Unwilling Tourist

One of the things left to me from my Dad is a 30 page memoir of the time he spent in the Army during World War 2.
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My father never spoke about this time while we were growing up. That is common for the soldiers of that time and for the ones of today. He was a civilian soldier. That was what they were in WW2. Not drafted, didn't join to make it a career, they joined because their country needed them. The photo to the right is Dad just out of boot camp. On leave before going overseas.
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My father was in Company A, 301 Regiment, 94th infantry, Third Army. He volunteered to join the Special 1st Battalion Recon. The 94th infantry was under General George Patton. Something my father was very proud of, and yet as children it was not spoken about (though I remember him taking all of us to see the movie Patton when it came out, I was 9). Dad fought in France and was in several battles and then captured and was a POW for 9 months.
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The memoir gave a lot of information about not only the battles but what his state of mind was during that time. It was fascinating for me as a daughter to read this and get this insight into my father. To read of his bravery and his fear and his hunger and his hope. Well, it was amazing.
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I have attended several of the 94th infantry reunions that were held. They have had one a year for the past 59 years. My dad found out about them in 1986 and went to them every year since then. The photo on the right is him and my stepmom at the reunion in 2008. He died about a month and a half later. He seemed to know this and told us at the reunion that it would be his last one. He had all his children and several of Betty's kids and he paid the bill for all of us and our rooms. He wanted us all there.
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The hat he is wearing is now on mantel in a shadow box with a couple of his other 94th items. I have it next to Jim's flag given to me for his service in the Navy.
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At the reunions in the past I found myself listening to the men as they spoke of their time during the war. Some told stories about fallen comrades and some argued points of strategy from a battle 60 years ago. A few years ago I was at one of the reunions and Jim was not there. He came to most of them, so I am not sure why he missed this one. Work most likely.
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Anyway, as it got into the night, the men at our table seemed to forget I was there and they shared stories of a particularly bad battle that at least 3 of them were in. My dad was not. I started taking notes in dim light on paper napkin. One man was telling how he and his buddy went in to the battle and his buddy fell, dead, two shots in his chest. The man scooped him up and tried to carry him out of range. More shots rained down around him and he said, almost in tears, that he used his friends body as a shield so that he could get to safety.
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Dad was captured along with others on January 16. 1945. His memories of his time as a POW were both interesting and sad. He wrote about the hunger when they were prisoners and the red cross boxes that never made it to them. There was one potato a day for 12 men and how they would have to stretch that to make it thru till the next day. He was an artist and to do something while the days dragged on, he would draw using charcoal from the fire. He started doing this on walls of barns where they stayed and he wrote that many of the other POW's would ask him to draw on their jackets. He said the things most often requested were pictures of food. One interesting observation that my dad made was the division of black and white in the army. And yet, how that dissolved when they became prisoners.
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The 94th Infantry has a monument for their service down in Fort Benning, Geogia. My father designed it. He was very proud of this and worked on it for months. All four of his children attended the dedication ceremony in Georgia. This is a photo taken of him (on the left). The ceremony was wonderful and afterwards we visited a room just filled with war memorabilia - jackets, maps, guns, lots of photos and many more things that members had donated for the museum.
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I am going to create a pdf of his memoir and send it to my siblings. I would like them to share it with their children. I am very honored and proud of my dad and what he did for our country.