Each November 11th, we take time to salute American servicemembers for their bravery, daring, creativity and commitment to others.
Like a member of the 101st Airborne whose efforts to help a wounded friend became the stuff of legend.
The story takes place in late 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge.
The Allied forces that had been trying to push through France and its neighbors after D-Day were now facing a massive Nazi counterattack.
Part of that attack force surrounded Bastogne, Belgium and in doing so, they surrounded the 101st Airborne.
World War II buffs will note that this was the division where the commanding officer was asked to surrender and his reply, in full, was “NUTS!”
Vincent Speranza was a machine gunner with the 101st Airborne, and one day during the siege, he was making a supply run for his sergeant.
Along the way, he decided to check in on a friend who had been wounded and was recuperating at a church that his company was using as a makeshift hospital.
The friend, Joe Willis, said he was dealing with shrapnel wounds in both legs.
“Not too bad,” he said, but obviously not too great, either.
So Speranza asked, as friends do, whether there was anything he could do to help.
Willis said something like, well, you could find me a drink!
Speranza could’ve just found his friend some water, but he figured maybe the guy deserved a little something more.
That said, he noted that the taverns in town had been bombed, so where would he even find such a beverage?
Willis suggested he check the taverns anyway, maybe he’d get lucky.
And sure enough, in one bombed-out tavern, a beer taps was still flowing!
Speranza didn’t have a glass or a bottle, so he took off his helmet, filled it with beer, and went back to Willis… in the cold and snow, with artillery fire still falling in town.
Willis loved it. So did the other patients, who all wanted some beer of their own.
Who did not love it was the regimental surgeon, who told Speranza after his second trip to the tap that giving beer to patients with chest and stomach injuries was not “giving aid and comfort to the wounded” (as Speranza described his delivery) but putting them at risk.
He told the young man to get lost, and to put his beer-filled helmet back on his head.
In time, the US launched a counterattack and beat back the Nazi advance.
Speranza returned home after the war with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star; he raised a family and became a schoolteacher .
Decades later, on a return trip to Belgium, he met with several young soldiers and retold his beer run story.
They said, wait, you’re the guy who made that famous beer run?
Unbeknownst to Speranza, his story had become a legend in the country; a lot of people thought it was actually a myth, but they told it just the same, because how could you not?
There was even a product called Airborne Beer, served in little ceramic Army helmets.
Speranza got to meet the brewer’s family, bringing the beer story full circle.
He wrote and spoke extensively about his wartime experiences.
And, as you might expect from a member of the 101st Airborne, he made multiple jumps out of planes… including one at age 98.
I’ll raise my glass to that.
Auburn soldier’s WWII experience became Bastogne legend (State Journal-Register)
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller
