Robert H Bowles

 My father Robert "Bob"Bowles was born in Ashland County Ohio in 1922. When World WarII broke out he and his brother Don were eager to join and signed up and shipped out together. I heard many stories of these times, some were sad, some were funny and some were shocking. A recent news report of a similar occurrance reminded me of one of  the most shocking, the erroneous report of my fathers death.

His family received the notification of his death - "Killed In Action".  My Aunt Betty, his sister, received a package. In it were his personnal effects, including a mangled dogtag and some army issue boots caked in blood. The family was of course griefstricken. They did not have communication with Don because he was in a POW camp. When Don was released from the camp he was so thin that he was unrecognizable and both men had changed a lot. He and Bob finished their term of service and returned home to Ashland County, Ohio. Bob and Don went to the home of their father Harley "Jack" Bowles and his wife Christine and knocked on the door. She opened it and saw two skinny guys in Army uniforms and yelled out' "There are a couple soldiers here looking for a handout."  Jack said " Make them a sandwich". At this point Dad and Don identified themselves  and you can probably imagine the shock and surprise which followed.

Back then, nobody talked about investigating and creating committees to see how this kind of thing could have happened. It did happen, it does happen." C'est la guerre "