Jake Ballering knows war all too well.

“It’s the most awful bloody mess I’d ever seen,” he said of Omaha Beach, one of several landing sites in Europe for Allied troops during World War II.

Mr. Ballering, a 90 year-old Grapevine resident, was part of a group of about 600 men who served the Army as battlefield technicians, scurrying to fix broken-down armored vehicles, even in the middle of a firestorm. Today, just 17 of these men are alive, and once a year their families hold a reunion for them, coming together in a different state each time.

This year, their reunion took place in Grapevine, and was put on at the Main Street Bread Baking Company. Sadly, due to health and financial concerns, only one of the original soldiers was able to make it. It was the first time only one vet – Mr. Ballering - was present for the reunion, though he had a wealth of friends and family with him.

(Becky Ballering, one of The News Connection’s graphic artists, is Jake’s granddaughter by marriage.)

Though not a typically talkative person, Jake’s family convinced him to speak with this reporter about his experiences during World War II, and what he learned over the course of his life having gone through such turmoil. Quietly and slowly, Mr. Ballering dispensed wisdom out from under his white and furrowed brow; his hands calmly folded on the table, but still prone to fits of slight shaking.

“When I saw that my name was on the list for D-Day, I thought that was going to be the end of me right there,” he said. “My unit was divided up into two groups, and my group was going in on day one. As it turned out, I was fortunate.”

Jake arrived on Omaha Beach at around 5 p.m. on D-Day, hours after the first few waves had routed German forces.

“It was just terrible,” he said. “It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen in my life.”

Jake and his squad-mates helped with the cleanup, and moved onward into Europe.

“The second group in my squad came in a day later,” he explained. “I wanted to be on that boat! But as it turned out, they were torpedoed, and nearly 300 men died. So I suppose I got lucky.”

Once further into mainland Europe, Jake found himself in the middle of a number of well-known battles, including the bloodiest fight of the whole war during the Battle of the Bulge. He went almost the entire way thinking his death was just around the corner. But he managed to escape the war intact, once he had earned enough points to be released from service.

Now, so many years later and surrounded by loved ones, Jake can only look back on his tours of duty with sadness.

“So, so many died,” he said. “The destruction and death was unbearable.”

Jake’s conclusions are two-fold; applicable then, and now.

“There should never be reason for war,” he said, shaking his head. “War is the only thing I hate. People should find peaceful solutions to their problems. Most people do not realize the kind of destruction that war brings. If they could see it, experience it themselves, they would never support war again, for any reason.”

Finally, Jake was offered an open platform, where any message he provided would be carried to the readers of this publication. His views on current affairs were not solicited; he felt compelled to offer them.

“I don’t know what this President thought was going to happen,” he said, volunteering his opinion. “Greeted as liberators? In the Middle East? No … What has happened there in Iraq is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. It seems like he intends for us to be at war there for many more years to come, and it has brought such incredible destruction upon them. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead. Our leaders did what they wished, not what was right.”

Drawing on his service in World War II, and from his 90 rich years of life, Jake offered several lessons, but none as important as what he said last.

“Freedom is precious,” he stated, nodding somberly. “Do not let the government take it from you. Enjoy freedom, and never trade it for a false security. It is the most precious and sacred thing, and it will die if we do not to use it.”