Six military veterans from the Creekside on Bardstown assisted living care facility in nearby Louisville visited Fort Knox Sept. 6 for a windshield tour, lunch with Fort Knox senior leaders at a dining facility, and a tour of Patton Museum.
Among the six were three who had attended basic training at Fort Knox, an Air Force airman, a Navy doctor, and two World War II combat veterans -- one from the Pacific Theater, and the other from the European Theater.
"I went to basic training here at Fort Knox in 1942 and then to Cook and Baker School," said Howell Moore Sr. "I'm an old farm boy. I like the outdoors and didn't like being pinned up in the kitchen."
As a result, he switched to infantry, being stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, before being shipped to Europe with 87th Infantry Division. Soon, he found himself fighting in what has become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
"I was in the thick of it in that battle, thick enough that I got hand grenade shrapnel," said Moore. His son, Howell "Sonny" Moore Jr., also an Army veteran and graduate of basic training at Fort Knox, joined the visit.
Although assigned as an engineer in the Pacific Theater, Arthur Mitchell said he too was in the thick of it, in the Philippines.
"The fighting was fierce!" exclaimed Mitchell. "We lost 3,000 in two days -- but we wiped them out. Wiped. Them. Out. [The Army] gave me two Silver Stars for it. I'm still waiting for a Birmingham [Alabama] parade."
Major Gen. John Evans Jr., commanding general of U.S. Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox, and the Garrison leadership team of Col. CJ King and Command Sgt. Maj. Garrick Griffin joined the veterans for lunch before they headed over to the museum.
As the group ate food and visited with each other, Soldiers walked up, shook hands with the men, and thanked them for their service. One Soldier commented how needed it was to have the veterans eating among the troops.
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