Dagger embossed with a motto and Reichsadler with sheath acquired by a US soldier from German troops

Robert Alden was born on August 4, 1922, in Huntington on Long Island in New York. His father was a physician and his mother was a teacher. He attended City College from 1938-1942, then obtained a job as a messenger boy in the advertising department of the New York Times. He entered the United States Army on October 31, 1942. He earned the rank of captain as a platoon leader in the Corps of Engineers, Third Army, under General George S. Patton. He saw action in Europe during the Battle of the Bulge and during the continued advance through France, Germany, and Austria. Divisions of the Third Army liberated several concentration camp, including Dora-Mittelbau, Buchenwald and Dachau and several subcamps. When the war in Europe ended on May 7, 1945, Alden went to the Philippines and was stationed in Japan during the US military occupation. After his return stateside, he resumed his position as a copy editor and make-up man at the New York Times, and then became a local reporter. In 1969, Alden married Dion Imerman, with whom raised three stepdaughters. He held a number of different positions with the Times, including a stint as a war correspondent during the Korean War. In 1972, Alden became the United Nations bureau chief. He died, age 51, of a heart attack in 1973 in New York.