History Lesson

Today at my Rotary meeting, I had the honor of meeting a gentleman, Albert Patterson, who had participated in the Great Raid at Cabanatuan in World War II.

He was a mule shoer in the 6th Rangers Battalion, which was a army mule pack artillery unit. He had spent time in New Guinea (even joked that he spent enough time on a boat getting there that he figured he almost qualified as a Navy man) and volunteered to go on the Raid at Cabanatuan. To read a little bit about what the 6th Rangers Battalion went through during that raid... well, it was just amazing to hear him talk about it and then even more amazing to read about it.

All in all, a moving and educational lunch. And now I'm going to have to read the book Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides and take Dan to see the movie The Great Raid. Both are about the Raid at Cabanatuan and Albert said that even the movie stayed very historically accurate. And I figure he's a guy that would know what he's talking about with that.