Robert D. Reeves - Peoria To Munich

PREFACE

This narrative is dedicated to:

my mother, who received those awful telegrams from the war department, and whose love reached me in Germany even when her letters didn't
my wife Kathryn, who has always waited for me through the tough times
my son Jim, who continually urged me to search my memory and organize the facts of my experiences during World War II
my family and friends who suffered as much as I did while I was a Prisoner of War

Robert D. Reeves and his wife have five grown children and lived in Washington, Illinois. Bob passed away January 1, 2009. Kathryn passed away January 6, 2002. Bob retired in 1982 from Caterpillar Tractor Company's Tool Design division after 40 years of service to the company, which included the time spent in the U.S. Army. Before his induction into the armed forces, he had been with Caterpillar for only five months as a distributor in the tooling crib. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign briefly in 1940-41 after having graduated from high school in Gridley, Illinois. He was raised with five brothers and sisters on a farm just outside Gridley.