Late last month I had the privilege to spend some time on the phone with a wonderful World War II veteran, Catherine ‘‘Kitty” Cohen. In the few unforgettable minutes of our conversation she related a war story to me that was simply too powerful to keep to myself. I am grateful, as I am sure you will be, that Kitty graciously gave me consent to share her story.
Kitty’s late husband, 1st Lt. Morris Cohen was also a World War II veteran, and as she spoke about him, I quickly sensed what a wonderful marriage they had enjoyed for the past 65 years. She told me, ‘‘on a scale of one to 10, I give him a 20.”
As we spoke, she quickly took me back to the events of Nov. 24, 1944, a day that would forever change the course of both of their lives. Nov. 23 was Thanksgiving Day, a day that found Cohen and his engineer platoon in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. Shortly before the Battle of the Bulge, this fight raged from mid-September to mid-December 1944 in the dense 50 square miles of forest that stretched along the Belgian-German border. These were three wet, cold and miserable months, so as you would expect the Soldiers of Cohen’s Platoon were very pleased to receive a hot Thanksgiving dinner before their early morning mission the following day.
One of the first lessons that leaders in the Army learn, is that your men always eat before you. It was true in 1944 as it is true in the Army today. In following with his core value of selfless service, when there was not enough Thanksgiving chow to go around, Cohen did without so his men could eat. As the platoon cleared the snow covered road of mines and booby traps, the next morning they crept close to the German lines, and came under an intense artillery barrage. As the German artillery rounds exploded in the towering tree tops above, each man ran for cover. Unfortunately, one Soldier fell on a mine, wounding himself and sending shrapnel in all directions. Cohen was wounded in several places including one piece of shrapnel that went straight through his stomach.
Upon reaching the field hospital he received treatment for his wounds, and was told by the doctor that it was a good thing he was fighting on an empty stomach. He went on to tell him that if any food had been in his stomach at the time of injury, his wounds would have fatally bled out. As it turned out his core value of placing the men above himself saved his life.
Cohen was evacuated several more times, eventually ending up at Rhodes General Hospital in Utica, N.Y. This just so happened to be the hospital in which Kitty was serving as an Army nurse.
‘‘During those months and for the rest of his life he was a model patient, he never complained once,” she said. By his character he won Kitty’s heart and for his actions in combat Cohen earned a Purple Heart and was twice awarded the Bronze Star with V-Device. His story was a blessing to my soul and I hope it has spoken to yours as well.
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