Howard Winter remembers the day the second telegram came.
Sept. 16, 1943.
It informed Katherine and August Winter that their son Lt. August Winter was missing in action. The lieutenant's plane went down over Europe.
Just a few weeks before, on Aug. 27, the first telegram declared their son Staff Sgt. Leroy Winter was missing.
Two of his boys missing and another, Alvin, staged to deploy, was almost too much for their father to bear.
"Dad took it hard," Howard Winter said. "He walked out to the car and sat there all day, refusing to eat. Mom just said that God would take care of us."
Before the World War II ended, four blue stars and one gold star hung in the window of the Winter's farmhouse in Orland to honor the four who served and one who died.
Howard Winter, now 83, has written an account of the World War II years and how his family sent four sons and one daughter to defend their country. His 250-page, typed history contains maps, photos, news clippings, letters and telegrams that chronicle the survival of his siblings in occupied France and Italy.
Winter printed 14 copies of "Commitment to Freedom; Reflections and Recollections" to give to his family. He has plans to do a reprint and share his story with others.
Winter's parents, both emigrants from Germany, met at church in Fresno. After they were married, they moved to a small ranch in Sanger where they had five children. A few years later, they moved to a larger farm in Orland and produced four more children. By the middle of the 1940s, some of those children would go to war with their parents' homeland.
"My brothers probably bombed relatives in Germany," Winter said. "I feel my parents came to America to seek freedom. I think we were in the service to protect that freedom."
When America joined the fighting in World War II, August and Leroy Winter joined the Army Air Force. As soon as he finished high school, brother Alvin followed them.
"Alvin was more than my brother, he was my best friend," Howard Winter said. "In high school, he sold war bonds, played basketball, baseball, football and ran track."
Howard Winter, the youngest brother, was left behind to help his aging parents run the farm.
Lt. August Winter, flight commander with the 306th group, was forced to bail out of his plane when it ran out of fuel over France. Badly injured by the fall, Winter was rescued and cared for by French farmers. A teenage boy took on the care of Winter and eventually was able to connect him with the French underground, who smuggled him into Switzerland.
Leroy Winter bailed out of a flaming bomber somewhere over Italy. Captured by Italian soldiers, he escaped from prison with 300 others as they rushed the gate and climbed over barbed-wire fences. He and other escapees walked south toward Allied lines. Barefoot and asking for food, they were often aided by Italians who hid them and helped them go on.
Both brothers made their way to friendly territory and were taken to London for debriefing. It was there, in an interrogation office, they found each other again, Howard Winter said.
When the news of their return reached the Winters' home in Orland, the family celebrated. But the joy was dampened weeks later by the news of the death of 19-year-old Alvin, whose plane was shot down over Austria.
"I had the most difficulty writing about Alvin," Howard Winter said about that chapter in his book. "It was emotional."
Elise Winter chose not to follow her brothers into the Air Force but instead joined the Navy. She was trained as a radio communications technician, part of a special unit dealing with top-secret communication. She was schooled in Morse code and code deciphering. She also learned to send coded messages between ships at sea and shore facilities.
While still in high school, Howard Winter joined the U.S. Air Force Enlisted Reserve Corps and took pre-flight training. He would follow his brothers into the skies.
His high school sweetheart, Jackie, was in nurse cadet training, planning to join the war effort after graduation.
"The war ended before I finished," said Jackie, who became a nurse with the Elk Grove Unified School District. She and Winter have been married 61 years and have four children.
Winter joined active duty in the U.S. Air Force just as the war in Europe seemed to be drawing to a close. After several training programs, he was assigned to the 509th in Roswell, N.M., a unit that would soon make history with the Crossroads Project.
The commanding officer of this project was Col. Paul Tibbets, who flew the Enola Gay over Japan and dropped the first nuclear bomb.
"Tibbets and their crews had no idea if the bombing would work or if they would come home alive," Winter said. "They were willing to take that chance."
Winter participated in a Howard Hughes film re-enacting the flight of the Enola Gay, titled "The Beginning or the End."
"The war ended with that flight," Winter said.
In 1946, Winter left the military and went back to college, earning a doctorate. He and Jackie moved to Elk Grove in 1951. He taught chemistry and physics in the Elk Grove school district for 18 years and served as a secondary school administrator for another 19.
Because of his love of flying, Winter ran the Elk Grove Flying School for most of those years. With 2,700 hours in the air to his credit, he still owns two airplanes and helps certify pilots.
On Veterans Day, Winter dons his flight suit and drives his restored 1940s vintage Jeep in the parade along Elk Grove streets. It's his way of remembering his family's commitment to freedom.
Nan Mahon is a freelance writing living in Elk Grove. Her column runs in The Bee monthly.
