American Dream (Post 3 of 5)

Two of my dad’s cousins served honorably in WWII with one (Louis Montoye, son of Oscar and Eugenia) serving with the 101st Airborne at the Battle of the Bulge.
I understand that he was able to help many of his Belgian family members who were in deep poverty at that time. I haven’t discussed this with my cousin in Paris but hopefully some older relatives may have heard of Louis’ efforts. One story Louis personally told me regarded his efforts to help many of the locals to fish in a local stream. Without an abundance of equipment, Louis used what he had available. He used hand grenades to fish with. His efforts were tremendously successful. The locals were extremely happy to have food but there was a problem. Louis was arrested by the US Army for misuse of Government property. At his court martial the local Army General dismissed the charges when he found out that many of the people Louis was helping to “fish” were his family members. An amazing but true story.
The other cousin (Richard Broidioi - still trying to find out his family tree?) was a waist gunner on a B-17 crew flying missions over Germany from England. His crew never made their 25 missions. On limping back to England after a raid over Germany they were shot up really bad and their B-17 crashed on landing. Of the nine man crew only Richard Broidioi survived. He walked away without a scratch. He spent the rest of his life wondering why he survived? I think that they called this “survivors guilt” in WWII. Before the war Richard was an outgoing happy person but after the war my dad said that he was withdrawn and quiet.
In the late 1970’s I found out that my wife’s grandfather - Albert Vaughn of Oneida, TN - knew Richard Broidioi. I learned about his friendship with Richard from Mr. Vaughn while visiting him in the mountain town of Oneida, Tennessee.
Out of the blue one day he told me of a man near Clarkrange who had the same surname as mine but spelled differently. When I asked the man’s name he told me it was “Richard.” I told him that Richard Broidioi was my dad’s cousin and that I knew him. This was nearly unbelievable since none of my family in middle Tennessee knew where Richard moved after the war.
Mr. Vaughn was a salesman for Jellico Grocery Products and on his weekly route he traveled to Clarkrange, TN where he regularly met with Richard.
Richard had a wife and children and lived in a very private mountainous area in the vicinity of Clarkrange, Tennessee. On many occasions Richard would be at the country store near Clarkrange picking up supplies and Mr.Vaughn, who never met a stranger, would converse with him. Over the years Richard became close to him and they talked often. I thought this was really a coincidence since my wife’s grandfather knew my dad’s cousin even before I met my wife. I guess the old saying about this being a “small world” is truer than we could ever imagine.