A Peek Into The Past

Never Forget Their Sacrifice

2008-11-15T08:53:00.001-08:00

The graves of fallen soldiers at Monte Cassino, Italy.

Serving in "The War"

2008-11-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

Daddy was posted at Fort Jackson in South Carolina when the war came to America on December 7, 1941.
In an April, 2001 newspaper article, he told a reporter, "I was eating Sunday dinner in the Wade Hampton Hotel with the Blackman family (a family he met while at Fort Jackson) when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Where you were and what you were doing is just something you don't forget."
Daddy shipped out in May, 1942 to Ireland, and then went to Scotland to train for the North Africa campaign. He boarded a ship in Liverpool, England and sailed for Africa on Nov. 8, 1942. They landed in a port in Oran, Algeria, and worked their way up to Tunisia. Before the war, he'd trained as a medic and was called on to serve in that capacity during the North African campaign.
When the campaign in Africa was over, he was transferred from the Medical Corp. to the Signal Corp. He once told me that he wanted to volunteer for the Rangers but his C.O. talked him out of it. "The Rangers really took a beating at Anzio," Daddy said. "So that Captain's advice probably saved my life."
He moved to a little place above Oran where he was trained for the impending invasion of Italy. They landed in Italy in September, 1943 and "went through the whole boot, from the toe to the top" ending up at Lake Como, in the Italian Alps. "The most beautiful place in the world," Daddy often said.
He told me about the hard-fought battles in Italy. "Sometimes we were fighting house-to-house and door-to-door," he said. Daddy was awarded the Bronze Star for rushing into the line of fire to rescue a wounded child. "And Monte Cassino seemed to go no forever. We lost of a lot of good men there."
But he had some good memories, too. "The Italian people loved us," he said. "When we liberated a town, the people would run up to us shouting, 'Liberato!' and give us flowers and wine." One of his good buddies was an Italian-American who still had family in Florence. "They threw a party for us," Daddy said. "And fed us the best food I'd eaten since I left the states."
Having earned enough points, he came home on June 18, 1945. Three years and one month from day he'd shipped out.

The above photo was taken in Siena, Italy near the end of the war.

Before Pearl Harbor

2008-11-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken at Fort Bragg in the fall of 1940. Daddy is the first one on the left. They had no idea what was coming, and I have to wonder how many of these guys came home from the war. Daddy never talked about it, and I didn't ask.

Real GI Joes

2008-11-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

Various pictures of men that Daddy served with in North Africa and Italy. I wish I knew their names, so that I could honor them here.

Below is a WWII tribute featuring the music of Glenn Miller and his Army Air Corp. Band playing American Patrol.

North Africa

2008-11-15T07:35:00.001-08:00

American GIs Sit on Captured German Tanks.

A group of French Air Force Officers. On the back of the picture are some of their autographs and they are also identified as Groupe 1/22 "Bombing over Tunisia".

Italy

2008-11-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

The following photos were taken by my father in Italy during the Monte Cassino campaign. The average soldier wouldn't have been allowed to take or keep photos like these, but Daddy was a member of the Signal Corp., so it was part of his job. Somehow, he managed to come home with a bunch of these pictures.

Destroyed railroad tracks.

A group of Italian Partisans (freedom fighters).

Artillery at Monte Cassino.

The destruction of war.

Are they ours?