As a World War II newspaper correspondent, B.J. McQuaid covered American and British front lines from the frozen Aleutian Islands of Alaska, to the steaming jungles and seas of the South Pacific, at Tarawa and Guadalcanal and then to Europe from D-Day forward in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany.
He interviewed Sir Bernard Law Montgomery during the Battle of the Bulge and went toe-to-toe with U.S. Third Army General George S. Patton. He was separated from his wife and two small children for three years.
He interviewed and got the names of frontline soldiers and sailors, providing a link to their families back home in towns and cities across the United States. His stories ran in more than 80 American newspapers through the Chicago Daily News Service.
Peg McQuaid, his wife, was keeping the Home Fires burning back in New Hampshire, providing for herself and their two small children. She dealt with food, oil, and gasoline rationing while writing faithfully and regularly to her husband overseas.
Theirs is a story of love, of sacrifice, and of hope. Even 80 years after D-Day in Europe, it will still resonate with many Americans.
