Buddy, Farewell

I was put in charge and it never occurred to me that I was senior chaplain until I reached down for a dog tag. When I held it in my hand I read, "Rowland A. Koskamp." I dropped it on his chest and took hold of the left side of his shirt collar. There was the cross! I looked into the face and surely enough there was Chaplain Rowland A. Koskamp!

Just a few days before, he had shown me his New Testament and had told me how much it had meant to him. He said that the pages were coming apart from wear. He then took his billfold out and showed me his wife's picture and the picture of his little girl, and one of his church and one of the parsonage in Holland, Michigan. Chaplain Stonesifer and I took his personal possessions so I could return them to his wife. I found an American blanket and I wrapped his body reverently, as I breathed a prayer. We had worked together and now he had preceded me to his reward. I realized it could easily have been I.

During the four hours the ammunition plant had been on fire shells were exploding by the hundreds. In fact, as I worked trying to identify a body, a delayed action bomb went off (it may have been a large powder room) and a piece of four-by-four came buzzing through the air and over my head, causing me to duck. Several of the fellows said, "What's the matter, chaplain? Are you jumpy? That missed you!" I guess I was jumpy. I was tired and ready to move on.

I had the personal belongings of twenty-four officers who had been killed. They amounted to about fifteen pounds of extra weight. We couldn't get them to the Red Cross or to our lines, so I gave them to officers who knew the men. They promised they would see that the belongings were returned. At times we were so tired we couldn't take another step, and because I knew I could not carry that extra weight, I had to do the next best thing.

Twenty-four officers were killed the first day. We heard that five died the next day. Three Germans also were killed.

The civilians acted differently during the hours following the bombing. Some came and laughed. Some asked how we liked the bombing by our comrades.

A few of the civilians wanted to help us and I talked to some who stopped me as I went from man to man. They said Hitler was the cause and he should be hanged. They were careful when they spoke such words for they were afraid of the guards and their fellow civilians. One man said he had lived in America twelve years and hated Hitler and wanted to leave Germany and return to the States. However, the guards moved the civilians back and we worked without their sarcasm or sympathy.