Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and
was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest
literary influences and why? Talk a little about Joe Barrow (who
is mentioned in MILLION MILES TO GO) and his influence
---
John Lebda: I grew up in small coal mining villages, built
by coal companies, nestled along hillsides in the bituminous
coal rich region of Pennsylvania. As the coal leases were depleted
families had to migrate to other places & the towns were
sold for scrap lumber and most of 
them do not appear
on any maps now.
Money was scarce; there were no libraries; reading and writing
had no place in our lives other than during school days. Mother
& Dad were illiterate, could not read so we didn't even get
daily newspapers. The only books I read were those required in
high school for book reports and class studies. I mentioned Joe
Barrow. Joe was like a gladiator, he could do everything (my
opinion). I tried to emulate him. In later years, when the world
champion Joe Louis who came from Harlan, Ky, and whose real name
was Joe Louis Barrow, I wondered if he was related to the man
I knew. They were both great men and about the same look alike
and size from the same town.
Pageonelit.com: Why did you write MILLION
MILES TO GO? Tell us about this book --- How long did it
take to write?
John Lebda: I began my Million
Miles to Go with a short autobiography to establish
some stature because in a war that I went through a combat soldier
had to have a background that would sustain and carry him through
hell and back. I began writing my memoirs while in college as
part of my English Literature course. My Professor, Dr. Harrison,
was interested in war stories. He said that a person writes best
if he writes about experiences. Because of his interest, I got
good grades and I always clung to war topics. I had a lot of
them that ended up as an outline of my life. I liked military
life and took life membership in every army association where
I could meet with war buddies. At one such gathering, I met Colonel
Egersdorfer, a Vietnam veteran, now an Honorary Colonel of the
26th Infantry Regiment Association. He urged every member to
write his recollections because they would be lost forever when
we passed on and promised to review
everybodys papers and help in researching. He was also a historian
for the 1st Infantry Division and offered some changes that I
had to make. When he reviewed my work, he said, "I could
not put it down and if you allow me, I would suggest some changes".
I wanted to write the book to tell the world the true history
about how many of our men got killed because of blunders. When
the British were in command, it appeared that they wanted to
embarrass our Generals; they put us in situations where we could
not win.
Pageonelit.com: Where did the title MILLION
MILES TO GO come from?
John Lebda: When I was trapped and surrounded
by Germans in the infamous battle for Kasserine Pass in Tunisia,
North Africa, as men were falling around me, I realized that
the road back home would go through Berlin, Germany and Berlin
appeared to be a million miles away. That thought stuck
with me and the closer I came to home, it seemed to be farther
than that and I never forgot it.
Pageonelit.com:You mention your "...most grievous
event was when..." your mother was notified you were
killed in Africa. Please explain.
John Lebda: We had a company commander who
urged us to write home a V-mail every chance we got because our
loved ones worried about us. Almost every day, I sent a v-mail.
We could not say where we were or what we were doing, mostly
a few words of assurance that we were ok. I usually got one letter
a week from my sister but that stopped for almost a month. When
I did get a letter my sister wrote that Mom and Dad got a notice
that I was killed and they stopped writing; they were all sick
with grief.
Pageonelit.com:What has been your feedback
from readers and book reviewers? What do they say to you about
their interpretations of MILLION MILES TO GO? What do
they like about the book?
John Lebda: I have sold and given away over
two hundred books to relatives, friends, libraries, schools,
and military institutions. I got good reviews and most refer
to me as a "Hero", some find it hard to believe what
I went through. They all come for signing the book.
Pageonelit.com:Tell me about your publishing
experience -- The good, the bad and the ugly ...
John Lebda: I have no publishing experience;
I wrote to a few publishers in New York, but never got an answer.
Trafford Publishing had an advertisement in my American Legion
magazine offering On Demand Publishing for less than a thousand
dollars, U.S. money. I went with them and they were true to their
word. My work was completed at no additional cost because communications
was all done through e-mails.
Pageonelit.com: Are you working on a follow
up? Or something totally different?
John Lebda: At this time I have no plans
for another book.
Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you
read?
John Lebda: Shock of
War Vol. 1 and 11 by J. C. Doherty.
Pageonelit.com:Do you have any hobbies?
What are they? How do they enhance your writing.
John Lebda: My hobbies are wood carving,
swimming, gardening and meeting with army friends.
coal miner where
he was trained in the use of explosives. John was a pure outdoorsman.
"I never had the desire to author a book," he
says. "But during and after the war, I had an insatiable
urge to tell the world why so many young men died because of
blunders. Inept leadership often put us in situations where we
could never win, as in Kasserine Pass, Tunisia. Most generals
and staff were good leaders but there were those glory hunters
like Clark, Anderson, and Montgomery who had no regard for precious
life. History would remember the generals but the sacrificed
young lives would only appear on grave markers or perhaps a legend,
'HERE LIES IN HONORED GLORY, A SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD' "."I
believe that anyone can write a book if he locates his story
on familiar ground. During more than five hundred days of contact
with the enemy, I saw and was part of every dirty incident that
comes with war. Historians were too kind to these lords of war;
nothing was written about the boys who are at the bottom of the
seas, nothing about why the boys died in the mountains of Italy
nor why there was an Ardennes massacre. Maybe the ghosts of the
past will disappear when the truth appears in print. I am proud
of service to my country and devotion to my wife and family who
now live in Baden, Pennsylvania, the pioneer gateway to the west."