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Package brings back WWII memories to this vet

Pat Sasso couldn't believe his eyes.

He opened the mysterious package that had been delivered to his Glendora home and came face to face with his life as a young soldier 62 years ago.

There was the Nazi flag that Sasso hauled down after he and other American troops took over Cologne, Germany, in 1945. He and his buddies signed their names to it.

There was the swastika armband he took as a souvenir of Adolf Hitler's collapsing Third Reich - and the letter from a major general congratulating his division of "Timberwolves" on its performance.

And there was the note from his sweetheart of those days. In August, more than six decades after he sent her the memorabilia from overseas for safekeeping, she wrote Sasso again:

It is not my intent for you to revisit WWII, however, it was a pivotal time in your life.

With sincere respect and obligation, I am returning these items to their rightful owner.

God Bless You Timberwolf.

"I was amazed," said Sasso, 85, a patient of Marlton's Samaritan Hospice, which is providing him with in-home care.
Read entire article at Philadelphia Inquirer