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By LEE J. KAHRS
BRANDON – World War II veteran and longtime Brandon resident Harold Adams was presented with the Quilt of Valor in honor of his service.
The presentation took place in Adams’ living room in Brandon last month with members of American Legion Post 55 and Fred Stebbins, Vermont’s driving force behind the quilt effort.
Stebbins and his wife, Vivian, travel all over the state from their home in Quechee presenting the quilts to chosen veterans. Quilts of Valor started in New Jersey in 2002 when the mother of a soldier started making quilts for service members returning from the Iraq. So far, 240,000 quilts have been made and given to service members since the effort began.
“I enjoy it, my wife enjoys it,” Stebbins said. “We do it because I want to do it. It’s a volunteer thing and I’ll do it as long as I possibly can. I love doing it.”
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Adams, 94, was born and raised in Brandon and worked on the family farm before enlisting in the U.S. Army on Sept. 11, 1944. He trained as a heavy machine gunner in the infantry and was assigned to the 110th Infantry Regiment. Adams was deployed to Europe and fought in the Rhineland and Central Europe. He fought the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium during the winter of 1944-45, the costliest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties, but helped lead to the victory of the Allied Forces.
Adams gained the rank of Private First Class and received the European African Middle Eastern Theater Campaign ribbon, the Good Conduct medal and the Victory medal. He was honorably discharged in January 1946.
He returned to Brandon and resumed dairy farming, marrying his wife Becky in 1947. Together, they have five children, nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Becky passed away in 2017.
Adams has been a member of the American Legion Post 55 for 44 years. He was clearly moved by the presentation of the quilt.
“It certainly is an honor,” he said.
