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Thanks to photographs, and memories from living in Germany in 1947 and '48, the after-war-sights have definitely molded my outlook on the world, and its wars...Even though, during my lifetime, my country has never been under siege, I saw how war is more devastating than many Americans realize.

Master Sergeant Joseph Riles, United States Air Force, was in both the Pacific and the Europe WWII theaters. The last part of his actual fighting service was in Germany.

In 1947, Mother and I were on one of the first boats to Bremerhaven, and later to meet up with Dad in Munich. At the age of eight, I only recall that I was sick most of the trip across the Atlantic! Ugh! I do recall the V-shape of the ship’s hull being visible in the latrine we used. That latrine was just one door off our sleeping quarters. Therefore, we must have been in the very bottom of the ship! The ship was full of dependents... hundreds of crying children and their moms. What fun that was for the poor crew of Sailors, huh? In addition, Dad was told the ship developed a problem during a storm and was taking on water. It therefore had to go slower. Oh, great, no wonder I recall being sick and not wanting to eat.

We were given a very nice fourplex apartment in what was, then, the outskirts of Munich. Later I learned the locals had been moved out so we could move in...How heartbreaking it must have been for them!

In its desire to help employ the locals, the US would supply dependent families with a house cleaner or a governess. I was an only child. Mom said she needed no childcare, but accepted the house-cleaning help. The first woman had lived in this exact apartment!! Poor woman was a nervous wreck. Dropped many things and finally had to quit. The second woman was caught taking items from us...so we gave up on the idea of a house cleaner. Later Dad hired a friend's mom to help with house work, Fr. Wilford. The most wonderful grandmother a girl of eight could want. I would go to her home on weekends...I loved her dearly. Sadly, we could not bring her when Dad was transfered. Dad did try, he and Mom loved her as much as I.

Here are two vivid memories that are only mental photographs...

1- Watching the German men and women clean the bombed out debris from their streets. Each day they began at the place where they stopped the day before. Some with leather aprons...Some with only cloth aprons to carry rubble in. Very few had wheelbarrows. They meticulously cleaned each spot by moving the debris to the next corner, and on further still, the following day. Even at my age, I realized their desire to clean their homeland of the ruins. Moreover, their homes. I recall seeing a woman shake a rug out the window that had a destroyed corner of the building where she lived. How determined she was to have her home tidy!

2- The event that moved me the most, however, was a loaf of moldy bread. We had been on a few weeks holiday along the Rhine. On our return a large loaf of bread had molded and Mom sent me to the trash bin with that with some other garbage. I had no sooner moved away from the bin than two boys (13 to 15 years old) appeared. They rummaged the garbage, broke the bread loaf in half, and began to eat it at once. I was so aware of my blessings, even at that age... The picture is as vivid in my mind as if it happened yesterday. This was a good many yesterdays, since I am 66 years old now. It has never left me that war is fought because of the selfish who do not think of the harm done to the innocent.

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