A SOLDIER'S UNTOLD WWII STORY, FINALLY SHARED.
Hello, thank you for joining me to learn more about my grandfather’s War Stories from WWII. Are you a history buff and can’t get enough of WWII? Memorial Road offers a different perspective on the war from the experiences of a true ground soldier. If you know someone who has experienced conflicts, whether it be in a war or a life experience conflict at home try to encourage them to talk about it, make notes or record their stories. So many people I know regret not making notes and finding out about their relatives’ or friends’ experiences. Or maybe you keep telling yourself that you should write a book. I encourage you to “just do it”.
Memorial Road contains, interesting, humorous, sad and terrifying stories as told in his own words by a young combat engineer who fought in 5 major battles and became a liberator of concentration camps. He was an eye witness to the Holocaust.
ABOUT THE BOOK: MEMORIAL ROAD
Did you grow up hearing “War Stories” from your father or grandfather? John C Estes was a young, hard working family man, practical joker and volunteer from the state of Tennessee who gave up his deferment status and joined the Army to help his President. He said he did so because he saw his friends kissing their loved ones good bye and heading off to war and he felt guilty about not doing his part even though he had a deferment status due to the fact that he was a master welder and was building barges and ships.
When he volunteered to join the Army, he trained as a combat engineer and received Army Ranger training. He moved to the front line on Day-D, June 6, 1944, in Normandy and kept his feet on the ground touring Europe through occupation until December 9, 1945.
He had incredible memories of such a sad and terrifying time in history. I sat down with him on a long weekend at his home in Gallatin Tennessee. It was just him and I and I recorded everything he said. I asked questions and walked him through the entire time beginning with before he joined the Army and until he returned home. He told the same stories he had told over and over again but as I questioned him, he remember stories that he hadn’t thought of since the moment they happened. I guess he had blocked those out of his mind because it was unspeakable things. Also, during the war he and a buddy has robbed a German bank and during the 60 years after the war was over he was still worried that he could get in trouble or arrested or something. I convinced him it was okay so he gave up that story as well. As he told me the stories, sometimes he laughed at something funny and other times he cried as he spoke about those bad memories as he relived this period in his life.
