Central Valley Writers Workshop- Jim Sanders
Jim Sanders - Saving Lives, saving Memories
A farm boy from California’s Central Valley, Jim Sanders knew he would be called
into service from the moment he heard the news reports about Pearl Harbor on a
friend’s radio. Drafted two weeks after his 18th birthday, he was assigned to
drive a jeep for a medical battalion, and then, in one of those unplanned
moments of pure serendipity, reassigned to a platoon of ambulance drivers. After
basic training in the U.S. and a short stay in England, he landed in Normandy
and began following Patton’s Third Army as it battled its way across France,
Germany and into Czechoslovakia. From his experiences transporting wounded G.I.s
between front-line aid stations and evac hospitals to witnessing the liberation
of two Nazi concentration camps, Jim takes readers on a personal journey into
the realities of war and the sacrifices of a generation of Americans that
faced—and overcame—freedom’s greatest challenge.
into service from the moment he heard the news reports about Pearl Harbor on a
friend’s radio. Drafted two weeks after his 18th birthday, he was assigned to
drive a jeep for a medical battalion, and then, in one of those unplanned
moments of pure serendipity, reassigned to a platoon of ambulance drivers. After
basic training in the U.S. and a short stay in England, he landed in Normandy
and began following Patton’s Third Army as it battled its way across France,
Germany and into Czechoslovakia. From his experiences transporting wounded G.I.s
between front-line aid stations and evac hospitals to witnessing the liberation
of two Nazi concentration camps, Jim takes readers on a personal journey into
the realities of war and the sacrifices of a generation of Americans that
faced—and overcame—freedom’s greatest challenge.
