6 million men left farm life between 1940 and 1945. Some, like Air Corp Staff Sergeant Harold Bud Long, left to join the Service. 

Setting out and maintaining 47 air strips across Europe, Bud took part in legendary campaigns like Omaha Beach on D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, and Patton’s drive through Central Europe into the Rhineland. Spending significant time with French civilians and tearing down the gates of a German concentration camp, he shares how soldiers and civilians found ways to feed each other, and which foods from home they never found abroad.

Find photos from this episode, an episode transcription, and more at www.ServicePodcast.org and on Instagram and Facebook, where you can also share your stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service.

Thank you to Jason Skinner and those involved in the Livingston County Veterans’ Monument for connecting us with Bud for this episode. They’ve recently unveiled their beautiful community monument and we suggest you check it out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We’ll be sharing more of their story in our next episode.

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