My high school son is learning about WW2, or at least, the Allied version of WW2 history (wink wink). His teacher asked everyone to research people in their family history who served in WW2 and what their experience was. On my side, no luck. Both of my grandfathers were deferred for health (high blood pressure and flat feet). On my wife’s side, however, one man did fight.

The family lore is that Rulon served in the European theater. He went from England to France, then Belgium, then Holland. In Holland he was assigned to work “counter intelligence” for the rest of the war. From Holland it is said that his unit fought his way through France and into Germany where he helped to liberate Dachau concentration camp. Rulon got promoted and then worked some local intelligence to find and capture the infamous Hans Frank who was trying to lay low as a “manure spreader”.

While in Munich, Rulon also raided one of Hitler’s homes and took home a souvenir — a statue of a Black Lion. Here it is:

I’ll admit to being a tad skeptical of parts of this tale, the lion part most of all, but we’ve found a few details from official sources that lend credence to the part about capturing Hans Frank at least.

Anyway, the whole reason I’m posting this story is because of the many lion references WJT is posting lately. There was at one point months ago also a discussion of a black chip monk and here we have a black lion. And while researching the validity of Rulon’s tale, this seemingly out of place search result caught my eye for its reference to a Red Book.

Bill had commented about Iowa and a red book just a day or two ago so that is pretty odd. Here’s a picture of the Iowa Red Book:

This is apparently a recurring publication in Iowa. “The Iowa Official Register, or Redbook as it is commonly known, is published biennially and contains historical and current biographical information about Iowa’s governmental institutions and leaders, as well as other information and statistics of general value but not of a partisan nature.” Some of that description isn’t too far off from what we are told about Bilbo’s Red Book, although Bilbo’s version contained much more than just local lore.

Also of note, “ru” can mean “lion” per Eldamo so Rulon’s name maybe comes into play here.

Lots of sync stuff in all of that, obviously. Deciphering it is way above my pay grade, however.