By Greg Ford

Staff Writer

[email protected]

In the early 1940s, Sachse resident Ruth Robinson attended Garland High School and remembers waiting along Garland Road to watch soldiers ride by in military vehicles.

“We waved at the soldiers as they would come by in their big, old trucks,” she said. “I can remember that, plainly … They were just going down the street and waving at us. Of course, we were 16, and I thought that was something to get waved at by the soldiers.”

Those young men, along with millions of others, were part of a United States military effort, which, at the time, was engaged, along with Britain, Russia and numerous other allies, against Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Italy during World War II. The roots of that global conflict began in the early 1920s with the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy, seizing of land by the Japanese in the early 1930s and the rise to power of Adolph Hitler in Germany.

For the complete story, check out the Dec. 7 issue or subscribe to the e-edition.