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Sunday, November 9, 2008 8:26 PM CST
Decoder recalls WWII service
By the ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARK FOREST (AP) — Carl Dalke is proud of the letters he earned while playing basketball, football and running track at a junior college in a small Kansas town.
But he’s most proud of the letters he decoded from secret German transmissions during World War II.
Born to German parents, Dalke grew up with the language and was fluent by the time he was a young boy growing up in Kansas.
When he turned 18, he decided to enlist in the Army.
“All my friends were being drafted,” Dalke said.
He could have used his religious background to avoid the war. His grandfather was a German Mennonite minister, a leader of a Protestant sect that rejects — among other things — military service. But Dalke felt a personal obligation to get involved.
Dalke’s father died when Dalke was 14.
“I could have been a conscientious objector and stayed out of the war,” he said. “But I truly believed that was the war that had to be fought.
Fluent in German and English, Dalke shipped out to basic training in California.
A short time later, he was selected to study the Japanese language while training to become a high-speed radio operator.
After completing that course, he was sent to England for more training before eventually meeting up with the rest of the 101st Airborne Division.
Dalke later was sent to Holland, where he met up with the 101st Airborne Division as it headed toward Bastogne, Belgium.
It was mid-December 1944.
The Germans were launching a major offensive through the forested Ardennes Mountains of Belgium, France and Luxembourg.
The offensive came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.
“We did whatever we could to keep the Germans from taking over Bastogne,” Dalke said. “We were in constant combat for 31 days. There were no showers or change of clothes.
“We were surrounded by better than 7-to-1,” he said. “Then Gen. George Patton’s unit arrived, and we had the support we needed.”
Dalke said his fluency in German helped him work as an interrogator and interpreter.
When the war ended in 1945, Dalke was one of 50 soldiers from Kansas selected to serve in Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Honor Guard.
From Kansas, Eisenhower wanted 50 soldiers from his home state to serve in his honor guard while he presented the Presidential Unit Citation to members of the 101st Airborne Division.
Dalke returned to Kansas, where he earned bachelor’s and masters’ degrees from Kansas State University.
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