Free Republic

The ‘Lost Battalion’ was surrounded by Nazis and near certain death – until the men of the 442nd appeared. Now, they meet again Even 65 years later, Astro Tortolano thinks almost daily of his struggle to survive in the Vosges Mountains of northern France in October 1944. Surrounded by German soldiers after stumbling into a trap, Tortolano and about 280 men in the 1st Battalion of the Texas 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division rationed food and bullets. They fended off Nazi assaults. They thought all hope of surviving was lost. Six days into the crisis, different soldiers...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Retired U.S. Army Col. Young O. Kim, a highly decorated military hero of World War II and the Korean War who later worked to help the city's Asian communities, has died. He was 86. Kim died from cancer on Dec. 29 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to Diane Tanaka, associate director of the Go For Broke Educational Foundation, which Kim co-founded and served as chairman emeritus. "There aren't many war heroes like him, regardless of race and ethnicity," said Edward Chang, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside. "He's a truly...