208050 Jessie Dell Cook US Army Co. A 44th Combat Engineers from:Rt 4 Westmoreland Tn Jessie D. Cook was my papa and the best man I ever knew. He was shot and captured in WW11 in the Battle of the Bulge and was a prisoner of war for 6 months in Germany. He was in a Stalag prisoner camp during which he lived on grass, tree bark, dandelions & broth which they cooked, and vegetables for the guards. He was liberated when the war was over in May 1945. He received an Honorable Discharge, Good Conduct, Purple Heart & POW medals. He was discharged from service October 7, 1945. A year later he married my granny and they had three children, my dad, Roger, my late Uncle Steve who died shortly after papa passed in 2005 and one girl, my Aunt Jeanne. Papa enlisted in the Army, 44th Combat Engineers, Co. A on December 18, 1942. He built pontoon bridges to cross rivers under General Patton. His battles and campaigns included Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland and Ardennes. Papa never talked about the war much or his time held in captivity but I know he never forgot what he saw over there. I think it was just too terrible for him to tell us. He battled stomach cancer for almost 20 yrs. The doctors said they had to take parts of his stomach over the years due to the things he was forced to eat when he was a prisoner. I don't know what my papa saw, if he ever killed anyone, or even his thoughts about his experiences except that they were just too horrible to speak of. Regardless, my papa was my hero, my everything & I miss him so much! I have looked everywhere on every site I know since I began studying the Holocaust and WW11 but much too my disappointment I have yet to find any records of him. I am deeply disturbed by this & I'm hoping that it's just my lack of knowledge on going about such things. I'm hoping I overlooked something because my papa was and always will be worth remembering.
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