{"id":834,"date":"2026-04-30T22:36:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:41:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:41:45","slug":"ilona-cole-guest-author-story-199-a-beautiful-academy-in-the-alpine-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/ilona-cole-guest-author-story-199-a-beautiful-academy-in-the-alpine-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 199–A Beautiful Academy in the Alpine Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Private Halvor LeGrand Cole, a young American soldier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonthofen 1939<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Fall is my brother\u2019s graduation from the Academy in Sonthofen<\/strong>, Germany with the rank of Lieutenant, a first rate education and skills in flying Gliders. The celebration will include an Air Show. It will show young pilots\u2019 skills in flying and demonstrating their readiness for the final step, to fly a Fighter Me-109 or Stuka. Training ground would be the war in Spain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was decided that our Mrs. Kramer, my sister Friedl and I, Ilona take the train to the Alpine Mountains, to Sonthofen and my father and mother will join us by the weekend. The hotel we are staying in is a most beautiful place, like a fairy tale castle. It sits right in the mountains. To get to it from the town is by cable car to the top, a magnificent view directly from heaven over the snow covered peaks. During the day, blue and white clouds encircle us, where as in the village below the sun was shining bright and it was a wonderful, warm September day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large air field was decorated with flowers, with banners, the colors of this Academy. Chairs circled the viewing area.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Mrs. Kramer, Friedl and I came down by cable car around nine in the morning after we had a wonderful breakfast in the hotel dining room. Beautiful flower arrangements with little banners, the colors of the academy on every table, white starched linens on the tables and smiling servers ready for us. We had ordered waffles with warm honey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and blue berries and on the side thinly sliced Canadian bacon. It was alright with our Mrs. Kramer that I would give Friedl the bacon, she loved.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We picked up our parents at the train station at noon and had plenty time to explore the town together, some shopping and going to a nice Bistro for lunch, before the air show started.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got seated and received a menu, showing the names of the young pilots, as they were performing. It was exciting, thrilling and I was almost envious of these young men with their acrobatic skills, demonstrating what they had learned over the last four years. The air flow was perfect, the weather was a beautiful fall day. Some of their performance was daring and at times the spectators held their breaths.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our dinner, all of us around the table, our brother, Wolfgang proudly told us, that he passed all the tests and his future is going to be with the air force after his training in a Me109 Messerschmitt fighter. It was NOT what his dream was, he wanted to become a Commercial Pilot for Luft Hansa Air Line and \u201cSee the World\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, he said, he will start with the Me109 or the Stuka and hopefully live to become this Commercial Pilot some day. The conversation was lively and the dinner was superb. Mama had ordered before we came, Goose with ALL the trimmings, the wine and the desserts: \u201cindividual ramekins with souffle\u201d fresh from the oven and on the side, Melba sauce, fresh raspberry sauce. For the adults French press coffee and a cognac in heated glasses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day we all joined a pre-arranged tour through the buildings and beautiful grounds of the Academy. It became an ever lasting memory.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this was not the last time this beautiful Academy popped up in my life only to be something entirely different: \u201cIt was the year 1950, a troopship entered Bremer Hafen, the most northern tip of Germany. The troopship was an American ship with occupation troops on board. The young soldiers debarked and transferred to a train, bound for billeting in the Alpine Mountains, a beautiful facility for \u201cOrientation\u201d called Sonthofen. They stayed there to learn about occupation, German language, German people, their customs etc. After this, they shipped to their designated Companies, Units and Stations throughout Western occupied Germany and one of these young soldiers was a Private Halvor LeGrand Cole, my future husband and beloved partner for sixty four years. He talked often about Sonthofen, the breathtaking setting, the beautiful brick buildings, the inside, especially the dining room with a large window overlooking the snow covered peaks. Sonthofen again became my ever lasting memory.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Private Halvor LeGrand Cole, a young American soldier. Sonthofen 1939 This Fall is my brother\u2019s graduation from the Academy in Sonthofen, Germany with the rank of Lieutenant, a first rate education and skills in flying Gliders. The celebration will include an Air Show. It will show young pilots\u2019 skills in flying and demonstrating their readiness … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 199–A Beautiful Academy in the Alpine Mountains”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}