WWII VETERAN SHOT BY SNIPER IN BATTLE OF THE BULGE

We recently had the pleasure to meet and interview 97-year-old John Jeckovich, a WWII veteran who saw combat in the European Theater of Operations as a member of H Company, 291st Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division.

On January 15, 1945, while fighting near Grand Halleux, Belgium, during the tail end of the Battle of the Bulge, Jeckovich and his squad came under heavy German artillery fire. As the shells hit their position, one member of the unit, Pfc. Donald W. Lape, was killed in action. The blast also wounded Jeckovich, who started to crawl toward an aid station a few miles away.

But a German sniper spotted him as he dragged himself away from the scene. "He got me in the shoulder and in the leg," Jeckovich remembers. "There was snow on the ground, and he was spotting me...because I was leaving a trail of blood."

But the sniper's bullets passed straight through and never hit bone. Despite his wounds, Jeckovich fired his M-1 Carbine at the window where the shots had come from. "I blasted the window he was at, and I took the window out and half the building on that side. I think I got him."

To this day, Jeckovich remembers every detail about what took place on that cold January day in Belgium.

For wounds received in action, he was awarded the Purple Heart medal and continued to fight across Europe until VE-Day, participating in the Ardennes, Central Europe, and Rhineland campaigns.

Full video interview coming soon.