On Independence Day, July 4, 2009, the 28th Infantry Division, Company K put on a living history encampment at the Forest Hills park in the Pittsburgh area. This was mainly a one day event and was part of Forest Hills Community Day at the park. While our little encampment was tucked away back from the park entrance, we had a decent crowd passing through most of the day because of the other activities going on immediately adjacent to us. These included 3-legged races, a car show, water-balloon tosses, etc.
Rege Biggerstaff brought his Airborne setup complete with parachute shelter, while Randy Keif drove the ’42 Dodge WC. I got there Saturday morning with Don Grimm and we all decided to set up one more extra tent to make the display bigger. Dave Blinky also came by with his fine jeep.
We had quite a few interested visitors, including one WWII vet who stopped and talked to us for quite a while, relating his experiences in the 9th Infantry division, serving under Patton in North Africa and Sicily and later taking part in the Huertegen Forest operation and the Battle of the Bulge. His name was Shultz, and he joked that his ‘cousins’- the Germans- kept trying to kill him. Fortunately, they didn’t succeed.
We also had a couple of modern-day Marines, a nice young guy and his girlfriend, who were intrigued at the differences in the equipment of the 1940’s and what they use today.
Overall, a great day and a very enjoyable small event. BTW, the hot dogs at the concession stand were excellent!
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