By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

NORWAY – When Robert Sessions thinks about his days in combat in Europe during the Battle of the Bulge, he chuckles at his memory of cows that helped keep him and his fellow soldiers from freezing in sub-zero weather.

“If we were lucky enough to find shelter in a farmer’s barn, we would sit behind the cows. Some people think that’s not too glamorous, but the warmth of the animals helped,” he said on Thursday. “I always likened it to being dumped out in the woods of Maine in the middle of winter. But in Maine, it’s on my terms. We were fighting for our lives.”

Sessions, 82, of Norway, arrived in Belgium on New Year’s Day in 1945 in the middle of the largest land battle of World War II in which the United States fought. He was a single 22-year-old serving in the U.S. Army’s 83rd Infantry Division. The Battle of the Bulge began on Dec. 16, 1944, when 30 German divisions attacked the Allied front in Belgium and Luxembourg. The attack was Adolf Hitler’s last-ditch and ultimately failed attempt to turn the war in Germany’s favor.

The battle ended on Jan. 28, 1945, with heavy losses on both sides. More than 76,000 Americans were killed, wounded or captured, while some 100,000 Germans were killed, wounded or captured. At the end of the battle, Allied forces regained the territory they had held in early December.

Sessions returned home when the war ended in 1945, and is part of a dwindling generation that made enormous sacrifices and then went on quietly with their lives.

Sessions and his wife, Marjy, have four sons, one of whom is retired from the Navy. “I went right to work and have looked after myself since,” he said. “I know there are some who feel the government owes them. I don’t happen to be one of them.”

Today is Veterans Day, a national holiday when America honors its war veterans. Parades and ceremonies are scheduled throughout the region to say “thank you.”

Sessions, who now is the Americanism officer at Stone-Smart Post 82 of the American Legion, was in charge of organizing today’s annual ceremony at the war memorial in Norway, located next to Guy E. Rowe Elementary School.

As a young man, Sessions had volunteered for military duty. “Our number was coming up anyway, and I just didn’t wait for it,” he said.

When he arrived in Belgium, he was assigned to be an assistant squad leader. But he was promoted within a week after the squad leader was killed.

“I never even got to know him. During that period, we didn’t make any friends because we didn’t know them long enough,” he said.

He attributes his survival to a combination of luck and a higher power, saying that although he doesn’t consider himself to be an overly religious man, “I believe somebody had something to say about it besides myself.”

He had his share of close calls, recalling one day when he and nine other soldiers were sitting in an open shed and could see the enemy about 300 yards away. A shell struck the roof and six soldiers were wounded by shrapnel.

Sessions returned to Europe for ceremonies with his Army division for the 45th and 50th anniversaries of the Allied D-Day invasion.

“I saw more American flags over there than I’ve ever seen in this country,” he said. “We were in small towns that I liken to North Waterford and Otisfield, and residents had to draw lots to see who would participate. People will stop and say, Thank you.'”

He said he hopes that today, Americans will also be grateful for the sacrifices of veterans. “Not to toot our horn, but they’ve got us to thank for the freedoms they got. World War II was a critical period. If the results were different, we would be bowing down to somebody else.”

He said America today still plays a role in being a force for good in the world, but he worries that the country’s military commitments are overstretched. And he said troops are facing an enemy far different from the Nazis, one that hides and has no discernible face.

“They just have to realize that they’re going to be at risk, and they’re doing it for the good of the country,” he said.