Electric Bison

The places where lessons were taught, and at least learned for a time, are on a lattice of little rivers, interwoven by tiny roads and bridges in their distinct valleys mixed like fingers clasped, or the askew headwaters valleys of Montana. Instead of the Big Hole or the Bitter Root Rivers adding eventually to the waters of the Missouri and Columbia, the comparatively sized Meuse and Moselle add t...

There were many sad points along our journey, places where we saw the brutal nature of war. At Honsfeld, Belgium, we passed through the intersection where Kampfgruppe, or Battle Group, Peiper rolled over the bodies of defending U.S. engineers, whose remains were then photographed by German cameramen. In the photos, three dead American soldiers lie on the road, and German soldiers mull over their b...

At the beginning of World War II there were only three regiments of Waffen, or Weapon, SS. By the Battle of the Bulge there were thirty-eight divisions. Of these, seven were German SS Panzer Divisions. If a stake needed to be driven through the heart of the police state called Nazi Germany, the point of that stake must have to penetrate through the battle-hardened shell of Hitler’s SS Panzer units...

A True story about American character lies buried under two feet of snow along the borders of Germany with Belgium and Luxembourg. The “cooled blood” of sacrifice under that snow is our American blood. In January 2017, two of us, friends from Helena, Montana, drove east from Brussels, Belgium to uncover the complex battlefield remembered in the kitchens of our childhood as the Battle of the Bulge,...

Hitler’s plan for Operation “Herbstnebel,” or “Autumn Mist,” the final code name for the Ardennes offensive, involved a massive surprise attack on December 16, 1944, along a sixty-mile front stretching south from Monschau, Germany to Echternach, Luxembourg. The initial 270,000 German troops, comprising three new German armies, assigned to the task included four SS Panzer (armor) and three Panzergr...

My friend Randy LeCocq and I, John Driscoll, are two U.S. Army veterans living in Helena, Montana. We chose to study some of the key engagements during the Battle of the Bulge because together they comprised the largest land battle ever participated in by the United States, creating a wealth of folklore associated with that intensified period of brutal combat. The lore of the big battle included t...

I love hearing people’s stories. I’ve interviewed underground miners, rope men, electric railroaders, waitresses and smokejumpers and they’re entertaining as can be. But for and before this Christmas I want spend the next 20 episodes of the Electric Bison telling a true Christmas story from 80 years ago. Though the story lasted from December 16 to January 28, I’ll report it as a trip that my good...

In an after election review I told the Democratic Party that there should have been opportunities made for every candidate to participate in debates with primary opponents. In the general the party should have enforced a requirement for debates between candidates. In my case my opponent refused both times to debate. Now that I’ve had a chance to listen to and understand podcasts, I see that they p...