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Heart & Vascular Specialists of Northwest Ohio, a division of Blanchard Valley Health System, is extending its hours at Bluffton Hospital, 139 Garau St., to include full-day clinics twice a month.

Columnist Bill Herr taught high school mathematics and science for 32 years before serving as a volunteer and then as a staff chaplain at two nursing homes.  

By Bill Herr

There was one group of residents in the nursing home that had something in common–the veterans. Each had a story to tell. Here are three stories they told me.    

An Air Force veteran was in charge of the radio on a B-17. On a mission his plane was shot up badly and was flying back to the base. Two enemy planes approached from the opposite direction and passed on the sides. They turned around and came up behind the B-17. The resident said he made his peace with God. It turned out the planes were piloted by friendly Swedish pilots that escorted the B-17 safely back to the base.

An Army veteran was in a body of American soldiers that marched through what appeared to be a deserted German village. At the edge of the village they looked back and saw a German soldier waving a white flag where they had just been. The resident was the only soldier that could speak German so the commanding officer asked him to go back and speak to the German soldier.