I am Thomas G. Ratliff, author of, I Can Hear The Guns Now - ISBN 0-9704865-0-2. I was born about 5 a.m., on a cold, rainy, winter, morning, January 14, 1939. My place of birth was in the very small rural community of Woodsbend, Kentucky, USA. I was born just as World War II was in it’s beginning stages. My family didn't know then how those rumblings of war would impact the family later.
The first five years of my life was just a normal loving and caring, father, mother, child relationship. But when that draft notice for my father arrived that October day in 1943, it signaled the start of everything changing. That notice would cause life, as the family knew it, to be put on hold... while my father served his country. I was not aware of it at the time, but this was the beginning of a process that would change my life forever.
My father received a short reprieve from the draft to wait for the arrival of the family’s third child. In addition to having a little sister, on February 19th, 1944, I now had a little brother. Six weeks after my little brother’s birth my father had to report for the draft. On November 14, 1944, my father Ova W. Ratliff, an Infantry Replacement soldier was killed, fighting with the 110th Infantry, 28th Division, Company C, in that green hell of the Hurtgen Forest in Germany. The death of my father changed my life forever. For more information about me go to American World War II Orphans Network (AWON) www.awon.org
Respectfully,
Thomas G. Ratliff
© 2005
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