Book 'A Reluctant Hero's Footsteps'

by John R. Scales

Paperback Edition published by WestBowPress, June 2013 writte by John R. Scales. In 2011, by chance he discovered the after-action reports of the 329th Infantry Regiment, his father's World War II unit, on the Internet. An idea was born, John use these to reconstruct his father's path in Europe. He would take his three children, Richard, Mary, and Stephen, on a trip to retrace those footsteps. This book is about their travels, but it is much more. It documents the life of a man and his family, the history of a unit, and how, through research and luck, John was able to piece together the story. As far as possible, he tells the tale of his father's life with pictures and artifacts from that life. In parallel, he relates the history of the unit he joined in combat, inserting pictures where he can. In fitting all the records together with the trip itself, John discovered his father in new ways and built a memory for his children. In an appendix, John Scales give you a guide as to how you can do this for your veterans as well. It covers the history of a young man and his adventures in World War II with the 83rd Infantry Division from Camp Atterbury to the end of World War Two.

I got this book from John R. Scales, son of Thomas Richard "Dick" Scales, Company A, 329th Infantry Regiment. I met John at the 83rd Reunions of 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee and 2013 in Arlington, Virginia.
John R. Scales is a retired Special Forces brigadier general, living in Huntsville, Alabama. A veteran of both Vietnam and Afghanistan, he is a senior systems engineer for SAIC. The Naval Institute Press published John's previous book, Sherman Invades Georgia, in 2006, and currently he is preparing two more books.

click on the book to enlarge, click on the image for more about Thomas R. 'Dick' Scales