Why write about a lost hero who died in 1944?
April 9, 2012
Vis-a-vis my PFC Carl Bonde book, I liked Timequakes by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I liked his notion that history is like a distant mountain range. You can see all of the times from afar and even visit different times forward and backward, as though selecting and climbing one of the mountains in the range. My problem is that I am writing a biography and simultaneously writing about my own efforts to uncover the facts of Uncle Bud’s life. I know why I am writing a story that I would love to read myself. I am telling good news.
The good news is that although the iron doors of history seemed to have closed forever, sealing up my Uncle Bud—lost at sea so long ago—they were not airtight. Turns out that the facts are much more powerful than years, distance, even death.
During the same time I was pushing into the sea of information on the Internet, unseen others were pushing toward me. For example, my uncle Bud’s Army friend Bill Moomey had, for many years, wanted to reach someone from his late friend’s family. My eventual phone call to him in 2005 was a fulfillment of lasting desire.
insearchofbud 
Hi . Sorry this is so random, but I too have been searching for my mother’s big brother Heinz George Rodies . He was on the Leopoldville and was apparently never found. Always felt there was someone out there who remembered him and could fill me in. God Bless your search. He was 262 Infantry 66 infantry division Co L . Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thanks. Adrienne Ingram
my email tandaingram@att.net. He went by George
Adrienne,
I found your uncle PFC Heinz George Rodies’ name listed in the In Memoriam section on p. 250 of the book the S.S. Leopoldville Disaster December 24, 1944 by Allan Andrade. He is listed as being from Wyandanch, New York. I could not find any mention of him in any of the books by Ray Roberts. Incidentally, Mr. Andrade’s book is out of print and expensive to buy, but you can probably get one through inter-library loan. I will keep looking.