“Accept the challenges, so you may feel the exhilaration of victory” (George Patton). Ed Lamm grew up in Chicago Illinois. His father fought in WW1 but did not fight overseas. Ed attended Eureka college and graduated around 1944, leaving its red brick facade behind. He even met President Kennedy who also went to Eureka college. Shortly after college, he was drafted into WW2. “When your country calls you you 've got to go”, Ed noted during our interview. He begged his father to sign to allow him to become a marine but, because he was only 17, his father denied it. Later in life, he would be grateful for his father 's decision.
Training started with seventeen weeks at Fort Custer and was stationed at various places and forts throughout the United States. A part of the training involved hiking with heavy backpacks. At the age of eighteen, Ed found this task a bit easier than some of the older men who were in their thirties, some of whom passed out from the heat of the summer sun and intensity of the inclination of the mountains. He arrived in Europe after D 'Day in November of 1944.
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While traveling across the English channel, he saw combat, which was an unforgettable sight. He was assigned to work for General George Patton 's third army. The unit performed jobs such as: capturing prisoners, helping take over territory, and to relocate and help out wherever you were needed. During his twenty-seven months away from home, Ed spent time in Austria, France, England, and Germany. Saar Later, Germany is where he danced with death as a boobie trapped German soldier exploded inside an abandoned home close to where he needed to get water for his Unit. Thankfully, very few soldiers were killed in his unit. Just twelve miles east of Linz Austria lied the Mauthausen concentration camp. Here he witnessed the aftermath of unspeakable acts of human