His father, a Private First Class in the U.S. Army during World War I, was a carpenter and Bouck grew up during the Depression and moved frequently with his family.

With four siblings, (Robert, Bernice, Eugene and John) they often lived in homes with only one bedroom and no indoor plumbing or electricity.

Bouck enlisted in the Headquarters Company, 138th Infantry Regiment of the Missouri National Guard at age 14 so he could earn one dollar per drill day to help his family.

Their active duty status was indefinitely extended and Bouck's unit was sent to protect California against a possible enemy invasion.

[4] An offer to attend Officer Candidate School arrived first, and Bouck was transferred to Fort Benning, Georgia for four months of intensive training.

For the next few weeks his reconnaissance platoon established and maintained regimental listening and observation posts and gathered information.

The platoon seriously disrupted the entire Sixth Panzer Army's schedule of attack along the northern edge of the offensive.

At dusk on 16 December, about 50 German paratroopers finally flanked the platoon and captured the remaining 15 soldiers.

After two days of walking through the cold, Bouck and the remainder of his platoon were loaded into a boxcar in the village of Junkerath.

Bouck was jammed into a single railroad cattle car with 71 other POWs and traveled for days without food or water.

Sam Jenkins and PFC Preston were captured before they reached Allied lines, and they later joined Bouck and the rest of the platoon in the POW camps.

At the end of the fight, exhausted from more than 15 hours of continuous combat, out of contact with their division, and out of ammunition, after Bouck and most of his men had been wounded, the platoon was overrun by German soldiers.

It had been delayed twelve hours by horrendously snarled road traffic, blown bridges, and ultimately, the tenacious defense of Bouck and his soldiers.

[6] The eighteen men's day-long battle not only prevented the German infantry from advancing, but held up the entire 6th Panzer Army behind them.

The inadequately trained and inexperienced German troops also attacked across an open field in waves that made them easy targets for Bouck and his men.

When Lt. Bouck was freed as a prisoner of war, he was too weak to file a combat report, and didn't think much of what the men had done.

He was shortly afterwards interviewed by John S. D. Eisenhower for his book The Bitter Woods, in which the actions of the unit were told in detail.

Eisenhower became the Ambassador to Belgium and hosted Bouck and other members of the platoon when they visited Lanzerath in December 1969.

[4] Tsakanikas' war wounds troubled him for the rest of his life, and after his 37th operation, he died from complication on June 27, 1977.

Columnist Jack Anderson unsuccessfully campaigned to see that William James (Tsakanikas) be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Fourteen of the 18 members were present at a special World War II Valor Awards ceremony at Ft. Myer, Virginia.