Introduction
"My name is Charles S. Seibold. I got drafted December 1, 1941, six days before Pearl Harbor. [After basic training] we shipped out to go to Iceland for 18 months. Then after Iceland, we served 9 months in Northern Ireland; that's when General Patton came over and picked our division for D-Day plus 5."

Were you drafted?
"I worked at Yum-Yum Hamburger when I was about 19 years old. And one day, a tall man came in; he had a gray suit, white shirt and a tie. He asked, 'Where can I find Charles Seibold?' I said, 'Sir, you're lookin' at him.' He reached in [his pocket] and pulled out his billfold, 'I'm from the FBI.' He says, 'Why didn't you report to the draft board?' That's how they got me, I was drafted six days before Pearl Harbor."

Tell me about pushing through France with Patton
"General Patton wanted to go all the way to Berlin, but they wouldn't let him. They wanted the Russians to take Berlin. General Patton wanted to capture Paris, France [too] Eisenhower wouldn't let him. He wanted the French Army to capture Paris, so we bypassed Paris!"

• Bisberg
  "General Eisenhower told the people well in advance that he was going to bomb Bisberg. The people did not believe him. When we got to Bisberg Germany, it was completely destroyed. Everything was destroyed, you could see beds hanging out the windows… everything was destroyed!"
  
• Rheims France
  "We captured the city of Rheims France, it's a pretty large city. As we were going around delivering, as a messenger in a jeep, I came across a little boy. And he says, 'Americana! Americana! Pistolioe? Pistolioes?' [So] I followed him, and he led me to a church, down into the basement. [There were] two big long boxes, shaped like coffins. And I took the crow bar out of my jeep and here, it had straw, and was all full of pistols! All kinds of pistols. They'd hid 'em from the Germans. I took five or six pistols, he said, 'Take what you want'. So I took 'em!"
  
• Hidden Planes
  "We couldn't figure out why we didn't see no German fighters. We were bombing their air-fields [but couldn't find any planes]. The German fighter planes used the autobahn highway to park their airplanes! They camouflaged them, you couldn't see nothin'!"
  
• Red Ball Express
  "They had what they called the Red Ball Express. They had great big 2½-ton trucks and they were delivering petrol. You ever hear of the autobahn highway in Germany? That's like the turnpike in America. And so anyhow, the Red Ball Express moved on and Patton says, 'Damn the Germans, go full speed ahead!' So, the quartermasters they turned their lights on, and the was going 65 70 miles per hour on the autobahn."
  
• Surprise Attack
  "When we pulled in, after dark, we pitched our tents. Then all-of-the-sudden, I heard all kinds of explosion noises. I heard things dropping, that was shrapnel. I was running, hiding under a truck! Guys were shaving! They threw their helmets up [on their heads] and ran to hide. They didn't know what was goin' on. When we got organized, the next day, we pulled out and went on the road where we got news that the artillery boys were finally hittin' their targets. Then we moved, and just kept on goin'!"
  
• Horses
  "He [Patton] was a great lover of horses. And in Italy, when he got word that the Germans was going to round up the horses and slaughter 'em for meat for their troops; General Patton, he rounded up his tanks, his trucks; so General Patton rescued all these horses. And he saved the Lippazaner horses. The Lippazaner horses come from the Spanish Riding Academy, in Spain, they could do things that no other horses in the world could do."
  
• General Patton
  "General Patton was [reputedly] the wealthiest general in the American Army. The wealthy side came on his wife's side. General Patton took part in the Olympics way back in the 20's. When General Patton was running short on fuel he made a deal with the Air Force [Corps]. He gave 'em cookies, he gave 'em stuff, in trade for gasoline. Then General Patton says, 'When you run out of gasoline, damn-it get out and walk.' That's exactly what he said. 'Pass the word down.' Then the American soldiers dressed up like Air Force [Corps] personnel they was transferring the drums of gasoline, and no one stopped 'em! There was one person in American history who was like him [Patton], and that was him alone!"
  
• On the move…
  "As we went, we had a little force; we just took our machine guns and leveled the trees right down. Cut the tops right off 'em. [To] make sure that there were no Germans in 'em. Later on General Patton said, 'Damn the Germans, forget 'em. Bypass 'em.' They'd get mopped up later on. So we didn't bother because the German soldiers [toward the end of the war] were so disorganized, and the soldiers were volunteering to quit. The least little went wrong and they would come out with their hands up, so we just bypassed 'em and didn't pay no attention to 'em."

Were celebrities exempt from service?
"Jimmy Stuart and Clark Gable were the first two [movie stars] to join the service. Clark Gable joined because he'd lost his wife, Carol Lumbard, in a plane [crash]. And Jimmy Stuart went in as a private, ya' know what he retired as? He retired [as] a major general, a two star general in the Air Force. Every time they gave him a promotion, he refused to accept it, 'Unless you promote my crew with me!' He would not accept promotion unless his crew got promoted with him. That's the kind of man Jimmy Stuart was.

What were the children like?
"During the war, the Russian little boys and girls, they didn't know how to smile. They had a great big hospital, in Anhime Germany, and all these people in this hospital were prisoners. They were Russian people the Germans took. I remember a little Russian girl… The Russian children love flowers. On Sunday, they dress up in their best; they carry flowers. Now, I would go and visit, [and] their mother's and dad's would come out. And I put my arm around a little Russian girl, and she was scared to death! She didn't know how to smile. I have pictures of all these kids, beautiful kids, but when the boys and girls in America don't smile, then this country's in bad shape. Because the kids over there had nothing to smile for."

How long do those memories last?
Cowboys, Coach Tom Laundy was 19 years old [when] he volunteered to go into the Air Force. He flew 27 bombing raids, then they grounded him, [and] sent him back to America to teach kids [soldiers] how to fly. As a coach, you never saw Tom smile. A reporter asked Tom, he says, 'Coach? How's comes you don't smile?' He [Tom] said, 'I saw so much killin', I saw so much suffering, I saw so much hunger. You give me something to smile about, and I'll smile."

Did you see any other kids?
"Then when meal time came, we'd sit on a curb, we ate G.I…you ever hear of Spam? Well, we had that. And that and that and that and that…we had it all the time. But we ate it. Little boy come up and sit beside me, I gave him my lunch, and then I walked him home. And then, I said to myself, 'That's what I want to do when I come home, I want to work with kids.' I've been working with kids ever since 1945."

The Veteran who fought for you!
"…He has all kinds of handicaps. He did…He…He did this for you!"

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