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Virginia soldier’s dog tags return to WWII battlefield in Belgium where he died 80 years ago

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MALMEDY, BELGIUM — On December 17, 1944, in the opening hours of the Battle of the Bulge in Malmedy, Belgium the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion ran right into the German troops of the fearsome SS.

After a brief firefight, the Americans — among them, Virginian James Coates — surrendered.

What happened next would become known as the infamous Malmedy Massacre.

Just outside the ancient city of Malmedy, Belgium, a stone and wooden roadside memorial greets you, stark in its simplicity.

It's a quiet spot — a place for reflection.

But 80 years ago, this site would become forever linked with one of the most violent acts in all of the Second World War.

It was there, in the fields next to the memorial, that dozens of U.S. soldiers of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion would be cut down shortly after surrendering.

One of the soldiers, Private James Coates, hailed from Kilmarnock, Virginia. He was 22 years old.

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James Coates

Their snow-covered bodies would not be discovered for weeks. The Malmedy Massacre was one of the darkest chapters of World War II.

I recently traveled to Malmedy to pay my respects to James and his fellow soldiers who fell here on Dec. 17, 1944.

Mary Ann Coates Smith, from Mechanicsville, was just two years old when her father died.

Mary Ann, president of the local chapter of the Battle of the Bulge Association, fears people will forget what happened in these fields so long ago.

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Mary Ann Coates Smith

“The road that they took happened to be where the Germans was coming through. So they surrendered. They were standing there with their hands up. At some point, somebody told them to fire and that’s when they shot them all down," she said. “If we don’t remember, it will go away, because they’re not teaching it in schools anymore.”

When Mary Ann learned I was embarking on this journey, she allowed me to carry her father‘s dog tags back to Malmedy.

They are the same dog tags he was wearing when he was killed 80 years ago.

It was an emotional moment to bring Private Coates' dog tags back to the site where he lost his life.

I was humbled Mary Ann allowed me to travel with them.

“I don’t know of anybody else I could’ve trusted and felt so comfortable with. And for the same purpose that he is going for the same thing as his grandfather. So I knew I could trust him," she said.

Mary Ann’s father was laid to rest in Virginia years after the guns of World War II fell silent.

“He would be 102. He died when he was 22," she said. “He will always be handsome. He had two dimples and I call him my 'blue-eyed double dimple daddy.'"

James Coates’ name, along with the other American soldiers, is etched in stone at the memorial just a few yards from where they fell — their sacrifices far from home forever remembered and not lost to history.

“All of the soldiers wanted to fight for our country, and because of that we can live the way we do now," Mary Ann said.

Private James Coates' name is also engraved on a glass wall at the Virginia War Memorial.

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