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Here are the beautiful paintjob and immaculate dashboard (with rifle), the pack of authentic WWII Chesterfield cigarettes in his helmet netting, the bullet holes still visible in the jeep body, and the box for grenades. That made me laugh--my Dad's old buddy, T.C. Moore, was a jeep driver and he had kept the cigars he liberated in a grenade box.

Day Four July 13
	We loaded onto the bus and drove to Biffontaine, where a vision of jeeps and "GI"s greeted us in the center of town! This is clearly a passion for the Amicale des Vehicules US des Haute-Vosges. The attention to detail is amazing.
	They had been to Normandy for the ceremonies around the 65th Anniversary of D-Day attended by Presidents Obama and Sarkozy. The only question I had was whether someone would name their jeep after the Little Big Horn. Maybe that driver would have been Lakota!
	We noticed people were climbing aboard--here's Leslie Yamamoto in hers--so Liz and I clambered aboard the nearest one.
	Which just happened to be Michael's--who gave us a grand tour of his jeep and the result of all his hard work and e-bay foraging.

Here are the beautiful paintjob and immaculate dashboard (with rifle), the pack of authentic WWII Chesterfield cigarettes in his helmet netting, the bullet holes still visible in the jeep body, and the box for grenades. That made me laugh--my Dad's old buddy, T.C. Moore, was a jeep driver and he had kept the cigars he liberated in a grenade box.
	We launched out of Biffontaine.
	And formed a long convoy through the woods.
	The view down across the valley to the village below was beautiful but it was sobering to think how the view down from the hills had looked to the 442nd..

	The convoy stopped on the way so a new sign could be hung along the way. The Hardwick sisters attached it to the tree since this was the path up to rescue their father and they wanted to honor the men who had made it.. There had been a sign but it had blown down in the storms that had taken down much of the largest trees in the forest.
	The sign reads: Bruyeres en Vosges 75 Le chemin de la paix et de la liberte La Croisette : 3 DSC Jim Tazoi, Fujio Miyamoto, et Barney Hajiro le 29/10/1944, 350 allemands (tues ou blesses) le fils du General Rommel capture
	From there, the convoy continued to climb until we were greeted by the "Lost Battalion" in the trees.
	To our surprise (at least Liz and I), there was a huge crowd gathered there on top of the mountain. It included the French flag bearers who honored the services at the memorials.
	The priest (in green) set up an impromptu altar on the hood of a jeep to hold a truly moving mass. A choir sang and a school girl delivered the Star Spangled Banner. When she faltered a bit on the English, we joined in. The priest delivered a long sermon. I could only catch phrases, but I think it was a heartfelt meditation on what had happened there and the men of the 442nd.
	We were joined by a veteran of the Lost Battalion.
	The memorial among the trees. The boxwood around the memorial is beautifully trimmed--so though it's far up the hill, it's obvious that the site is always taken care of.
	When the service was over, we realized that people were walking up the hill and into the trees. There in the forest was a whole encampment of the "GIs" recreating the Lost Battalion hold out. There was a pup tent, tarp, and machine gun.
	There was also an all too detailed first aid station.
	There was a multi-person foxhole in a large crater with ammo, weopons, logs, and netting.
	Nearby was the belly tank that had been recently found. These were the fuel tanks that had been filled with supplies and dropped from planes in an effort to resupply the Lost Battalion. Of course, on the heavily wooded mountain top, the tanks had bounced down and were mostly captured by Germans.
	Several of the veterans climbed into the foxhole and began to talk about the experience as we gathered around.
	The "GI"s handed them their guns as Tosh and the film crew interviewed them.It was clearly second nature for them to handle the guns--65 years later.

	All too soon we had to leave and head back down the hill to Biffontaine for lunch in the town hall. When we got there, we took a moment to look around the town. Near the town hall was the statue The Prayer.
	We went up the street to see the church.
	And the sign posted on it in honor of Captain Young O. Kim
	At the school, there were still the marks of bullets in the wrought iron fence.
	Lunch was a wonderful homemade buffet of ham and cured meat, beet salad, carrot salad, and potatoes with bottles of Biere de Bruyeres. After we ate, presentations were made to our hosts, the Comite de la Borne N6, Canton de Brouvelieures, and the Amicale des Vehicules and Etienne Pourcher, the Consul-General of the Vosges region.
	After lunch we went by bus and jeep to a museum that showed how a waterworks sawmill used to process the logs. There was also a tree of ripe cherries across the road.
	From there, we went to the memorial to the 3rd Division, Audie Murphy's Division, where we had a ceremony. For those who don't know Audie Murphy, here's a link to his wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy
	Across the way, there was a memorial to the forest rangers who had lost their lives, built of the stones from a forest structure destroyed during the war. The rangers and the color guard were at all the memorials.
	And there was one more ceremony at Fremifontaine to the 45th Division--the Thunderbirds. Liz and I were glad that this one was included because it was here that Dad's unit entered the war, attached to the 45th. It was just a quiet crossroads in the trees.
	With the solemn ceremonies over, we headed to the hall in Belmont-sur Buttant for another homemade meal--including a generous bowl of wild blueberries picked that morning.
	The festivities--fueled with red wine and home made crystal clear "water"--stretched into the evening. W never did make it to Bruyeres for the fireworks and torchlight parade.
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Day Four July 13