Pvt. Peter Baron

Was my father Steve Baron's brother.

Pete was a mild mannered all around good guy from what I have been told. His death was a sore spot in the family that never healed.

The last letter that was recieved from him was to my mother Alora Baron and father Steve Baron. He was in a Barn with his troops somewhere close to the boarder waiting for morning sunrise to move out. He could hear boming and guns in the not so distant surroundings. That letter was the last communication our family had for quite some time.

My grandparents recieved a letter from the war department of Uncle Pete Missing in Action.

After the Battle of the Bulg my Grandparents recieved a telegram of his death.

But. having recieved a MIA there had been hope that maybe he was wounded and still would be found.

It was decided that he would be buried in the cemetary in France where he fell in the line of duty. My saddened grandmother had heard stories of bodies being sent home and find it was not the person that was their son.

Grandma did not want to go into a second grieving.

My sister did meet Uncle Pete and remembers him, my brother was born soon after Pete died and recieved Pete's first name as his middle name and heard the story and saw the pain of his loss and the hope that he might return based on the fact that it was happening.

My birth came about 5 yrs after Pete's death but, the hope was still there in the family along with the sorrow. When I was very young I looked at the faces of men that would be around his age to see if I could find Pete. Constantly asking my mother if he could be Uncle Pete.

The youngest sibling (Uncle Bob) Robert F, Baron Sr. went to Korea in the 1950s and even into his 60s worried about what happened to Pete and what more they could find.

Through the VFW he recieved a letter from someone that remembered Pete and had seen him on the back of a POW truck with a broken leg. The man sent pictures to my uncle (that I hope to get a scan of ) of him and the author of the letter before Pete was captured.

Pete was one of the first in my dad's family to be born in the USA. He was one of the first men to have a full HS diploma and was going to school in Rolla, MO School of Mining to be an engineer.

He and our family paid the price of the American Dream.

Though I never knew him … I miss him well!

Pete Baron