Welcome

Thomas G. Ratliff, author and World War II orphan, describes his journey as he discovers what really happened to his father, Pvt. Ova W. Ratliff, in the horrible World War II battle of the Huertgen Forest. I ask you to think back to the time when you was five years old, and place yourself in my situation. Something called the draft has suddenly taken your Daddy away. He’s gone, but he writes you letters. Then just two months before your sixth birthday you are told that your daddy has been killed in the war. Your family is torn apart, and the worst of it… you are now a war orphan.

World War II was an evil memory for me. I didn’t want to know about that horrible time. I didn’t want to know about those dreadful people and that vile place, but after reaching that point in my life where I surely have more years behind me than I have in front of me those dreadful thoughts have gradually diminished. The passage of time has mellowed my harshest feelings and for the most part healed my anguished soul.

That healing triggered a desire in me to want to know more about my father and the war he died in. That led to me writing and publishing my first book, I Can Hear The Guns Now. In that book I used the eighty-four letters Dad wrote home to tell my mother and my father’s story of love and sacrifice.

Writing that book set off an insatiable need to know more about what really happened to my father. Which in turn, led me on an awe-inspiring journey down a road of discovery and understanding. On that journey I have developed an awesome relationship with my father, met new friends, gone many places, had some incredible experiences, and re-connected with my past. I’ve discovered the empathy of AWON (American WWII Orphans Network). I walked the ground where my father took his basic training at Camp Fannin, Texas. I now know the role Company C, of the 110th Infantry, of the 28th Division, played in that horrible Huertgen Forest battle. I have made some very special friends that were there. I sat with the veterans and orphans for the dedication of The National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I now have answers to just about all of my questions. I can truly declare, now I know what really happened to my father. All of it is in Now I Know - A War Orphan’s Journey of Discovery.

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ISBN 978-0-9704865-1-6

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." John 8:32