Lothar "Lou" Hecht was an émigré from Germany who escaped the Nazis and came to America in 1939, where he settled with his parents and two sisters in Louisville, KY. He volunteered for the 17th Airborne Division and attended Paratrooper Jump-School in Fort Benning, GA> After Surgical technician training at Camp Ellis, IL, he was assigned to the 224th Airborne Medical Company. After Infantry Training at Camp Gruber, OK, and prior to being shipped overseas to fight in Europe, he was made an American citizen (Certificate of Naturalization) in 1944 in Muscogee, OK. Lou participated in the Ardennes campaign, the Battle of the Bulge and the 1945 "Rhine Jump”, the first airborne operation invasion to be conducted across the Rhine and into Germany itself. Lou served with distinction until his honorable discharge in February 1946 from Fort Dix, NJ.