He is a 91-year-old member of “The Greatest Generation” of the American soldiers, who fought to liberate Europe after the invasion at Normandy in June, 1944.

He is soft-spoken, and confined to a wheel chair, using a cane as a pointer, but he made a personal connection with two classes of Emmaus High School seniors in Darlene Kale’s government classes May 12.

He, is Mark Kistler, of Emmaus, who has held the rapt attention of students at Salisbury High School for many years, and last week at EHS as he related his personal anecdotes of American forces who held off and overcame the German Army breakout offensive in Belgium known as the Battle of the Bulge, in December 1944.

The battle was the desperate and last great hope of the German Army as Allied forces swept across Europe toward Germany after the D-Day invasion of the continent in June 1944.

Kistler served as a sergeant in the Fourth Cavalry, a mechanized unit of Jeeps and armored vehicles. He entered the military in 1943 and received his basic training at Camp Blanding, Fla. He was deployed to England in April 1944 and was in continual combat for 11 months, from the invasion of Normandy at Utah Beach June 11, 1944, to the Elbe River in Germany in May 1945.

Kistler was wounded twice, first by a hand grenade on Sept. 11, 1944, then later when he stepped on a booby trap trip-wire and explosives blew up a tree nearby. He still carries shrapnel and debris in his legs.

After landing at Normandy, Kistler’s unit was ordered to head toward Cherbourg Harbor to keep the German Army from capturing supplies and fuel at Antwerp, in Belgium. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linking to the North Sea and the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world.

Heading across France, Kistler anticipated seeing Paris, the City of Light and all the adventure that that offered.

Orders came, though, to bypass Paris, much to the chagrin of Kistler and his comrades.

Passing through a small, village, Kistler recalled a disheveled Frenchman coming up to him with a goose in his arms.

“This is all I have left,” the man said, “but I want you to have it for liberating my village from the Nazis.”

Kistler said because he really disliked the hash in his c-rations, he took the goose in the spirit of gratitude that it was given, “but, I had no idea what to do with it.”

He found a villager who offered to butcher and cook it, but before the feast was ready, Kistler’s unit was ordered to move out. “We moved on and the goose was left behind,” Kistler lamented.

Moving through Belgium, Kistler said his unit was surprised they ran into so little opposition from the German Army. They were later to find out the reason was the Germans were massing to stop the Allied advance at Malmedy, Belgium, preparing for the ambush that would become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Fighting their way through hedgerows in France, Kistler and his unit bathed out of wash water in their helmets for three months. Long overdue for rehab respite, Kistler’s unit was pulled aside for resupply and fresh uniforms. Kistler said he reveled in September in his first shower since the June landing.

Kistler’s unit, among others, was ordered into the Hurtgen Forest where America suffered heavy casualties. Kistler thinks the better option would have been to lay siege to the 50- by 50-miles forest, but orders were to go through, with the resulting heavy losses.

Kistler said the treetops of the forest were completely gone from the artillery bombardments during the heavy fighting. He said a lot of night fighting marked the battle, but the Americans were able to stop the German march to Antwerp.

During one battle, Kistler said an artillery shell landed at the very spot he had abandoned only minutes before.

“The good Lord must have been watching over me,” Kistler said, “or else I would not be here talking to you today.”

After the Battle of the Bulge was won, Kistler’s unit was sent to the Elbe River area in Germany to meet Russian Army units. “They did not arrive until two weeks later,” Kistler recalls. “The Russians came on bicycles and horses and they were poorly dressed and equipped” he said of the ragtag Soviet 1st Army. By pre-arrangement, the area was turned over to the Soviets.

Kistler spent the balance of his military service as part of the Allied occupation forces in Germany.

After returning to America, Kistler spent 50 years in the Lehigh Valley as an auctioneer. He and his wife of nearly 70 years, Jean, currently live in Emmaus.

For his military service Kistler received two Purple Hearts, five campaign medals with a silver star and a Presidential Unit Citation for efforts during the Battle of the Bulge. He is also a recipient of the French Legion Honor Medal.