| Ralph Heine figured his knee was shot. At age 86, he thought his balky joint was just a sign of old age. Turns out he was carrying a souvenir from World War II for nearly six decades: A bullet to the knee. During a recent medical exam of a problematic hip and knee, X-rays revealed a bullet that had eluded detection since Heine was shot by Nazi troops in early 1945. Heine was serving with the 42nd Rainbow Division in the Alsace region of France. He recalled his story during a weekend event in the eastern Missouri town Leadington to honor prisoners of war and those missing in action. "I got shot in the shoulder, and when I went down they shot me again in the leg. I thought that bullet only grazed me," he said. "I didn't think it went in." After being wounded, Heine was taken prisoner by German troops and spent several weeks in a hospital. He was transferred from one prisoner of war camp to another over four months, and was in a stalag near Munich, Germany, when finally liberated by Allied troops. |