It was 1955 and Christmas in Germany. I was a 21-year-old soldier and stationed for two years in Butzbach, a small farm village. This would be the first time away from my family on Christmas … and destined to be the last time this would happen. Christmas is and always will be a special holiday for my family. But that Christmas in Germany turned out to be extra special and one I will never forget.

Not far from our Army base was an orphanage for children whose parents, through the brutality of World War II, had been…