Milan Vrekic

“One of their best customers was an executive at Texaco, and one day Harry Ferkauf casually asked him about the possibility of a summer job for his son. “Harry, you know how I feel about you and Gene,” the man replied, “but Texaco doesn’t hire Jews.” From that day Gene Ferkauf knew that if he was to be a success, he would have to do it on his own; the world’s great companies were not interested in the likes of him.”
― David Halberstam, The Fifties

“The starving person in a catabolic condition is often too weak to sense thirst and they become easily dehydrated. Movement becomes painful due to the muscle weakness and cracked, dry skin.”
― Ross Nixon, Finding Carla: The Story that Forever Changed Aviation Search and Rescue

“So Alvin F. Oien, Sr. died hard and alone. He’d pushed himself to the end the way he pushed himself throughout his life. Though he’d not made it more than a half-mile from his beloved Viking and family, he died the way a man should die: trying.”
― Ross Nixon, Finding Carla: The Story that Forever Changed Aviation Search and Rescue

“On Friday 15 December, GIs in northern Luxembourg were entertained by Marlene Dietrich – code-named LEGS bestowed by Patton – singing “See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have” and “Falling in Love with Love” after a sensational performance at Bastogne in Belgium. When film director Billy Wilder asked about her rumoured affair with General Eisenhower, she replied, “But Darling, how could it have been Eisenhower? He hasn’t been to the front!”
― Gerry Souter, The Ghost Army: Conning the Third Reich