Great story and job by DDFers! When I read it and saw that Rudi fought in the Battle of the Bulge as a frum American, I immediately thought of my wife's Zaidy who was also around that age and fought in the same battle (his autobiography is a great read). Then I saw the next line that his son is R' Yaakov Meyer from Denver and knew I heard the name before. Checked with my family in Denver - R' Meyer started the Aish community in Southeast Denver and used to hold classes in my in-laws house. He is responsible for making them religious. While I couldn't verify that our Zaidy knew Rudi (we don't think he's mentioned in the book), this is another nice DDF connection to the story.
I heard a story once by the kiddush of the yahrzeit of his father from R' Respler (used to live on 55th in BP, he passed away in this past year from COVID L"A H"Y)
That his father was in the army during WWII (I am almost certain he said battle of the bulge but I cant say 100% certain) and before he left to Europe he made a commitment to put on tefilin every day. One day he was in a fox hole with his fellow soldiers when he needed to put on tefilin but it wasnt a proper place to daven (he didnt give the reason, who knows maybe it smelled, we wont know) in either case he went a little bit away from the foxhole to a different area a little walk to the side to daven & as he was davening an explosive was shot into the foxhole & noone survived, he was the only one left from his group because he was committed to daven/put on tefilin daily.
ZY"A v'al kol yisrael