Dan Doyle Promoted; Bill, Diana Depart for Finland

Capt. Daniel Doyle, son of Bill Doyle of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., has been promoted to the rank of major, the Air Force recently announced.

Dan, 32, serves in the judge advocate corps in the Washington D.C. area where he he and his wife, Erica,  recently bought  a new home in the Virginia suburbs.  They will reside there with their daughter, Miriam Jane, 5, and nine-month-old son, Andrew William, who is named for his grandfather.

The family will soon be visited by Bill and Diana Fieg Monaco, who have been a couple for more than a decade. Diana and Bill, in observance of their anniversary, have just departed for a commemorative vacation in Helsinki to be followed by a stop in Estonia.  In Estonia, across the Baltic Sea from Finland, Bill will attend the Trialogos Festival, a Roman Catholic confab devoted to world issues of family and worship.

Bill, who works in heavy excavation, is contemplating retirement in Estonia, where he will continue research for a book on Finland's resistance to Soviet and German invaders during the World War II era.

Mounted on skis, Finnish troops moved with the speed of cavalry, frustrating the invaders at every turn. At some points they deployed in opposition to the Soviets and, after Hitler turned against the Reds, in alliance with them.

Of special interest is the training and deployment of thousands of draft horses which enabled Finnish guerrillas to out-maneuver heavily armored and mechanized German and Soviet units in mountainous and heavily forested terrain and in highly inclement weather.

Not only did the Finns wear white uniforms to help them blend in against the snowy background but even their horses were dressed in white (see photo above). 

Relatively little has been published in English about these events in comparison to other European engagements of the World War II era, making for plenty of fertile territory for Bill's research.