Weldon Owens, 80
Family: Mabel May Owens, 75, wife of 57 years. Kids:
Deborah Kay Owens 54.
Branch of Service: U.S. Army 5th Infantry Division,
10th Regiment, Easy Company - Private First Class.
Honors: Purple Heart, Bronze Star with two oakleaf
clusters, European Africa Middle Eastern Theater
Ribbon, Combat Infantry Badge, French Medal, French
Jubilee Medal, Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal and
the American Theater Ribbon.

By BRAD MORRIS
Special Project Writer

As the calendar turned to June of 1944, most of
Europe had been under occupation by forces of
Hitler's Third Reich since 1940.
But after four years of occupation, hope for the
continent was assembling across the English Channel
ready to deliver freedom.
One of the nervous soldiers waiting in the mass of
humanity on a Navy ship for the final word from
Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower to proceed was
Circleville resident Weldon Owens.
"We waited for three to four days on the boat
offshore to wait for Ike's decision to go or not,"
Owens said. "Then when we got to go, there were all
kinds of Thunderbolt (airplanes) flying overhead
bombing the German positions and our ships were just
pounding away at the shore defenses."
The day of June 6, 1944 marked the big day for
Owens and so many other Americans as Owens landed in the second wave at Omaha Beach - which would turn out to be the hardest beach to take.
"Anyone who would say they weren't scared going
into that battle was crazy," Owens said. "When we landed
on the beach, your comrades would be falling in front
of you - to the left, to the right - and all you could
do is charge forward and over them to try and advance
towards the German positions.
When Owens reached the beach, Sgt. Matt Salisbury
asked if anyone knew how to operate a .30-caliber
machine gun. Since Owens had passed training on the
weapon in the Mojave Desert, his fate for the rest
of Europe was sealed.
"From that day on I carried that 40-pound weapon
over my shoulder across Europe," Owens said.
What also greeted the 5th and the other American
forces were giant pill boxes that German dictator
Adolf Hitler had ordered to be built as part of his
famed Atlantic Wall - a protective barrier that was
meant to throw any attempt of a Allied invasion back
into the English Channel.
"They could have held us off for months, I never
understood how we got through there," Owens said.
"We had Rangers that climbed cliffs in front of our
landing that took out the pill boxes with grenades."
The 5th - along with four other infantry divisions
and four armored divisions - comprised the bulk of
the forces under legendary General George S. Patton.
Patton's forces quickly cut across the heart of
France towards the German border and Metz, France where the
5th quickly made a name for itself.
"Metz was the most fortified city in all of France
and was under the command of an SS general (Ashton
Dunckern), who was one of Hitler's top Gestapo
officials," Owens said.
During the attack on Metz, Owens handed a
concussion grenade to Lt. Harry B. Colburn who got close enough to a heavily fortified German pill box to throw the
grenade in and bring the Germans out with blood
running from their ears.  Soon, Owens and several
other of his comrades would be bogged down in the same
pill box under fire for three days.
"They had us pinned down pretty good," Owens said.
"It was miserable, we had no food, no water and even
though it was only three days, it seemed like
forever."
Relief from other elements of the American forces
soon came and with that an opportunity for Easy
Company to go down into the history books.
"This big shot SS general was pinned down in the
basement of a brewery and hiding behind beer
barrels,"
Owens said. "He came out from under the barrel, and
the first thing he went into was his rights under
the Geneva Convention. That General was embarrassed to be one of the first ones captured during the war, and
we took 300 Germans prisoner."
After Metz, Patton's army pushed towards the German
border until the Germans used the heavy protection
of the Ardennes forest to launch a last ditch
counter-offensive to save the war on the western
front.
"The Germans used stone to build their buildings so
they didn't cut down the forest and it was very
thick," Owens said. "It provided them a great place
to hide themselves and their Panzer and Tiger tanks.
The only way you could find them is when the snow came
out of the branches when they fired their 88s.
"The temperatures were the coldest of the war we
were told and it had to be around 10 degrees below zero,"
Owens said. "We had no water, no food, no warm
places to go and it was just a matter of trying to
survive."
Owens suffered frostbite during the battle and had
to have his ear wrapped in bandages after the battle
ended.
On March 23, 1945, the 5th - which Patton dubbed
'the fighting red devils' - crossed the Rhine River into
Germany. Only three days later, Owens was involved
in the Battle for Meinz.
"When we got into Meinz there was a lot of gunfire
and the Germans had pulled some of their Panzers
into the city," Owens said. "I turned up one of the main
streets in the city and maybe (50 yards) away from
me was a German Panzer. The machine gun (on the Panzar)
opened fire and a bullet entered around my neck,
barely missing my jugular and went out through my
left shoulder. I also got hit in my left arm by a
separate shot."
Owens was transported to a field hospital and was
lucky that two C-47's just happened to be there to
fly him to a bigger hospital in Reims, France.
"When I got to Reims, and woke up on the operating
table the two captains that were there (to care for
Owens) said I was lucky to be alive,"said Owens, who
still has scars from the bullets.
Owens underwent surgeries that patched up the
impact places and took skin from his leg to attach around
his neck. He was eventually moved onto Verdun and
Cherbourg hospitals. Owens then came back stateside
and spent one year recovering at Percy Jones
Hospital at Ft. Custer, Mich. where he was in the same ward as a young second Lieutenant from Russell, Kan. named Bob Dole.
During his stay at Percy Jones, Owens never met
Dole, but the two finally met in Dole's Washington office
during the opening of the World War II Memorial in
2004 and have exchanged letters since.
"I don't regret going into the Army," Owens said.
"I fought for my country, and if I had to do it all
over again, I would go tomorrow if I were asked to."

The following is some prose that Weldon felt important for all to read and remember

A VETERAN DIED TODAY

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
and he sat around the post telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done.
In his exploits with his buddies, they were heroes, everyone.
And tho sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
all his buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke. But we'll hear his tales no longer, for Ol' Bob has passed away,
and the world's a little poorer, for a Veteran died today.
No he won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
for he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life.
He held a job and raised a family, quietly going on his way, and the world won't note his passing, tho a Veteran died today.
When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
while thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell of their life stories, from the time that they were young,
but the passing of a Veteran goes unnoticed and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution, to the welfare of our land,
some jerk who breaks a promise and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife,
goes off to serve his country and offers up his life?
The politicians's stipend and the style in which he lives
are sometimes disproportionate, to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary Veteran who offered up his all,
is paid off with a medal and perhaps a pension small.
It's so easy to forget them, for it is so long ago,
that our Bobs and Jims and Johnnys, went to battle, but we know.
It was not the politicians, with their compromise & ploys,
who won for us the freedom, that our country now enjoys'.
Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
would you really want some cop-out, with his ever waffling stand?
Or would you want a Veteran, who has sworn to defend, his home, his kin, and country, and would fight until the end.
He was just a common Veteran and his ranks are growing thin,
but his presence should remind us, we may need his likes again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find our military's part,
is to clean up all the troubles, that the politicians start.
If we can not do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise,
then at least let's give him homage, at the ending of his days.'
Perhaps just a simple headline in the paper that might say:

OUR COUNTRY IS MOURNING, FOR A VETERAN DIED TODAY.