My Dad is the bravest man I 've ever known . The first time I remember thinking this was around the age of 4 when I found myself suddenly trapped in the middle of a horrific dog fight . My Dad charged right into the center of the gnashing teeth , grabbed me and lifted me to safety on the hood of a nearby car . When you 're 4 , that 's a heroic act worthy of some kind of medal . I think I probably drew him a picture of one . It was only later that I learned my Dad did n't need a picture . He had the real thing . I was reminded of this as I watched , with quite a bit of emotion , the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day on Friday . Remember the heroes , one of the commentators said . Remember them , for there are so few left . And soon they will all be gone . Milton Bass volunteered for the Army at 19 and landed in France three months after D-Day with the 104th Infantry Division , known as the Timberwolves . Though he had the skills of a certified sharpshooter , he had decided to become a medic and wore a helmet with a red cross on it . Shortly after arrival in France , his unit was ushered to the front lines . As some members of his group were attempting to clear a large enemy minefield , one misstep set off an explosion that left several lying , badly injured , in the middle of the deadly devices . The sergeant asked for volunteers to go and rescue them . My Dad raised his hand . He 's never given us a detailed play-by-play of how he and a couple of his fellow soldiers maneuvered around those mines and picked up those men and got them safely out of there . But it 's all spelled out on the certificate that accompanied his Silver Star , the third highest U.S. military decoration for valor . The official description of it notes that the Silver Star is awarded for `` gallantry in action . '' It describes my Dad 's life to a T. Seventy years ago this fall , as the 104th moved toward Germany , my Dad was witness to all the atrocities of war . But nothing like what he saw once he got there in the spring of 1945 . Our generation knows the Holocaust only from pictures and film . But my Dad and his company experienced it firsthand . They were the liberators of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp at Nordhausen . It 's not the most famous , but it 's certainly among the most ghastly . Here 's a description from the website JewishGen.org : . `` Nordhausen was liberated by the 104th U.S. Infantry Division on April 12th , 1945 . When the first American G.I . 's arrived in the camp , they discovered a gruesome scene . More than 3,000 corpses were scattered , helter-skelter on the grounds . In several hangars there were no survivors and in others they found only 2 or 3 living inmates lying amongst dozens of corpses . The situation was so calamitous that the medic unit of the 104th Infantry Division had to request urgent medical reinforcements and supplies . More than 400 German civilians living in the direct vicinity of the camp were forced by the G.I . 's to evacuate the corpses . The medic units of the 104th Division did the best they could to save as many prisoners as possible , but even with the excellent care they received , numerous inmates died in the hours and days following the liberation of the camps . '' My Dad never talked much about this experience when we were younger , though we 've learned more about it as my children and my sisters ' children have done school projects and interviewed their grandfather about World War II . Still , as he spared us , he also protected them from the most horrific details . He did do an interview once where he described some of what he saw and felt on that terrible day . Two things from it jumped out at me then and stick with me now . First , his recollection of the `` smell of death '' all around him . And second , his still hearing in his head the voices of the local German guards and residents , sickly pleading for mercy with their constant cries of `` Nicht wissen ! Nicht wissen ! '' -- `` We did n't know ! '' `` They knew , '' my Dad said . `` They knew . '' My father turned 91 in January . He tends to doze a lot , but he can still be the funniest guy in the room when he wants to be . His grandchildren and pretty much everyone else refer to him affectionately as `` Miltie . '' In the wake of the D-Day celebrations and in advance of this Sunday 's festivities for fathers everywhere , I 'd like to call him `` hero . '' Happy Father 's Day , Dad . Opinion : Eisenhower 's 'soul-racking ' D-Day decision .
Michael Bass : Dad does n't talk much about aspects of his World War II experience . Milton Bass volunteered for the Silver Star , won a Army for gallantry in U.S. . He helped rescue soldiers from a minefield and liberate a concentration camp . Milton Bass : In light of January anniversary and Father 's Day , I call him a hero .