An Honor and A Guard

There were those who doubted whether NationalGuard Units could hold up like regular U.S. Army unitsin wartime. Routinely assigned missions where theodds were stacked heavily against them, the 175thRegiment-29th Infantry Division not only silenced thedoubters, they went on to gain a reputation as one ofthe fiercest fighting units of World War II.This is the story of one infantryman of the 175th-Forest S.Birch-as told to the author, his son, John F. Birch-over a period ofmany years, culminating in a recorded interview, made on June 6, 1994 (50th anniversary of the D-Day beach landings). The transcriptof the interview is included.Forest Birch's story is personal and intimate-and brings tolight experiences shared by many who served during World War II.Birch had more than his fair share of good fortune but never forgotthe horrors he witnessed, nor the fear he felt, from the first waveof beach landings until the ultimate surrenderof the Nazi war machine in April,1945 whichsaw his unit just 40 miles outside Berlin.