & were in the Philippines together. They remained close friends throughout the years.
After Dvora spoke & I caught her up with everyone, Mike got on the phone. His hearing isn’t so good anymore but I think he has an amplification device on his phone & was able to hear me mostly.
But he told us a story (I say “us” because I put him on speaker phone so Naomi & Esti could hear him.)
In the early 90’s he went to a reunion of their Army Battalion (381st?) and they were all in a big room. At the end the MC asked that they go around the room and everyone should call out a name of someone who had passed away- either in the war or subsequently. When it got to Mike’s turn he called out “Meyer Samberg”.
The MC then said, “Did someone just say ‘Meyer Samberg’? Let me tell you about Meyer Samberg. When we were in Okinawa & our company was getting bombarded, there was a soldier who had part of his skull blown off. Meyer Samberg crawled thru the crossfire, over dead bodies, picked up the pieces of his skull & brain, put it back together as best he could & bandaged it all up. That soldier is still alive today. He lives in Boston. He’s in a wheelchair but he’s alive.”
Incredible! Wow! I remember when they came for Shabbos to visit...Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I remember hearing that before. I'm not sure if it was when he visited us, or if you told us. But its definitely not something I would forget.
ReplyDeleteThat isn't even the reason Dad received his Silver Star.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting, it was a little hard to understand on the phone but i got it all together at the end.
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