On the first eighty-degree day of the year, my wife and I decided to take the kids on a bike ride. Two of the kids this year moved up to a 20” bike, but the nine month old prefers the bike-cart thing either my wife or I pull behind our bikes. It was my turn this bike trip.
Here in Battle Creek, Michigan, there are a lot of bike trails to explore. The trouble is, we have to stick to the paved bike trails, even though we all have bikes which we could explore the wooded variety. You simply cannot go trailing with a baby bike carriage.
Again, pictures do not do the view seen from here justice. An absolutely gorgeous view.
We decided to visit a place I had wanted to see for years, the Fort Custer National Cemetery. It is a beautiful place to see, and an excellent place to ride bikes. Cars tend to drive very slowly through it, and the roads are in pristine condition.
Fort Custer (Named for the famous Michigan native, General George Armstrong Custer) is a huge place, home to the Michigan Army National Guard base. A10 Tank Killer planes are stationed here, which you can see regularly flying training missions in the sky. At times, you can also see an occasional tank plowing through a field, which is really cool if you are into that sort of thing. I used to be, but not so much anymore.
Not quite Arlington National Cemetery, but humbling nonetheless
There is a lot of history here. Fort Custer was built in 1917 for military training during WWI, and trained more than 100,000 troops. Back then it was named Camp Custer, but was changed in 1940 to Fort Custer. (No idea why.) More than 300,000 troops were trained here during WWII, including the famed 5th infantry division that left for Normandy, France, in June 1944.
Surprisingly, Fort Custer was also used as a prisoner of war camp for 5,000 German troops unit 1945. And during our bike ride though the National Cemetery, we came across the German prisoner of war memorial, where 26 German soldiers are buried.
Plaque reads: From 1943 to 1946, Fort Cuter housed German Prisoners of war. A truck/train collision resulted in the deaths of some of the 26 German soldiers buried here. Others died of natural causes. Since 1953, German American communities and veterans organizations had sponsored an annual memorial service to honor those who are resting here. Dedicated: Volkstrauertag 1994. Your German and American friends.
Sure there are many, many American veterans buried here as well, but I find it amazing that we, as a country, would have this much respect for our enemies as to put them to rest in our own veteran cemetery, resting for all time next to soldiers who fought and died on the same battlefield.
My daughter asked me why they were buried here. I told her that it was out of respect and honor, and that while we may have been at odds during the war, and fought and killed each other on the battlefield, once we had captured them and they were our prisoners, we had to show them respect as fellow soldiers. We became responsible for them, and it was a matter of honor that we treat them as we hoped our own prisoners would be treated in Germany.
Sadly, the current administration does not seem to hold to this honor today. Perhaps it would behoove our elected officials to also take a short bike ride though Fort Custer National Cemetery and learn what honor, duty, honestly, and America is really all about.
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