WW II Vets I have known (2 Viewers)

Great Thread Pat!!

I got a few- the first off being my grandfather. He was a combat medic- a lot of mystery surrounding his service in WW2. We know he received 2 Purple Hearts- My grandad was a big man- 6'5"- one he received in Normandy shortly after the landings- got rifle butted over the hedgerow by some overvealous 101st guys. The other one was when, of all things, he was assisting a mortar team and a shell dropped out of a deuce and landed on his knee and hobbled him somewhat. He passed away in 1995- couldn't speak for the last few years as he had one of those handmike things because he had his vocal chords removed from throat cancer. I never spoke to him after that happened to him- I heard he had a hard time dealing with that so I just felt it was better to keep my distance.

But like I said, his past is kind of a mystery. He had a "6 day marriage"- got married to some broad before he shipped off and then they divorced or got annulled sometime there after. When my dad gave me all of his medals, there was a Distinguished Service Cross enclosed. We have yet to find any orders but it was old and worn. A researcher looked into it for us and said he couldn't find anything on it.

Funny quote got back to me from my grandad- "When I was in Europe, I was making decisions about people living or dying, in korea I was treating frostbite, during my tours in Nam, I was keeping the hookers clean for the rest of the guys." It was kind of interesting looking at his medals- his WW2 campaign medals are very worn, can't find any Korean service ribbons and his Nam stuff was never removed from the box.

My grandfather is my hero but not so much what he did during the war, it was what he did in life and his bravery there. To call him an alcoholic was an understatement and he was a chain smoker. Being born and raised in Mississippi during the 20's and 30's he was what we what term here a "racist"- just hated black people. My aunt, his daughter, married a black man and he didn't talk to her for years. Eventually, he overcame this mentality and called her and him up and restored their friendship and everything was forgiven. They were both there at his funeral.

But his biggest demon was booze. It was shortly after I got off active duty that he just up and decided one day to stop the drinking and smoking. It was too late by then and he knew it but he didn't care. He started getting up in the morning and either going for walks or riding his bike.

I was under the strictest of orders to not ask him about the war- kind of hard thing as ever since I was 8 and lived in Nuremburg, I have been fascinated by WW2. But, as I got older, I understood the reasoning- spending 4 + years of your life in some of the worst depravity mankind has ever witnessed isn't something to be discussed.

But like I said, he was and will always be my hero- my dad is always my "idol".
 
Another gentleman I got to know quite well was Herb Bailey. Herb was an armor officer in WW2- got there to catch the tail end of the Bulge. He even encountered some Russian soldiers as they came across Yugoslaivia (??).

Couple neat things about Herb- he was 32 when he enlisted in 41. He was also very good friends with Captain Charles MacDonald- the guy who wrote "Company Commander". He told me a lot of different things about the book and the situations they were going through.

Herb was a great guy- first met him when I was in the Second Infantry Division - didn't see him again for 10+ years. Ran into him again and he started talking to me and I couldn't remember who this old dude was. Then, it started to dawn on me- he remembered me from my 2ID Days.

He told me all sorts of stories about tigers, panthers, M10's and even told me a story about cleaning horse stalls at Ft. Riley- back then- it was the cavalry!!:D

One of the last stories he told me was about a platoon of black soldiers he took out on patrol. THey were some of the Red Ball express guys who wanted a shot at Jerry and they came to him about it as the CO. He gave them a shot and they went on patrol with him. He said it was funny as he and the white soldiers drew M1's and they were grabbing BAR's and Tommy's :D But, he said they came upon some hapless Germans and he had to order them to pullback, he said they fought with all sorts of tenacity, like they had something to prove. He said after that, his company was always the first one to get resupplied and hot chow. ;)

Herb was a great man- all 5'5" of him- when I last saw him, he was in his early 90's and moved quite gingerly. Cared for his wife of 50+ years till the day that he died which was in 04- he was 94. He was still on his feet and just simply went into the hospital one weekend in February and died. His wife died a year and a day after him.
 
When I was a child there was a man in our town who was blind and deaf his name was Elko Hale. He would wonder along the side of main street with his white tapping stick and mumble to his self. All of sudden he would stop and swing his cane around wildly and yell. I always thought he was crazy and was scared of him. Some of the kids would ride by on their bikes and mess with him. Not me,I would cross to the other side of the road when I saw him coming. One day at the service station I was getting a coke out of the machine when Elko came by and I listened to the men gathered around the counter tell his story. Elko was in the Army during WWII and was in a landing craft headed toward Omaha beach on D-day. As the Higgins boat approached the beach a motar landed in the troop compartment. Blind and deafened by the explosion Elko laid trapped under the bodies of his platoon members. It wasn't until the next day that he was rescued. After that he couldn't stand the touch of another person. I guess that's why he wasn't in a hospital or nursing home somewhere. Talk about a sacrafice.
 
Wow! That last one was tough. Indeed a huge sacrifice.

Two guys that stand out. The First was Rev. Roger D Stevens my Former father in law. A little guy who was a tail gunner in North Africa. Or rather trained there. He talked about being in gunnery school. Said something about liking the tommy gun because the shot gun was too much for him. He also told me a story about a woman he met on a train one night........

The other man was Capt. Kohlas USN. He served on one of the battle ships and said that quite often when they were firing on enemy ships that he never saw them as they were over the horizon. This was heady stuff when your a little guy. He was a very nice man. He taught tennis. Had a pachinko machine in his parlor that he would let us play once in a while. He gave me all of his photography equipment. I forget a lot of things he told me I am sure but I will never forget his kindness.
 
Another gentleman I got to know quite well was Herb Bailey. Herb was an armor officer in WW2- got there to catch the tail end of the Bulge. He even encountered some Russian soldiers as they came across Yugoslaivia (??).

Couple neat things about Herb- he was 32 when he enlisted in 41. He was also very good friends with Captain Charles MacDonald- the guy who wrote "Company Commander". He told me a lot of different things about the book and the situations they were going through.

Herb was a great guy- first met him when I was in the Second Infantry Division - didn't see him again for 10+ years. Ran into him again and he started talking to me and I couldn't remember who this old dude was. Then, it started to dawn on me- he remembered me from my 2ID Days.

He told me all sorts of stories about tigers, panthers, M10's and even told me a story about cleaning horse stalls at Ft. Riley- back then- it was the cavalry!!:D

One of the last stories he told me was about a platoon of black soldiers he took out on patrol. THey were some of the Red Ball express guys who wanted a shot at Jerry and they came to him about it as the CO. He gave them a shot and they went on patrol with him. He said it was funny as he and the white soldiers drew M1's and they were grabbing BAR's and Tommy's :D But, he said they came upon some hapless Germans and he had to order them to pullback, he said they fought with all sorts of tenacity, like they had something to prove. He said after that, his company was always the first one to get resupplied and hot chow. ;)

Herb was a great man- all 5'5" of him- when I last saw him, he was in his early 90's and moved quite gingerly. Cared for his wife of 50+ years till the day that he died which was in 04- he was 94. He was still on his feet and just simply went into the hospital one weekend in February and died. His wife died a year and a day after him.

He sounds like one heck of a good man. It must have been an honor to know him.
 
Sounds like these are people we would all want to know. I can't imagine what post WW II life must have been for a man like Elko Hale. A traumatic episode like that can't be imagined.
 
He sounds like one heck of a good man. It must have been an honor to know him.

Yes Louis, he was a great guy and I miss him a great deal. He was fortunate enough to have lived a very very full and productive life- I hope I may be as Blessed- unlike unfortunately the gentleman that Shiloh described- a very very tragic story.
 
Sounds like these are people we would all want to know. I can't imagine what post WW II life must have been for a man like Elko Hale. A traumatic episode like that can't be imagined.

Yes, without a doubt a most horrific story- unfortunately, this reminds me of a story I encountered in the past year-

I do audit of state and local governments and one of the requirements is that these governments have Single Audits performed- basically a compliance audit rather than a financial one. Anyway, I was auditing the Mental Health/ Mental Retardation office of a certain Pa County. One of the case files I pulled for the MH office was a 6 year old girl who was in a traumatic car accident- her mother had been knocked back in the car and died lying on top of her- it took a few hours to get her removed and she had constant flashbacks of that moment. A real tragic story but at least there is a good ending- she is doing very well with her father and is recovering well.

My dad was a 91G in the Army- he was a drug and alcohol counselor- not your HOOAH type job but a very important one. He worked with the behavioral sciences groups in the army and had a lot of tragic tales and cases of soldiers who would come back from Viet Nam and experience this type of thing. Kind of an interesting thing but one of his psychiatrists he worked with, a major, was part of the original team of behavioral science specialists who developed the mental health profiles for Delta Force in the late 70's. He came back and looked at my dad and said "Man, I didn't know we had so many psychopaths in the army- and that's coming from a clinical point of view." :D:D
 
Hi everybody,

I know and have known severel world war two veterens. My great uncle Henry was b17 bomber pilot who flew missions over Germany. His brother my other great uncle was also a bomber pilot. tragiclly he was one of the many yong men whowere shot down over Europe. My grandfather the brother of these two men served in the 82nd airborne division as a medic in Korea. I have another great uncle on my mom's side who served on a battleship in the pacific. He had he job of sounding the alarm whenever there was a suicide attack. The father of my Aunts husband fought in the pacific and has many souveniers like a Japanese helmet and flag.
The most famous veteren I know is mr. Everret Pope. He was a captain in the marines at the battle of Peleliu. He led 90 men up a hill and they entrenched themselves. The Japanese sent wave after wave of bayonet chargs at the americans and they fougt back as best as they could throwing rocks and amunition crates beating the Japanese with ther fist and hurling them off the cliff. Pope's company had 300 men at the start of the battle and emerged with only 6 alive. He won the medel of honor for his actions that day and I am truly honored to know him
 
I bought my home from a WWII verteran, a gentleman named Mr. Reyling who was a Naval Officer who served in the pacific theater. When I bought the house he left me an enormous 46 star flag from a WWI battleship, which I fly on holidays.

My Uncle Leo (who passed away this year) was on the crew of a Higgins Boat at D-Day. He never talked about what he did and saw.

Two of my great uncles served in the 8th Airforce, one a Navigator, the other a tail gunner, both died on missions over Germany. I just received photographs of them for the first time, and they will be framed and hung in the museum.

Another of my great Uncles (Jack) who is still alive was also in the Air Corps, serving in North Africa.

My best friend Billy McGrath's father (who died of cancer about 10 years ago) was a highly decorated WWII veteran who served under Patton in the Third Army as a communications specialist. He won two bronze stars and a silver star, which he received for heroically swimming a river several times to keep communications open as Patton's forces crossed, and Patton actually pinned his Silver Star on him personally. There is a famous photo of Patton standing on a bridge peeing into the river. The bashful looking dogface standing next to him was Billy's dad (Billy has an original of the photograph, which is also on the Patton Museum website).

My Uncle Dominick (who sadly has Alzheimers) was a highly decorated veteran in Korea, as was Jack Farish, a close family friend. Neither had ever spoken about their experiences in my presence until once, when I was a about 15, at a holiday party, they sat down together and had a couple of drinks. Maybe they didn't realize I was listening, or maybe it was just time, but they opened up to each other and told stories that were sad, and funny, and horrible all at once. I will never respect two men more.
 
My best friend's dad was smack in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge. He had flash backs up until his untimely death approx. 10 years ago. My uncle Pascal was a U.S. Marine and part of a machine gun team during WWII. He was involved in another nightmare called, Iwo Jima. Nick
 
What a great idea for a thread Pat. Great stories here and worth printing off, every one of them!

I thought I would share this one with you all and I have spent a bit of time on it as I want to record this before I get too old and start forgetting everything! This is a long one so please bear with it.

I was born in 1955 in a small village in the south of England, named Rowlands Castle: This once sleepy village nestles under the South Downs; a rib of chalk hills which runs along almost the entire south coast of England. The village is in a beautiful part of Hampshire, close to the coast and is located about 10 miles north of Portsmouth and 7 miles south of Petersfield. The reason why I mention the location is that Rowlands Castle is a favorite place for both the Navy and the Army to retire to. The Royal Naval Dockyard of Portsmouth and the Army base at Aldershot being pretty accessible to the south and the north.

At the time that I was aged 8 my Father was still serving in the army as a Colonel in the South Lancashire Regiment (named 40th Regiment of Foot at the time of Waterloo – but this story is not about him, I will keep that for later). He was assigned to staff duties after returning from fighting the French in Madagascar and the Japanese in Burma and China in the war and worked at the War Office (now MOD) in Stanmore close to London; he was therefore not around during the week to play toy soldiers with me!

My parents were very friendly with a retired couple who lived in the house next door. So much so that they built a gate between the two properties so they could walk through without having to venture out onto the lane outside. Also when the couple went away they used to entrust to my parents boxes full of awards and medals and also the family silver; just to be on the safe side. My word, some of these awards made the chain that the Lord Mayor of London wears on his official state functions look insignificant in comparison!

This charming retired couple were especially fond of me, and then my Mother told me that when I spoke to the man I was to call him “Sir Geoffrey” and not “Sir” which was the normal way to address a male adult at the time. I actually was a little scared of him to start with as occasionally I would hear a huge “boom” coming from his garden next door. I was told later that he grew prize apples for the village fete and also owned an antique coachman’s blunderbuss. Boys from the village used to steal apples from his orchard and if Sir Geoffrey caught them he would let fly at them with this weapon. I hasten to add that he only loaded black powder, old broad beans and bacon rind, but still none the less it must have hurt like hell. And you could get away with doing this those days!

Sir Geoffrey was a complete and utter prankster I then learned. He told me “Kenneth, let me give you a little tip, if you dig up a weed in your vegetable garden and then dig a hole around it, the next morning you will find coal in that hole”! Well I spent a hard afternoon in the hot summer sun digging up weeds in the vegetable garden and then contented with my efforts went home for tea and then for bed. Dawn broke and I got dressed hurriedly and rushed down to the vegetable garden and low and behold each hole had a piece of coal in it! Wow I thought my pocket money problems are over! Sadly to say that having spent days digging up weeds in the vegetable garden the coal seemed to be getting less and less and after a week I could not even fill a bag to sell to the local coal merchant. Bob a Job week as a Cub Scout was far more lucrative!

Anyway back to Sir Geoffrey. He discovered that I was the chess champion of my primary school and he in his retirement loved to have odd game himself, so I was invited to go next door 2 times a week for a game. I was shy at first and then lost this shyness due to the fact that he treated me as a complete equal; it was just like playing a game with one of my school chums. I even used to win half the games, although I am sure he let me!

During these games he used to tell me about his life on Submarines, escaping from a POW camp in WWI, about his time on HMS Hood and his experiences in Singapore and other parts of Asia. This was amazing information for an 8 year old but I was certain he was trying to confuse my Bishop (B) takes Knight (Kn), and next move check mate!

That Christmas of 1963 he gave me a beautiful model of HMS Hood and I was thrilled to pieces. Although my Mother informed me that maybe I should not “sail” it in my bath like I did at the time with all my other ship models!

Also that same Christmas my Mother told me a story that I will never forget: There was a large New Years Eve’s party at Idsworth House which is about 2 miles away. My Father decided to hire a car for the evening (cars were scare at this time – no drunken driving laws in those days and also I should mention he never held a driving licence in his life as you were “grandfathered” into the system if you could drive!) and offered Sir Geoffrey and Lady Layton a ride to Idsworth. Anyway well after midnight Father was about to drive home and discovered the car had a flat battery. “No problem” said Sir Geoffrey who promptly went back into to the house and requisitioned 2 Admirals, a General and the Bishop of Portsmouth to push the car down the drive. Now bearing in mind they wore full dress uniform at these functions (and the Bishop would also been in full “rig”) then I just wish I had been a little older and there with a camera!

I continued seeing Sir Geoffrey for my weekly chess games as well as “larking around” with him until September when I left to Sherborne and my first boarding school. I was 9 years old now and just before I left for school and also at half term (when I came home) my Mother told me that Sir Geoffrey was away so I couldn’t go next-door to visit. I found out later and obviously she was protecting me as lets face being 9 and away from home for so long is pretty daunting in itself and I thank her for that.

When I came home for Christmas and I wanted to rush round to say hello to Sir Geoffrey my mother called me back and told me that he had died in the Portsmouth Royal Naval Hospital a few month ago in September. He was buried at sea with full Naval honors a short time after his death. Apparently he was having a prank with one of the nurses who had to leave his ward and when she came back he was dead.

Although I was very young at the time, Sir Geoffrey never showed off in anyway and seemed to treat everybody as equals in my opinion. His exploits on submarines and escaping POW camps were fascinating but what he didn’t tell me was that when he was on HMS Hood he was in command of it AND the entire Battle Cruiser squadron. Being transferred to Singapore with promotion was lucky for him of course, as if he remained on HMS Hood then he would have most likely have gone down with the rest of the crew when the Bismarck blew the ship to pieces a few years later.

He also mentioned his life in Singapore but didn’t tell me that he was Commander-in-Chief China Fleet. He was replaced by Admiral Sir Tom Phillips in December 1941 and that same day Phillips with his flagship the Prince of Wales sailed up Malay Peninsula and was killed due to Japanese torpedo bombers hitting and sinking our two capital ships. Again Sir Geoffrey escaped death, and he did not want to leave Singapore in the first place.

He also told me he had worked before he retired at the Portsmouth Naval Base. In fact he had been in charge of the entire dockyard! This makes him a former Second Lord of the Admiralty. He would have during this term of office had HMS Victory (of Trafalgar fame) as his flagship.

He is both the luckiest and most modest man I have ever met in my life. A true hero of our country.

He was a great friend to a young boy growing up in Hampshire. When I eventually get up there to meet you Sir Geoffrey please have the chess board set up ready – and this time I’m playing white!

Offical biography follows ..
 
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For you interest here is his official biography:


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton, GBE, KCB, KCMG, DSO, (20 April 1884-4 September 1964), was a British Royal Navy officer.

He was the son of a Liverpool solicitor, George Layton. He joined the Royal Navy as a naval cadet on 15 May 1899 on HMS Britannia. Following this he served as a Midshipman aboard cruisers in the English Channel and off the south coast of the United States.

He took his Lieutenant's course and was promoted to that rank on 30 November 1905. Layton then he joined the submarine branch of the navy, in which he had his first command. From 1910 he did two years general service and returned to submarines in 1912, commanding several of them during the First World War.

On 18 August 1915 his submarine E13 was ordered to the Baltic to assist the Russians, but he ran aground on Saltholm off the Danish coast. E13 was destroyed early the following morning by a German torpedo boat, killing half his men. Layton and the others were interned at Copenhagen. Three months later, disguised as a local sailor, he managed to return to Britain. At the end of the war he was awarded the DSO.

He was promoted to Captain on 31 December 1922 and held the post of Chief of Staff to the Rear Admiral (Submarines). In the late 1920s he was appointed Deputy Director of Operations at the Admiralty and in 1930 he attended a course at the Imperial Defence College. From 1931 to 1933, he was posted as Chief of Staff on the China station.

Sir Geoffrey then transferred to battleships, firstly the Renown. Then, following another period at the Admiralty, he commanded the battlecruiser squadron, flying his flag on the Hood, from August 1938 until August 1939. Sir Geoffrey was then appointed second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet, firstly under Admiral Dudley Pound and later under Admiral Andrew Cunningham.

He then took over as Commander-in-Chief China Fleet, September 1940. In May 1941, he was informed that Admiral Sir Tom Phillips would be taking over from him, and the battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse were sent to Singapore in December 1941 with Phillips flying his flag on the Prince of Wales. Sir Geoffrey broadcast a message to the Malayan people, telling them of the improvements to defence on the arrival of these two capital ships in Singapore. On 10 December he handed over the naval command to Phillips and made preparations to embark for home. At 1.20pm on the same day Admiral Phillips was lost on the Prince of Wales off Malaya, when both ships were sunk by Japanese action. Sir Geoffrey was then recalled as Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet.

In January 1942, the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) was formed, to direct Allied forces in South East Asia and the South West Pacific. On January 5, the deputy commander of ABDA naval forces, Rear Admiral Arthur Palliser made Sir Geoffrey the senior naval officer at Tanjong Priok, the port for Batavia (Jakarta), Java. His main role was organising better convoy protection.

Following the fall of Singapore and dissolution of ABDA, command of the British Eastern Fleet was given to Sir James Somerville. Sir Geoffrey was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

On 5 April, the Japanese attacked Colombo, sinking two cruisers, an auxiliary cruiser and a destroyer. On 9 April they attacked Trincomalee and sank an aircraft carrier, a destroyer and a corvette. The Japanese now switched their attack from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, and on 11 April Sir Geoffrey sent a signal that the enemy had withdrawn from Ceylon to Singapore.

The defence of the island had been a fiasco. The RAF squadrons on the island proved no match for the Japanese Zeroes, losing at least twice as many aircraft as the Japanese. The early warning system set up by Sir Geoffrey was a shambles: the aircraft at Ratmalana were still on the ground when the Japanese aircraft flew overhead. None of the local inhabitants had reported the Japanese aircraft, which had flown over the Ceylonese coastline for half an hour, in full view of everybody, before reaching Ratmalana.

Following the war Sir Geoffrey returned to the UK as Commander in Chief, Portsmouth a post he held until his retirement in 1947.

Sir Geoffrey Layton died at Portsmouth on at the age of 80.
 
A man that I admire so much is my grandfather, Algie Pace, who served in the 1142nd Combat Engineers Headquarters Company. Not only for what he did and endured during the war, but for who he is today. He is a great man. A loving father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He is full of smiles and laughter with anyone he meets.

When I visit, he still shares his experiences of fighting the Germans in Europe in the fall and winter of 1944. He still carries the scars from it. It is a miracle he even survived with all he had to endure. Many of his stories I haven't even gotten up on the website as of yet.

For those of you who haven't seen the website of the 1142nd, then go to the link below. Great pictures and information of the unit is located there.
http://www.1142combatengineers.com/

My grandfather's brother, Howard, also served in Europe during the war. Grandfather's brother got to visit him just once and that was after my grandfather's feet froze during the Battle of the Bulge. Howard was an MP. I don't have any information as of yet on his unit. I hope one day to have it. Howard went on to serve in the US Army and during the Korean War, he served as a tank commander.
william-alga-pace-sm.jpg
William Algie Pace - Will be 94 years old in August.
 
Ken and Darrell:

Those are both very fitting tributes to both of those men. May we all live as long and have lived as full and enriched lives!!

Thanks for sharing that info.

CC
 
This is a incredible and long story, but the short of it is I became friends with "Wild Bill" from Band of Brothers. I speak to him by phone, and we are pen pals. He put me in touch with other members of Easy who I also periodically correspond with. Bill is the head of the 101st Airborne Society, and one day, in the mail, I get an Honorary Member of the 101st Airborne Certificate, signed by all of the surviving members. Bill stated he gave me the honor because of my support of Veterans, and my service as a Firefighter at ground Zero. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also know Leonard Lomell 2nd Rangers Pointe DuHoc Normandy, he lives in nearby Toms River, He is a Lawyer there. This is another long story, I got to meet Father Bradley Navy Chaplan Iwo Jima, he blessed me with the same equiptment he used to annoint the dead and wounded on Iwo. He died shortly after I met him.

That's quite an honor. I met Wild Bill a couple years back, shortly after the BoB video came out. Floored him when I showed him the new "Currahee" crest ( new as of 1991, when I was with the 506th). We had a good talk and he was very kind to my family, especially my 3 year old daughter.

As much of an honor as that was, I gotta think it wasn't worth it though. That was a TREMENDOUS sacrifice on the part of the NYFD and I for one have no qualms saying their is no way I could have remotely been as brave as you guys were. That took tremendous courage and it will be a story of heroic sacrifice paralleled by very few other moments in American history. May all the NYFD and NYPD personnel there at that day live very rich and rewarding lives.
 
A photo of my uncle(left) and crew and their A20 the moment its tail was shot off by flak near Rouen, France in August 1944. The photo was snapped by the gunner in the plane flying directly below-what a shot! My uncle fortunately survived and spent the rest of the war as a POW.
 

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Hi RAON,

Holy C*** Doesnt even come close to summing that shot up! Glad he made it!

All the best

Dave
 

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