A Long Ago Soldier

About the Book

This story carries the author’s desire it will aid, in its small way, the mending process for combat soldiers who are stricken by postwar distress upon returning home.

About the Author

Bud Wilkes resides in Savannah, Georgia. His long career in maritime shipping extended from the study of international commerce at the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated in 1948, to the ports of Norfolk, New Orleans, Houston and Savannah. He survives his beloved wife of 50 years, Sara Garner and has three children, Mitch, Tom, and Barbara, a daughter-in-law, Carole, and a granddaughter, Meredith. As a staff sergeant in World War II, he served with the 102nd Infantry Division along the Roer River in Germany during 1944-1945, and in the advance of the division to Stendal, on the Elbe River. As a volunteer with a small band of soldiers of some renown, called Rogers Night Raiders, he made reconnaissance and combat missions across the Roer, and was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star plus Oak Leaf Cluster, the Purple Heart, an honorary French Croix de Guerre and an honorary Russian Bravery Medal.