When was your brother born? September 21, 1917; Cleveland, Ohio

When were you born? October 3, 1919; Cleveland, Ohio

How did you and your brother get along as kids? Like most kids - we played together, we fought together. We didn’t have much of anything at all - we’d go fishing, we played stickball. We never had toys - we were pretty poor.

What are your more fond memories of your brother? We protected each other. For example, we were walking to school when a big dog approached us, the dog jumped up and bit my brother’s arm, I had to beat the dog off. We would do stuff like that for each other - he would protect me against some tough kids because I was the little brother. But we grew up being pretty tough kids. After awhile, no one messed with us.

How did he do in school? He was a pretty good student. Better than me. He liked to debate and argue with his teachers. They didn’t like that very much and when I came along, they thought I was going to be the same way. It wasn’t easy following my brother. They thought I was going to be argumentative like him.

How did the Depression affect your life as a kid? Starved. We were poor. My brother and I had to go out and pick dandelions then they’d buy some beans and that is what they made soup with. We ate lots of that. We learned not to take anything for granted and learned to appreciate everything we did get. Being wasteful has never been part of the way we live. This is true from so many who lived during those very difficult times.

When did he and you enlist to fight in WWII? He enlisted first, September 1941. He was a couple of years older than me. I enlisted in September of 1942.

Why did you pick the Marines? They were the top, the elite. That is what I wanted to be a part of.

Why did your brother pick the Army? That I don’t know.

Where were each of you stationed after your basic training? Basic training was done at Paris Island. Then I went to South Weymouth, Mass. I was there for 20 months or so. Norbert was at Fort Bragg first.

What did he do in the army before he went oversees? He went to about three different camps as a drill instructor. He taught new recruits discipline and then how to fight. You have copies of the certificates that he had earned for being the best drill instuctor.

What did you do? I was a guard. The Marines guard the Navy - on ships, on bases. The Marines protected the Navy here in the states. We did a lot of patrol.

Did you and your brother write each other? Not much - we both wrote to your grandmother. And she wrote to us of course.

Were you worried about getting shipped overseas? Oh yes. After Mass., we went to Norfolk. Then, we were shipped to Panama. We were on a ‘Victory Ship’ passing through Panama to go to the South Pacific. We had to dye everything green. About a day or two out from Panama, we were all called on deck. They told us that a detatchment in Panama was going pretty stir crazy and were begging to be relieved. We were told that out of 400 of us - they were going to pick 75 of us to stay in Panama - the Marines in Panama joined the ship crew.

My name was the 75th one called.

In Panama, we guarded and checked everything going through the canal. It was hot and humid. About 4 weeks after we were there, one of the guys from transit duty told us that he had just heard that the ship we had been on, which was now in the South Pacific, had just gotten torpedoed by the Japanese - all hands were lost.

Did you get to see your brother before he went over to Germany? No. The only time anyone was allowed to come home was for a short time after basic training. I didn’t know that he had volunteered to go to Germany. I found out after he had left. My brother put in for the transfer. I know that his commanding officer told him not to volunteer because they knew that the war in Europe was going to be ending within the year - this was right before the Battle of the Bulge. Things had not been looking good for the Germans because of our bombing and because the Russians were starting to close in. But, he just wanted to get out of where he was and fight anyway.

How did you find out about his death? Your grandmother sent me a letter. The war department had sent a telegram to my mother, she told my wife, and then I found out. Shortly after that I found out that my best friend, Joe Huzarik, had been killed in the South Pacific. He was a Marine too. He was a rifleman who wired up field telephones. A Japanese mortar had killed him.

You have a copy of a letter about how he was mortally wounded. A fellow in his company wrote my mother about the battle and how my brother was killed. Norbert earned the Bronze star and the Purple Heart.

How long before his body shipped to Washington D.C.? He had been buried in Belgium. After a couple of years, my mother got notification that the cemetary was going to be dismantled and they asked where she wanted my brother buried. We discussed it and decided that Arlington Cemetary was the proper place for him - along side his buddies. So in 1949, the Governement arranged for the body along with 19 others (at that time) to be shipped to Arlington for a special ceremony.

Tell us about the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary. It was a really nice ceremony and very sad. They provided each family with an honor guard to escorted us wherever we had to go. Each of the caskets, had, placed in front, chairs for each family. They played taps, had a special reading by a chaplain. It was a short, sweet ceremony. You have the pictures from it.

Have you been there since? Yes. We took your mom there when she was about 13. I took your uncle Brian there before he was shipped to Vietnam. Your grandma and I went there a third time back in the seventies.

What things would your brother be most amazed with if he were alive today? When he was alive, he did say that we would have to fight Russia. He was pretty smart and read alot. He would be amazed that the Soviet Union is no longer. He would be amazed that we had gone to the moon. Norbert would have been really amazed by the whole UFO craze. He always got into difficult - interesting things that would occur that he would like to discuss about. He was very inquisitive about things.

In one of Norbert’s last letters, he had stated that when he got back after the war he wanted to work to make for a more just world. He was a very deep person. Most of that had come about by the way we had to live most of our lives. The war made him very reflective.

The letter that had been written about the crossing of the Roer told us that he was held in high regard and was a very good, honorable soldier.