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Victory on the Airwaves This installment is the second of two parts. It concludes the story, first published in Electric Radio, Volume 406, Nov. 2024, of my father, Lieutenant Abe Sacks, who enlisted in the United States Army in 1941 and led a Signal Corps company the last years of his tour in Europe. Abraham Sacks was the youngest of five children, born to his parents, Rachel and Solomon, in Brooklyn, New York in 1913. My parents, Bea and Abe Sacks, moved from New York to Detroit, where I was born in 1947. Like many men who served in the second world war, my father seldom spoke to us about his experience and day-to-day activities in the Army. My sister and I just never heard many war stories. Ironically, though he orally recounted very little of his military life, he created a very complete narrative through 654 letters he wrote to my mother during his days in the Army, stateside and in Europe. |
Lt. Abe Sacks poses with 2-1/2 ton truck carrying radio gear for the 3151 SIAM Company, at an undisclosed location in Germany, 1945.
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Outgoing mail from Italy, France, and Germany to Brooklyn, New York was dependable. This article relies in large part upon those letters, which were carefully saved by my mother. Now 80 years after they were written, my wife, Ann taught herself to decipher my father's handwriting. Though the SIAM company relied upon a Smith Corona converting machine to decipher encoded messages, Ann had no such mechanical aid. Without her knack and perseverance, Abe's story would have certainly been forgotten.
Bob Nickels, W9RAN, provided important technical information, and context for this story.
Living with my parents for 18 years, as I grew up in suburban Detroit, it seemed like my mother did all the talking in the family. But reading these letters, I realize that when Abe had uninterrupted time and space to speak, he had his own stories to tell, as he did in these letters. And as you can read, he was pretty good at it. Therefore, it is my pleasure to present the second concluding portion of his story. I tip my hat to him, and as a civilian, and his son, I salute him for his dedication and commitment to our country and it's ideals.
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This story draws on accounts my father, Abe Sacks, memorialized in 654 letters he sent home to his wife when he was in training in the U.S., and later stationed in Europe. These letters, like the one here, were all subject to inspection by the ARMY EXAMINERS. |
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