Milan Vrekic

“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

“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

“Whoever finds this wreck—please mail these letters for us. We waited so long for you—where were you? Our daily log is here for you to see in the folded Airman’s Guide.”
― Ross Nixon, Finding Carla: The Story that Forever Changed Aviation Search and Rescue

“It was Carla and Phyllis’s diary that broke the political gridlock and spurred the government to take action. Since 1970, human lives saved by ELT radios worldwide number in the thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands. With the development of the newer 406 MHz beacons, thousands more will be found. The ELT story is directly traceable to the suffering of Carla, Phyllis, and Alvin F. Oien, Sr. in The Viking.”
― Ross Nixon, Finding Carla: The Story that Forever Changed Aviation Search and Rescue