Come raise a glass and celebrate World War II veteran Russell Freeburg who turns 103 years old on March 4! We’ll mark the day with a special Veterans Breakfast Club livestream celebration with Russ joining us to share his story with Scott Masters and his students from Crestwood Oral History Project.
Russ was born on March 4, 1923, in the railroad town of Galesburg, Illinois. He grew up in the Great Depression, came of age as clouds of war gathered, and served his country on the battlefields of Europe.
After graduating high school in 1941, Russ enrolled at Knox College and joined ROTC. In February 1942 he entered the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps and was called to active duty in June 1943. By March 1944 he was assigned to the 8th Armored Division, 49th Armored Infantry Battalion, C Company.
A Staff Sergeant and squad leader, Russ crossed the Atlantic aboard the HMS Samaria and trained on England’s Salisbury Plain before shipping to France as the Battle of the Bulge raged. His division moved across the Metz front, shifted from the 3rd to the 9th Army, and fought through southern Holland.
He crossed the Rhine and the Ruhr, battled through the Ruhr Pocket, and pushed east into Germany and Czechoslovakia, ending the war not far from Soviet lines. Then came the long journey home—through the “cigarette camps” of France, back across the Atlantic, and finally discharge in February 1946.
After the war, Russ built a remarkable career in journalism. He began at the City News Bureau of Chicago, joined the Chicago Tribune in 1950, and moved to Washington in 1958 to cover the Justice Department and the White House. In 1966 he became executive director of the Tribune’s Washington bureau and later served as managing editor.
He co-authored Oil & War with Robert Goralski of NBC News in 1987—a study of the geopolitics of energy long before it became headline shorthand.
The evening will be hosted by Glenn Flickinger and co-hosted by Crestwood Preparatory College history teacher Scott Masters, founder of the Crestwood Oral History Project.
This celebration will be part oral history, part birthday party—an opportunity to hear Russ in his own voice and to thank him for a century of witness.
