Talley Kelley, a Battle of the Bulge veteran, points to his unit insignia, the 87th Infantry, on Debbie Prohaska's commemorative quilt. Prohaska made the quilt at the request of her father who was also a combat veteran of World War II. Eric Cramer
Posted on 05/06/2005 6:42:48 PM PDT by AZHua87
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 5, 2005) -- Debbie Lehman Prohaska wanted to do something to honor her father, who had been Pfc. Harry Lehman when he was severely injured by a landmine during Operation Market Garden in 1944.
“Dad came to me with these patches from uniforms, and said ‘I want you to make a quilt,’” she said. “Mom had quilted – I didn’t know how to quilt, but I told him I’d work it out.”
Her father had given her the shoulder patches from several different units that saw action in World War II. He asked her to make a quilt honoring the Battle of the Bulge.
She decided she needed more patches to complete the quilt.
“I started contacting the Battle of the Bulge veterans organizations,” she said. “These people would send me their uniform patches – some of them had been laying around in ring boxes for 60 years – and I’d add them to the quilt. I got a lot of great stories from these guys who would say ‘Tell your Dad…” and tell me things that had happened to them during the war.”
The quilt was “about 90 percent finished” when Prohaska’s father passed away in February of this year.
“I had to learn to sew and quilt, and I had to research World War II and the Battle of the Bulge to complete Dad’s request,” Prohaska said.
Prohaska said the quilt, which she has named the “Quilt of Love,” is a work in progress, as more and more veterans provide her with additional information.
“I found out this one unit badge was worn so that it is diamond-shaped, not square like I’d guessed, so I’m going to have to reattach it,” she said.
Not everything on the quilt is from World War II. An Air Force patch is included, at her father’s request, because he said the “Air Force” provided such great assistance to his unit during the war, even though it was the Army Air Corps until 1948, after the war’s end.
The quilt also includes qualification badges and some unit badges from Vietnam, simply because veterans sent them to Prohaska.
Among details on the quilt are two panels containing original art work by Hank Stairs, an artist who served with the 30th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge. One depicts an incident Stairs witnessed, in which Nazi soldiers disguised in American uniforms and driving American jeeps were repulsed from a bridge at Stavelot, Belgium. The second is a memorial to World War II artist Bill Mauldin, which shows Mauldin’s famous Soldiers “Willy and Joe” standing over Mauldin’s grave.
On May 4, Prohaska was scheduled to meet a group of World War II veterans at the National World War II Memorial in Washington. Although she eventually met the group, the quilt attracted attention from many of the memorial’s visitors.
“That’s my unit patch, right there, the 87th Infantry,” said Talley Kelley, a Battle of the Bulge veteran. “I was with D Company, the machine gun company. The war ended on my birthday when I was in a shell hole in Czechoslovakia.”
Kelley said only 11 members of his company are still alive. “We keep in touch. I don’t think people realize now just how young we were back then.”
He said the quilt was a great honor to veterans of the battle.
Paul Shambaugh served with naval construction battalion “Seabees” on Eniwetok atoll and Guam during World War II.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s just a wonderful thing,” he said of the quilt.
Spc. Jennifer Hutt of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group was also impressed by Prohaska’s effort.
“I think it’s a tremendous honor to the people who served in that generation,” Hutt said. “I’m very impressed by her pride in her father’s service.”
Prohaska said the quilt has a lot to do before she can display it in her home.
“I’ve already displayed it at the Pentagon, and I think it’s going to be put up at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center) next week.
Talley Kelley, a Battle of the Bulge veteran, points to his unit insignia, the 87th Infantry, on Debbie Prohaska's commemorative quilt. Prohaska made the quilt at the request of her father who was also a combat veteran of World War II. Eric Cramer
Ping
The Greatest Generation is rapidly fading from our midst.
I am so sorry I didn't preview that before I hit send.
I just clipped the picture URL and didn't realize it was sized.
What a touching and inspiring story.
If you delete my http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1398364/posts?page=3#3
Will that take the ping out of the Freepers My Comments view?
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Excellent. Dad was there, with the IV. He's no longer with us, unfortunately.
I like the large picture.
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Wonderful story. Most appropriate for VE Day Commemorations. The sacrifice of these brave Soldiers is a debt we can never repay. But we can honor them by never forgetting what they did not only for America but the whole world.
Since my grandfathers passing a few years ago I think about him a lot. It's almost impossible for me to see such a kind and gentle man as a warrior.
Thanks. But I shouldn't have pinged with it. I didn't check the properties to size it down :(
Don't worry about it! I am pleased to have gotten this photo. Thanks.
It is a lovely quilt. I've never made anything that looked like that. Thankfully, JR added that 'brief view' option in the my comments section. Maybe the ping list will be a little forgiving ;)
Can't see any of the pictures...could you repost it.
Wouldn't it be nice now to have someone reproduce this quilt so that surviving veterans and their familes could purchase them for their grandchildren, etc. What a wonderful gift it would be. Beautiful story.
I wonder if they have a 6AD patch on it? Somehow the Super Sixth got left out of most of the history books. They were the spearhead of Patton's 3rd Army, they opened the door and the 4AD got all the glory. My father was in the 6AD. Check out their web sites.
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