Rudy Tafel - The 104th Infantry Division hold last reunion - 2010

During World War II, they were the 104th Infantry Division - The Timberwolves. The Timberwolves developed a fearsome reputation for the night time fighting tactics that they developed. The 104th division battled for more than six months after they landed in France, pushed into Holland, and finally marched into Germany.

This year Rudy Tafel and the men of the 104th division met to honor and pay tribute to the Timberwolves. Over 700 people came to Lombard, Illinois to attend the last reunion of the 104th Infantry division. The picture on the left is from the Chicago Sun newspaper and shows the 195 veterans that attended the event. Rudy is sitting in the second row and the tenth person from the left. For more information about this heroic generation, please see the links below and the article from the Chicago Sun Times.

Additional links:

Link to the Chicago Sun Times article: The Last Reunion

Link to Timberwolves Association: 104th Infantry Division - National Timerberwolves Association

Chicago Sun Times article about the reunion:

The last reunion

LOMBARD | Ever-dwindling numbers of a WWII infantry division force the inevitable

September 6, 2010

BY DAVID ROEDER Staff Reporter droeder@suntimes.com

They fought well in World War II and came home to resume and build a life. Sunday, they gathered for a final time to come to terms with its end and with their buried sorrows.

The 104th Infantry Division, the Timberwolves, held their 65th and last annual reunion, a spirited and prayerful affair. The decision to make it the last one was forced by mortality.

R.H. Mathews, who was a medic with the 104th Infantry Division in World War II, is alone with his thoughts after extinguishing a candle in memory of lost comrades. The 104th gathered at the Westin in Lombard Sunday to hold its last reunion.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)

Time was when more than a thousand of the 104th's veterans, summoned from across the country, could fill a hotel ballroom. They would clasp each other in battle-forged friendship and raise a little hell, appropriate for a division whose slogan was, "Nothing in hell can stop the Timberwolves."

Sunday at the Westin hotel in Lombard, reunion leaders counted 195 vets in attendance, mostly men in their late 80s. Their family members brought the total attendance for the reunion to nearly 700.

It was a time to tell stories factual and embellished, to joke about mutual infirmities and to take solace and strength for the journey ahead.

Jim Henderson, 87, and Tom Bomford, 86, became close pals when the 104th landed in France, pushed into Holland and finally marched into Germany on a 195-day stretch of fighting.

Henderson, of Novato, Calif., and Bomford, of Miami, Okla., said they were among just five survivors of 15 men in their unit. The men lost touch afterward, then reconnected at a reunion years ago.

The end of the annual gathering is inevitable, they said. "It had to happen sometime. We've lost so many people," Henderson said.

At the memorial, representatives of units within the division extinguished candles as a last honor for their comrades. With different generations in the crowd, the gesture stood not for an end but for a transition. The memories of sacrifice and loyalty burn within loved ones' hearts.

Our nation owes these men a lot," said Alberto Pedraza of El Paso, Texas, who attended with his family. He is married to a granddaughter of the 104th's major general, Terry de la Mesa Allen, who died in 1969, two years after his only son was killed in Vietnam. Allen developed tactics in night fighting that befuddled the Germans and helped give the Timberwolves a fearsome reputation. His troops still speak of him with reverence.

R.H. Mathews of Portland, Ore., who said his initials stand for "Red Hot," said he was a medic for the 104th, a "pick 'em up, patch 'em up guy" who had to keep moving. At 86, he said he's still determined to stay active. "I love Chicago because it's just like me. It doesn't stop," he said.

But others spoke of the toll age has taken and said it's become impractical to plan more events for a dwindling group. Glen Lytle of Wichita, Kan., secretary-treasurer of the National Timberwolf Association, said the group will wind down business over the next couple of years while maintaining a website, 104infdiv.org, as a permanent information source and memorial.

The surviving soldiers at the Westin prayed for the approximately 1,500 members of the 34,000-strong 104th who lost their lives during the war. They prayed for the thousands who have passed on since, and for those crossing the lonesome valley of Alzheimer's.

As a final benediction, a bugler played taps. It was as if a heroic generation finally reached home.