What was your basic job in the War?
"Leader of a squad of 10 men."Where did you receive your training?
"San Antonio, Texas. I was in San Antonio, Texas for two years. Then they sent our division up to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin to be ski-troopers. Then they abolished that a year later and I went to 83rd Division in Indiana and Camp Breckenbridge, Kentucky. From there we went overseas."What was your rank?
"Staff Sergeant--a leader of one squad. A Tech Sergeant is a leader of 3 squads, a platoon."Where were you stationed during the war?
"I went in on D+14 -- D-Day plus 14. We fought through France & Belgium, Holland, the Battle of the Bulge, and all the way across Germany to the Alp River." (17.8)Tell us about Normandy.
"Well, I was in one of those big bunkers that the Germans built and it was about 10 ft. thick with concrete with great big guns that fired out of it. It was--when we got on the beach, off the barges why, we could see destroyed tanks, trucks, and everything all over the place. It was pretty brutal. In fact, D-Day lost 10,000 men."
Tell me about your first attack.
"We went in on our first attack on July the 4th, and I'd never seen anything like that in my life! It was really rough. I got the shakes that night when I laid down to rest I got the shakes-I shook all over from my nerves seeing what I'd seen that day. Dead bodies all over, arms & legs and everything… Close calls with the fighting, snipers just missing me by inches. So it was pretty nerve-wracking. After that, from that day on, the next morning, it didn't bother me a bit." (43.5)
Did you have a best friend during the war?
"Yeah, my best friend was Private George Prince from Akron, Ohio. He was my best friend. He was a member of my squad; he was the loader. I originally was the gunner-the corporal gunner and he was the loader. Then I became sergeant and I think he became the gunner. George Prince from Akron, Ohio."What was the funniest thing that happened to you during the war?
"We had a member of our squad by the name of Joe Pruch. The war was kind of quiet that day, not too much shelling going on. He went over between the two buildings, a French farm house and attached to it, between them was a little alcove-like with a little roof over it and a pump--a pump for water. He said, "I'm going over there to take a quick bath." So he took everything off, and of course there were no women around, the only people were about 100 miles back. He thought he was safe. Then, all of the sudden the Germans started shelling and we stood there watching him running around trying to find a foxhole with nothing on! That was funny, everyone just laughed. One guy finally said, "We'd better stop laughing and dive in one of those holes ourselves! That was a funny one."What was the scariest thing that happened to you during the war?
"When I was corporal gunner, I was sent back by my sergeant to see the lieutenant, and see if I needed to withdraw. So I started back walking on this second road between the two head roads, and a sniper shot at me. I heard something go behind my head that sounded like a bee. Then I heard the report of a rifle and I knew it was a sniper. I heard that bullet go right behind my head--it missed me by a matter of inches. He probably didn't lead me enough, he should have led me by about a foot because I was walking fast. If he'd led me by a foot then by the time the bullet got there, I would have walked right into it. That was a scary one. I took off and a dead run and never ran so fast in my life."What was a basic, normal day in the war like?
"Every man serves guard duty for about 2 hours, including myself when I was corporal. We'd relieve each other every 2 hours and then we'd get back to our slit trenches and sleep as much as we could because there wasn't much shelling going on. Then we'd get up and we'd open a can of rations, have a little breakfast and make some coffee out of the rations. Then we'd all get in our positions, ready to fight in case there was an attack. Sometimes the officer would show up and tell us to hook up our guns and mount up, we were gonna move up about 2 or 3 miles. And then we'd have to go through the same thing-do the slit trenches and set up our guns and then nightfall would come and it would be the same thing, go on duty for 2 hours at a time."What has being in the war meant to you personally?
"Well, it meant that I've been a very lucky person because I came close to getting killed about 8 or 10 times. Also, it made me realize that no one person should ever get the power that Adolf Hitler had. He had too much power. He was the cause, directly or indirectly, of the deaths of 50 million people."What was the worst thing you ever saw during the war?
"Well, in regards, I'd like to say that the worst thing I'd ever seen was when we were going through Germany and we passed through this little town where they had one of those Holocaust camps. I'd seen those men coming out of those camps, they'd been liberated; they'd be walking around weighing 75, 85 pounds, dying on their feet and starving to death. That was just terrible--even General Patton, as tough as he was, threw up when he'd first seen that."
