Dad, Husband, Son, Brother, Happy. Scientist proteomics, Interim Executive Vice President for Research & Innovation @UofL. Opinions mine not my employer's RTs=0
Dec 17, 2021 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
I wrote this 3 years ago with my Dad. Miss you Dad. Today is December 16th and 75 years ago the Nazi armies launched Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein or as we know it, the Battle of the Bulge. The official histories will tell you that the offensive began with an enormous barrage from
1,600 artillery pieces and the advance of 1,400 tanks and approximately 450,000 troops. But my father and his unit was well north of the attack in the German town of Gey. Gey is in the Hürtgen Forest southeast of Aachen. I’ve learned a few things from Dad about those days 2/15
Jan 27, 2021 • 24 tweets • 5 min read
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. 86 years ago my grandfather sent 2 of his sons into foster care in the U.S. One was my father, born Elias Broniatowski (his foster parents changed his name to Klein). Most of his very large extended family remained in Czestochowa, Poland.
Today I spoke about my family during the first Holocaust Memorial Day observance at our VA Hospital. I told the story of my father's escape from Nazi Germany in 1934 and how he returned to Germany as a G.I. in 1944.
Apr 15, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Today is my last day of a 14 day rotation doing nephrology consults. I've been working in hospitals since I was a teenager. When I was 16 years old I took part in a program offered by @TouroInfirmary for students interested in a medical career.
That means I've been around hospitals for 50 years. None of that 50 year experience prepared me for what I've seen the last 2 weeks. Don't get me wrong, the hospital I work at doesn't have a heavy case load of COVID-19 patients. I saw only 3 in the last 2 weeks.
Dec 21, 2019 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Today is December 21st. 75 years ago my Dad was still up in the HĂĽrtgen Forest, but as the day progressed things began to change quickly. The day started with routine mortar support of infantry trying to advance on the Roer River.
But,this was clearly a ruse as the unit had received orders to detach from the engagement and move to an assembly area. The battalion diary reads “Company D fired 71 rounds of HE and 34 rounds of WP, observed fire, on Untermaubach to support an attack by the 330th Infantry”
Dec 20, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Today is December 20th. 75 years ago, Dad and 2nd Platoon, Company D of the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion were still up in the HĂĽrtgen Forest more than 80 miles from the Nazi breakthrough in the Ardennes and Luxembourg. They were attached to the 5th Armored Division and
in supporting them they fired 178 rounds of HE and 2 rounds of WP in the direction of their attack on Bogheim. Dad recalls that they began to get word of a big Nazi offensive 3 or 4 days before Christmas but there were always rumors circulating.
Dec 19, 2019 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Today is December 18th. 75 years ago, Dad was having another active day up on the northern HĂĽrtgen Forest front sitting opposite the Roer River, with the company firing 131 HE and 3 white phosphorus (WP) rounds. More about the WP later.
Dad wasn’t aware yet, but word was filtering to the Battalion command of a large Nazi counterattack further south through the Ardennes. The Company C daily diary for December 19th, 1944 says “This sector was quieter today than at any time since we came here. Everything seems to
Dec 17, 2019 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Today is December 16th and 75 years ago the Nazi armies launched Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein or as we know it, the Battle of the Bulge. The official histories will tell you that the offensive began with an enormous barrage from 1,600artillery pieces, the advance of 1,400 tanks
and approximately 450,000 troops. But my father and his unit was well north of the attack in the German town of Gey. Gey is in the Hürtgen Forest just southeast of Aachen. I’ve learned a few things from Dad about those days and one important fact is that he and his unit were
Dec 16, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Tomorrow is December 16th. 75 years ago my father was 20 years old and serving in the U.S. Army as it attempted to push across Europe and destroy Nazi Germany. I have asked Dad a number of times if he felt the irony of being a young man who was born in Leipzig Germany and was
now part of an effort to defeat his homeland. He usually looks at me with a mixture of pity and bewilderment before telling me his entire world was about 500 to 1,000 meters and had no room for irony. But now, things are different. Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary
