WASHINGTON, April 24. /TASS/. The administration of US President Donald Trump should reintroduce the tradition of jointly celebrating with Russia at the official level the meeting of American and Soviet troops on the Elbe, an American World War II veteran, a participant in the meeting on the Elbe in April 1945, pointed out in an interview with TASS.
"We have always participated in the ceremony at Arlington Cemetery, where there is a memorial plaque commemorating the meeting of American and Soviet troops near the city Torgau," he said. Frank Cohn, who is a retired colonel in the US Army, warmly recalled the joint wreath-laying with Russia at the Spirit of Elba memorial at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. "Anyway, every year I brought a wreath when I could until we hit the virus that was going around, if you recall few years back. And they cancelled all these meetings and then when the virus was beaten, the last couple of years because of the political fraction, they had to cancel the flame," he added, referring to the sharp deterioration in relations between Russia and the US.
"I'm hoping that with this new administration, maybe we can re-awaken that, because it was one of the few links that we had retained with the Russian side. I kind of thought, it was necessary to keep some friendly relationships going, even though it was only on the basis of the remembrance that we used to be allies in the World War II days," the 99-year-old veteran emphasized.
During the war, he served in military intelligence in the 12th Army Group under the command of General Omar Bradley. Frank Cohn was part of a small group of American soldiers who, after crossing the Elbe, encountered Soviet soldiers and officers near Magdeburg to forge contact.
In 2005 and 2010, Cohn visited Moscow at the invitation of the Russian government to commemorate Victory in the Great Patriotic War. In 2010, he was awarded the medal "65 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War", and in 2015 he received an invitation to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the meeting on the Elbe. In 2020, Russian diplomats presented the veteran with the medal "For Strengthening the Military Community."
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