Veterans
from page 1

as sill as I could," Hart said.
   The two soldiers never spotted Hart.
   The next morning, Hart ran from warehouse to warehouse, hoping to keep from being spotted and get back to American troops.
   He was spotted by he Germans.
   "I'm wounded," Hart said he told the Germans, who seemed to understand what he was saying.
   They brought him to a German colonel.
   Hart said he remembered a sarcastic remark made by the officer.
   "He said, 'Nice Christmas ja?' I said ja back," Hart said.

   For nearly six months Hart and another American soldier remained prisoners of war.
   He said both men remained determined to escape.
   "I wouldn't say we were happy, but we tried to make the best of the situation," Hart recalled."
   He tried to escape once, but after three days of running lost in a forest, he was recaptured by Germans as he tried to steal potatoes and carrots for food.  
   Finally, in the spring, he said another soldier managed to escape just days before Germany surrendered May 6, 1945.
   "The war was ending, so by this time American troops were really feared by the Germans," Hart said.
   He remembered running into a
 

German officer riding in a vehicle as he and his buddy looked for friendly troops.
   "I asked him if I could have his gun, I don't know why, but he gave it to me," Hart said.
   Finally Hart reached safety and eventually returned home to the United States.
   "That was enough for me.  Four years was long enough," Hart said.
   Those years as a paratrooper, and then his time as a prisoner of war will never be forgotten, Hart said.
   "Sometimes I get confused and don't remember all the details, but I'll never forget everything," Hart said, "I saw too much to forget everything."