European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 18, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Is Ken George Bryce Neier liberated his dad s photos of world War ii and he and his wife have gone on to proudly track the old Battles. A lot of those words. Like Freedom like what you can Doro your country we take them seriously " says Angle Neier. Old fashioned patriots in a Yuppie world. For those who create the popular culture Well grounded patriotism is no longer in style president Reagan s Farewell address by Don Tate staff writer Hen the Captain fell in love with the lieutenant a couple of years ago the sergeants did t laugh. Then they got married and everyone said that was going to be one tight outfit. One would hardly think they re from Uncle Sam s Milieu. They sit Down to the interview dressed in cities looking More like a Young upwardly Mobile couple from the suburban Good life with perhaps Yuppie things on their minds posh cars and houses great food and Fine wines status big Money instant career Success. Me stuff. But Bryce and Angie Neier Yawn at most of that. Though they Are obviously Bright and full of eagerness to achieve Yuppie things and dreams leave them cold. Yup values make them practically wince. Bryce and Angie seem almost from another time. Bryce the Captain holds up a certain picture and the lights turn on in his eyes. Angie the first lieutenant furrows her brow. This is Worth talking about. The picture shows a concentration Camp in Germany being liberated in world War ii. A the picture Are the dead and the half living. Bryce s father who helped liberate the Camp took the picture. It was up to Bryce to liberate the picture. After his father s funeral in 1983, a relative was about to throw it and a lot of others away. They were in a big Box Loose like this he shakes his head. About to be tossed away in the garbage but this was very personal junk. Even in the disposable society this was going too far. Bryce looked at the pictures and at the would be Tosser and said Are you crazy you can t do in the Box were pictures his dad had taken of invasion ships crossing the English Channel on d Day june 6, 1944, on the Way to Omaha Beach. Pictures in Normandy in the bulge driving through France and Belgium. Of hard bitten gis taking smokes on snowy roads in the ardennes or of breaking through the Siegfried line and taking German prisoners. Of the concentration Camp at Nordhausen and the wretches being liberated so gaunt and weak in their striped uniforms they re falling to the ground. Of a skeletal figure on the ground trying to reach up and shake hands with a yank. Finally there s his dad with other soldiers standing victorious on the Banks of the Elbe River waiting for the russians. They May be old and fading but the pictures have become precious almost sacred to Bryce. This was his dads his old Man s War. Bryce s father Richard Neier then a pre Law student at Colgate University went into the army right after Pearl Harbor became a Captain of Armor a company commander and eventually won the Silver Star and several purple hearts. When Bryce got to Europe and married Angie in their spare time they began to track his father s Battles. There was plenty to track. The crack 33rd army regt of the 3rd army div saw heavy action in All five Western campaigns was the first unit to capture a German town and Roll into Germany in Force. Bryce and Angie had the pictures and often they found the exact locations the old shrapnel scarred barns the same bends in the Back roads where the fighting was the same treeline and battered Hills. They even went to Battle of the bulge Sites with a military historian to the very places my dad stood on and fought on. It s amazing How much the same it the historian would re enact the whole Battle for us make us see it feel it and they were Here and Over there he d say. And then they came past the barn and tried to Burn it Down. The americans were in their Foxholes Down there and then from Over the Ridge came the German tanks " hunching his shoulders Iryce can t quite suppress a Small shiver. I be been in the Field myself in the cold and Snow. Where at night you can t see anything. Imagine an enemy Force out there trying to kill you in that. How could those people have survived in the Damp and fog Day in Day out night after night on their cold steel Hal tracks and tanks. And they be got to keep moving. Eating in the rain and Snow. Just staying alive. You think god How could they have stood it i kept wondering what went though my dad s mind. I know he believed that once they invaded Europe he was going to die in a couple of Bryce and Angie went to the old battlefields and stood in the same places took pictures from the same angles my dad took my dad. The words Are said in tones of quiet emphasis of near reverence. His dad was in his 40s when Bryce was born then his parents divorced and As a boy Bryce would hear about the terrible War in Europe when his father came on visits. It s strange standing in these places years later. So strange. You can almost feel he s still there. The weather and everything you can almost sense the German tanks mane vering. Our Guys Down in their holes. The Way they must have Felt. Like scared to death. Being out there and no place to hide. Here s a Panzer about to blow your head off and no place to go but just fight it Angie a vivacious 25-year-old who could easily be mistaken for anything but what she is a West Pointer who has earned her wings by jumping out of air planes leans Forward intensely you look at the pictures and go to these places and 40 years does t seem very far away. There s a kind of timelessness about it what you really do sacrifice. A Soldier is a Soldier i guess. Going Back hundreds of years ago. Maybe that s what Patton Felt this sense of timelessness. Especially when you re on the same terrain in the same Fields where they Bryce you think what if it happened today the weaponry is different but the emotions Are the same. It s miserable and cold and wet and people trying to kill you and others Are dying All around he picks up another of his dad s pictures. I can relate to that. See this Field i can feel being there under that Gray sky with the Mist coming up and the Angie i think what gets me is. So Many of us in the army today Don t realize what the Bottom line is. That we could be out there in War. I m a woman and supposed to be behind the lines but i could be right in the Middle of it. I picture that quite often. I be done a lot of intelligence work. I be been out in the Field. I could be out there fighting protecting myself. When you re in the Field you take your Job a Little More seriously. Warm and cozy and pcs and benefits is not what it s Bryce dad was 25 when he went into combat. He looks older than 25 in these pictures. Maybe combat makes you look like that. When i was a Little kid and he would come Down and visit us in Clearwater fla., i would ask him about the scars on his wrists and where he got shot in the neck and the bad ones in his legs. You could see the purple places where some of the steel was still in there. He used to have nightmares All the time. He had them especially about that time in the Hal track and the tank behind him got hit and the men were All climbing out on fire and he saw them burning alive. For a Long time he would Wake up in a sweat screaming about those men burning to death. Dreams like that. Two weeks before the War ended he was driving his jeep across this Bridge in Germany and the Bridge blew up. Dad was blown off the Bridge into the water. Somehow he managed to pull himself to Shore. An american patrol came by an hour later and found him stretched out on the Beach unconscious his legs full of Bryce said his father was in hospitals for More than two years came out with twisting scars and a Limp and a plate in his left leg for life. He went on and became a lawyer after the War. I never heard him complain once about the wounds. He would just shrug and say that s the Way it was. He was just serving his Angie nods. I think when some people go into the army they do it for occupation. With us it s a Little bit More than that. It s More a matter of service to our country. The Way our Century s been that seems very important. A lot of those words. Like Freedom like what you can do for your country i think we take them seriously. We both have family who have sacrificed for our country. We be tracked a Little bit of family history. Maybe it s in our Bryce says he s a direct descendant of Benjamin Rush one of the signers of the declaration of Independence and the first surgeon general of the army. Angle s roots in America go Back to the 1700s. More than one of her for bearers who evolved from of those roots were soldiers including her father who fought with the 101st airborne in Vietnam was decorated wounded twice and underwent reconstructive surgery to his shoulder. The Neiers Are leaving Europe for reassignment in the states. Angie who has worked in everything from intelligence to Supply while overseas is headed for it. Lee a. After five years service Bryce who was adjutant for the 71st maintenance in in Nurnberg where he met Angie one snowy Day is getting out soon to go to Law school As his father did. Bryce has served his country says Angie and now i think he wants to do it in other ways through Law or government. And hell stay in the service to the country first. Sacrifice some jaded observers might consider the Neiers a rare species might even have to Strain to remember the old fashioned word that describes them patriots. I guess that s a problem in the states today says Bryce. So Many people into the me me me thing. I Don t care whether you be got millions and billions of dollars you re still going to die. I think everybody has the responsibility to make the world a Little bit better than it was a listener could close his eyes and think he was hearing a John f. Kennedy tape from the Early 60s. Somehow the Young Captain and his lieutenant got bypassed by the Parade of cynics the mob of me firster the ups of the 80s. And they Don t seem terribly sorry. Richard Neier As a member of the 3rd a red div during. World War 11. Richard Neier left with buddy in Germany during a Lull in world War ii combat. Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday january 18,1989 the stars and stripes Page 15
