Liberation Story Highlights Memorial Day Event

A half-century after an infantry division freed a group of POWs in World War II, two veterans started chatting at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in  Walnut Creek and realized they were both part — on either side — of that liberation.

Retired Tech Sgt. Bob Tharratt and retired Sgt. Dick Ingraham will tell the story at the city of Walnut Creek's Memorial Day ceremony, beginning at 10 a.m. Monday at the gazebo in Civic Park, at North Broadway and Civic Drive.

In September 1944, both men were part of the 104th Infantry. Ingraham landed in France and followed the division through Belgium into Germany for the conclusion of the European War, according to The Nutshell, the city government newsletter. Tharratt was a technical sergeant in the Army Air Force, and shot down in a plane over Nuremberg. Tharratt was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after helping the wounded gunner in the plane put on his parachute, and then putting on his own and bailing out. For the next eight months, he was in a German POW camp until liberated April 26, 1945, near the Elbe River by the 104th Infantry, including Ingraham.

Tharratt and his wife Jeane settled in Walnut Creek in 1949. Ingraham, who married a local girl named Sally, came to Walnut Creek in 1961. The two veterans were chatting in church one day 15 years ago when they discovered the 104th Infantry connection. They became friends.

At Monday's ceremony, music will be provided by the Walnut Creek Concert Band under the direction of Harvey Benstein, according to a city news releae.
 
Chaplain Dwane Michael of John Muir/Mt. Diablo Health System will give the invocation and blessing. The National Guard will present the colors and close the ceremony with the traditional laying of the wreaths at the Veterans Memorial Plaza across Broadway. North Broadway between Civic Drive and Lincoln Avenue will be closed during the ceremony.

While some Walnut Creekers will be quietly reflecting during that ceremony, others will be bumper to bumper on some forlorn highway. We have a piece on the travel outlook.