Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Until today, U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym hadn’t met the two World War II veterans he spoke about into the Congressional Record last year.
Members of his staff presented 103-year-old Bob Gast and 101-year-old Charles Garner with their Congressional Records on March 27, 2025, and Dec. 14, 2024, respectively, but Yakym was unable to be at those events due to his responsibilities in Washington.
This afternoon at Maggie’s Coffee & Treats, downtown Warsaw, however, the Second District Congressman spent about an hour with both veterans, listening to their stories and thanking them for their service.
The meeting was a conclusion to Yakym’s “Highlighting Hoosier Heroes” Tour during which he recognized heroes across all 11 counties in the Second District.
“Throughout this whole week, we spent the entire week on the road, touring and highlighting the heroes in our district. We wrapped up here in Warsaw, visiting with these two World War II veterans, Charlie and Bob, to hear their stories, the sacrifices that they made, going over to Europe, fighting to make sure that we maintained a free world,” Yakym said after his meeting with them. “These two guys are over 100 years old and they deserve to be honored, and it was an incredible honor for me to be able to sit there and hear their stories over the last hour or so.”
When Garner first met Yakym today, he gave him two jars of jam, one for Yakym and the other for his wife, but Yakym said they’d share it with their three children.
“I’ll never forget our middle child, our son, when he was about 5 years old, we were at an event ... in the back was a World War II veteran so I took my son over. He was 5 years old, the first World War II veteran he ever met, so I told my son to meet this gentleman here. I said this gentleman served in World War II, and my son looked at me and said, ‘Well, Dad, what does that mean?’ I’ll never forget, my response to him was, ‘That means that he saved the world,’” Yakym told Garner and Gast. “The people in this country today, we so owe you guys such a debt of gratitude that can never fully be repaid for the work that you guys did to literally save the world during World War II.”
Yakym asked each of the men to tell them where they served during World War II.
Garner said he was in England. He served in a mortar battalion, once digging four foxholes in two days while being surrounded by the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge, and it took him across Normandy, northern France, central Europe, and the Rhineland during different campaigns and battles.
Yakym told Garner in his life he had the opportunity to go to Europe twice, and he went to the beaches of Normandy. “A lot of the infrastructure is still there,” Yakym said.
Gast led his Army platoon during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. A second lieutenant at the time, he earned the Silver Star after being shot in the arm, along with other military honors.
He wasn’t sure what Yakym wanted to hear, but Yakym told Gast, “Anything you’re willing to share. I love hearing these stories.”
Yakym said they are the stories that need to be passed on from one generation to another. “That’s how we make sure we never forget the sacrifice that you guys paid,” he said.
The other veterans at the monthly veterans group encouraged Garner to tell his story about The Battle of the Bulge. He talked about digging the foxholes. The next day, they had mortars coming from all different directions and they were surrounded for four days in a little town in Belgium.
Yakym told Garner that on his second trip to Europe, he went to the site of the Battle of the Bulge.
“A lot of the trenches that you dug are still there. When you go up in the mountains there - it’s all cordoned off because they want to protect and preserve and remember forever what our American soldiers did there. They allowed us to walk through the woods, and you can still see the foxholes in the woods that were dug by you and your comrades,” Yakym said to Garner. “The other thing I found to be really interesting in that part of the world is when you go into town, these Belgium towns, in the middle of the town, on a lot of the buildings in the town, you’ll find the murals and the faces of the American war heroes.”
The faces of the American soldiers who were in the Battle of the Bulge, fighting to free Eastern Europe, are painted on the walls of businesses as one drives down those streets. The American flag flies all over the place in that part of the world, Yakym stated.
“It’s just such a great tribute and a permanent remembrance of what you and your comrades did there,” he said.
Gast recalled the part he played in the battle and the rifles that were used. He told of when and where and how he was shot on Nov. 13, 1944. He was taken to a Belgium hospital in the back of a jeep. When he woke up, his arm was in a big bandage.
“Luckily, there was only one bullet,” Gast said, recalling that he saw the guy who had shot him.
When there was Victory in Europe, Garner said they had been in the small town of Grafenberg for a few days. He was given a bottle of champagne and he enjoyed it, along with some cigars.
As the war eventually came to an end in Europe, Garner said the mood was good but they knew when they got sent back to the States, they’d then be sent to Japan. However, the war ended there, too, before Garner was sent to the Pacific.
Now, he has 12 grandchildren, around 33 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
“I was almost 100 when one finally named one after me, so there’s another Charlie,” Garner said. “But he’s a pistol. I’ve been so blessed.”
After finishing their stories, Yakym told them, “I’m incredibly grateful for the service you guys had and gave to this country. When I think about the Greatest Generation, the two of you certainly embody that.”
One of the busts in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., is of Winston Churchill, and Yakym recently just finished his autobiography.
“When FDR passed away, Winston Churchill went to the floor of the House of Commons and gave a speech about his relationship with FDR and about what they together did to go and win World War II in Europe,” Yakym said.
Recalling one of the things that Churchill said, Yakym recalled, was, “He said the acts of the United States of America from one country to another will go down in history as one of the most unselfish and selfless acts in human history. And when I think about what the two of you did, in Europe, on behalf of this country, making sure that people like me can wake up every day, enjoy the freedoms that we hold dear, raise a family the way that we want to raise our family, go to church every day, have a great job and have a free America, it only exists because of the selfless acts that people like you and your generation went off to war, you asked nothing for it. You wrote a blank check to this country, up to and including your life, and then you came home and went to work and you raised your own families. But if it wasn’t for guys like you, we wouldn’t have the freedoms we hold dear.”
