Veterans’ Day

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Taking a break from the usual fare to pay tribute to the veterans today. As fate would have it, some pretty amazing photography work landed in my inbox earlier this week. The author of these photos is no other than my grandfather (and favorite veteran), Don Verle Breinholt, Sr., Tank Commander in Patton’s Third Army during WWII. My mom, who is currently working on a book detailing his life, has been scanning scores of original photos for the book. These four photos were taken from my grandfather’s transport ship in August of 1945 as he was entering New York harbor on his way home from the European theater. I heard him describe this event on a few occasions in my lifetime. Each time I heard him tell me the story, it gave me goosebumps. In part of a PBS special that a Salt Lake network produces about local WWII veterans, he recounted the experience again. If you scroll to the bottom of the post, you can listen to him fight back his emotions as he describes the experience in a clip from the PBS special. God bless all of those who served this country.

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This photo of lower Manhattan actually shows the building that I currently live in.

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