American Valor Quarterly Issue 12 - Spring 2015 | Page 40

We were war weary, tired, and
bloodied, yet the Screaming Eagles
continued to fight and push the
Germans through Alsace, Germany’s
Ruhr Valley, the Rhineland, and
Austria to the end of the war in
Europe. My outfit liberated four Nazi
labor camps and one concentration
death camp, where we witnessed
human brutality beyond belief.
During the fighting through
Normandy, Holland, Bastogne,
Germany and Austria, I was wounded
three separate times. When I
returned home after WWII ended,
I could not vote, sign a contract or
buy a beer. I was 20 years of age,
not yet 21, the legal age in Michigan.
Following the war, I wrote and
published a book, Currahee!: A
Screaming Eagle at Normandy, which is
the only book that has the honor of
an endorsement, plus a statement by
former President, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower. Currahee! was also chosen
as one of the six best-written books
on WWII and was accepted into the
Library of Congress. I am the only
author to have had four, nonfiction,
hardcover books on the store shelves
for sale at the same time. With only
a 10th grade education, I wrote and
published four well-received books:
Currahee!, Seven Roads to Hell, The Road
to Arnhem, and Beyond the Rhine.

AVQ

THE AUTHOR,
DONALD BURGETT,
DURING WORLD WAR II.

Donald Burgett

I feel the true stories I tell in my
books allow me to pay respect to
my comrades that fought and to my
buddies that were lost. I have heard
it said that “they gave their life for

their county.” I never witnessed any
of my fallen comrades “give” their
life to anyone. They fought to the
very end with a vengeance, like the
fierce warriors they were. They gave
nothing away. They have earned and
deserve their place in history. I feel
an overwhelming sense of honor
to be able to offer a tribute to the
brave men and women who fought
and won World War II. Not just a
name carved in a headstone, but an
accounting of deeds and a history of
a living breathing America