'It's A Wonderful, Wonderful Christmas After All' - Dr. John Howard Shares the Spirit of Christmas

ROCKFORD, Ill., Dec. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society is pleased to share a Christmas story from its founder, senior fellow, and spiritual mentor, Dr. John A. Howard. At 89 years of age he still keeps full-time hours at the Center, defending the traditional values of family and Western Christian Civilization. The words below come from a brief excerpt of a speech that John gave earlier this year about his experience in World War II.

"In December, Hitler's troops mounted a large and very powerful attack in an effort to try to break through the allied front and capture the ammunition dumps and supply depots of the harbor cities north of us from which came all our food, gasoline, replacement vehicles and ammunition to carry on the war. That attack became known as the Battle of the Bulge. If it had been successful, Hitler might have won the war. A heavy fog for some days had prevented any American airplane support. The Americans had no idea of the very large build-up in preparation for this breakthrough. The Germans spearheaded their attack with two divisions of the huge, heavily armored Tiger tanks and Panther tanks with bigger and with more powerful cannons than ours and they overwhelmed the Americans on the front line. During the five weeks of that fiercely fought struggle, there were 77,000 American casualties, killed, wounded or captured.

"On Christmas day, our outfit was in position on the north flank of the German advance. Up in the turret of our tank, the gunner and I were standing trying to see through the fog when the gunner jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow and said, 'Look at that.' I whirled around. A girl, nine or ten years old was walking toward our tank. She told us that when the fighting came back toward her town, all the people left. But her grandfather was an invalid and couldn't travel. She had stayed behind to take care of him. She said they had no food left and wondered if we had any to spare. We immediately gave her all the rations we had in the tank. She made sort of a basket out of her apron to put them in. She looked up at us, as she turned to leave, and said, 'Oh! It's a wonderful, wonderful Christmas after all!' The marvelous thing is that all of us in the tank agreed with her. It had become a wonderful Christmas for us, too."

See the full speech at: http://www.profam.org/docs/jah/thc.jah.ww2.100420.htm. For more of Dr. Howard's speeches: http://www.profam.org/people/xthc_jah.htm#Speeches.

Dr. John A. Howard, Founder and Senior Fellow of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society has been on the frontlines of the fight for traditional American values and religious ideals all of his adult life. He attended Princeton University from 1939 to 1942. From 1942-1945, he served in the Second World War with the 745th Tank Battalion, First Infantry Division. He received a battlefield commission, two Purple Hearts, and two Silver Stars. After his much-decorated service, John Howard came home with a commitment to explaining and defending the religious ideals on which America was founded. After the war, he received his B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. in French literature from Northwestern University. His public life included service in the Eisenhower Administration. He was also a member of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. The President of Rockford College (Rockford, Illinois) for 17 years, John Howard also served as National President of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities for three years. He holds many honorary degrees and was the founder of The Rockford College Institute, serving ten years as its president. Over 40 of his speeches have been published in Vital Speeches, including his award-winning 2007 address "Liberty Revisited. "His most recent book is "Christianity: Lifeblood of America's Free Society."

The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society defends the natural family as the fundamental unit of society and operates the World Congress of Families. Visit www.profam.org for more information.

Go to www.profam.org/THC/thc_member.htm for more information on becoming a member of The Howard Center or to receive a subscription to The Family in America. To schedule an interview with John Howard or purchase a specially signed book, contact Larry Jacobs at 815-222-2490 or [email protected].

SOURCE The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society