Freedom Is Not Free - Softcover

Hockley, Ralph M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 188791840X ISBN 13: 9781887918404

Publisher: Brockton Pub. Co, 2001

Synopsis

A moving account of an extraordinary man of many talents. Ralph Hockley's family was forced from Nazi Germany in 1935 and lived as refugees in France until 1941. After he and his family escaped to America, he returned to help defeat Hitler's Germany as a US soldier in WWII, then fought to liberate South Korea in 1950-51. He continued to fight tyranny by serving another 23 years in Germany as an American Civil Servant in military intelligence.

Complete with pictures, maps and government documents, Colonel Hockley's story reads like a historical novel. His journey is unusual and fascinating.

About this title

About the Author

Ralph M. Hockley was born in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1925. His family left Nazi Germany and moved to Marseille, France when he was nine years old. At age 14 after the Fall of France he worked as a volunteer interpreter and office boy for the American Quakers in Marseille. In May 1941, the Quakers assisted his family in getting US immigration visas and thereby the release of Ralph’s father from the Gurs Concentration Camp. 1945 found Ralph back in Germany as a US soldier in Counterintelligence.

He earned his BA from Syracuse University on the GI Bill; while there he was commissioned a 2d Lt. in Military Intelligence Reserve. In August 1950, 2d Lt. Hockley landed in Korea with the 2d Infantry Division and participated in seven campaigns as an Artillery Officer. After the Korean War, and for most of the next 25 years, (joined by his late wife, Eva) he held various military and civilian Intelligence assignments in Germany (beleaguered Berlin, Frankfurt, Bonn and Munich). Simultaneously, he served in the Army Reserve and rose to the rank of Colonel, Military Intelligence. In 1969, Ralph received a MS degree from University of Southern California. He retired in 1981 to the San Francisco area and lived across the Golden Gate in Tiburon as of 1985 with his wife, Carolyn. Since 1997, he and his wife reside in Houston, Texas.

Review

Ralph Hockley was one of the five or six outstanding Intelligence officers of my experience in 25 years... -- Colonel (P) Thomas F. McCord

This book begins with valuable information gathered by a fourteen-year old youngster, a refugee from Germany. -- Fred Buch

Edition details

• Publisher: Brockton Pub. Co
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 188791840X
• ISBN 13: 9781887918404
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 414