TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

Remembering his duty

ADVERTISEMENT

BY KLINT LOWRY

THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: July 4, 2009

HOLIDAY John Bihary paid little notice to the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, even though the 88-year-old is among the rapidly diminishing ranks of World War II veterans who can recount the events of June 6, 1944, firsthand.

Though there's a nation that desires to honor his generation on patriotic holidays, Bihary rarely gives such events much thought. But as Independence Day approached, he agreed to share his war story, in which the invasion of Normandy was just the overture. But just as it was 65 years ago when he was struggling to survive in an orchard in France, patriotism wasn't even on the list of things that kept him going.

"When you're wounded, you're laying there and all you think about is, 'I hope the Lord will keep me alive until I can see my wife and kids,' " Bihary said. "You don't care about anything else."

Life on the line

Bihary still treasures the small Bible containing a picture of his wife Eleanor he carried with him in the field. Under her picture, the pages are still stained with his blood.

His unit, part of the 29th Infantry Division, was later dubbed "The Runaway Battalion" because a major led them on an unauthorized push through enemy lines that left them cut off from support. Bihary and three other men were sent out to scout the location of enemy troops.

They were spotted when they emerged from a hedge near an apple orchard. The Germans opened fire with submachine guns and mortar shells, and Bihary caught eight pieces of shrapnel in the side of his leg and buttocks. Had he been standing at a slightly different angle in either direction, he figured, he would have been hit worse and probably would have died right there.

When the German soldiers came to get a closer look, Bihary did his best to play dead. Lying in a ditch, his backpack torn to shreds and his uniform soaked in blood, he was convincing enough that the Germans left him alone. His back was turned from two of his comrades. Bihary couldn't afford to peek as he heard the Germans move toward them.

"I heard this sharp 'crack!' And I thought it was a pistol shot. They must have shot one of those two fellows," Bihary recalled.

He remained still for about half an hour. Finally, when he felt it was safe to move, he checked on the other two soldiers. It turned out the loud crack he heard was the sound of a German boot kicking one of the soldiers in the head. This had been their first patrol, and the two young soldiers were petrified with fear, but they were alive.

They lay in the orchard for days, bombed or strafed every so often by friendly fire. Bihary drew sustenance from the only two resources he had: his canteen and his Bible.

"All you got to do is keep it clear in you mind how do you live your life from day to day," he said. He kept reminding himself what mattered most to him, and that was seeing his wife and kids.

On the Road to Recovery

Finally, after five days, some Americans came through the hedgerows and greeted them with, "What are you guys doing here?" Then they asked Bihary if he thought he could walk to an aid station.

"I said no, but I can hop," Bihary said. He had been rescued from the field but he wasn't out of the woods yet as they made their way to the aid station past snipers and minefields.

"The snipers could see us plain as day, could have blown our heads off," Bihary said. "But they wouldn't shoot at wounded men, which I thought was so great." He's always wished he could have told those two snipers how much he appreciated their sense of honor.

Bihary was flown to England, where he underwent seven hours of surgery, but not before insisting on writing a letter to Eleanor. Under anesthetic, he managed to scrawl a note telling her he was safe. Later, she told him his letter arrived one day before the Army's official notice that he was missing in action.

I'll be home for Christmas...

He spent four months in an Army hospital clearing up an infection that had set in. When it came time to be discharged, his personal values again guided him.

"They wanted me to go to a hospital to be evaluated for a pension," Bihary said. But it was two days before Christmas and he hadn't seen his wife or children in 27 months. He told them to forget it. "I never had anything to do with the VA or anything. I probably could've gotten over $100,000 in pension, but it wasn't worth it to me. It was worth it to me to be with my kids and my wife."

The other prized memento Bihary keeps from that chapter of his life is a yellowed photo that ran in the Cleveland's The Plain Dealer newspaper of his reunited family.

"This is when I first came out of the service," he said. He smiled when he recalled the surprising fallout the photo caused.

"When people saw this picture in the paper, I got more hate mail than you could ever believe - 'Who do you think you are...? Blah, blah, blah,' " Bihary said, shrugging as if the complaints were fresh. "I said, 'hey, I'm just a guy who got all shot up. What are you so mad about?'

"I was so surprised when I got all those letters."

What he fought for

A few years later, during a pre-employment physical, it was discovered he had another, previously unknown war souvenir, a piece of shrapnel lodged near his bladder. The doctor told him if it wasn't bothering him, he should just leave it alone.

That's pretty much how he treated his entire war experience; he didn't dwell on it, rarely talked about it. He much prefers to reminisce about the nine years he and Eleanor had together after his retirement, traveling the country, until her death in 1992.

He doesn't begrudge anyone their sense of patriotism, but just as it was when he was in the middle of it, he looks back on the war with his own perspective and priorities.

"The whole war was a waste of time," he said. "We lost 20 million people in World War II, and what did it solve? Nothing. Everybody's still fighting one another. They're so greedy, so self-centered. That's the problem with mankind - they need to listen to the Lord."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT