At the remains of the SS Leopoldville

French diver Bertrand Sciboz photographed me in 2007 reading a prayer written by Bud’s army buddy Bill Moomey. Carl Ralph Bonde Jr and about 500 other American GIs were entombed beneath the English Channel near Cherbourg France when their troopship was sunk by German U-Boat 486 Christmas Eve, 1944. Bill had told me he escaped death when he went topside for fresh air that fateful night. He leapt from the rail of the Leo about 20 feet to the deck of the British destroyer HMS Brilliant. Bill cried when he told me this tale.