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World War II
Articles Monroe County August 16, 1945 Note: The following articles were published in the Monroe County Appeal and Paris Mercury on 16 August 1945 and generously extracted by Judy Baker Barklage. Member of Cited Unit.
Sgt. Stephen
W. SEWARD,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben SEWARD of near Indian Creek, whose engineer
construction battalion was recently given a citation for the award of a
meritorious service unit plaque for work done in the Saipan area in the
pacific. He is a member of the 139th engineers.
Receives Son’s Medals. The Air Medal with Oak Leaf, a group of personal photographs, and several souvenir shell necklaces belonging to Staff Sergeant James Thomas McGEE, were received Saturday by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cicero (Boss) McGEE, of Paris. They were forwarded by the personal effects branch of the Quartermaster Department. Sgt. McGEE was reported missing in action over the Bonin Islands in the pacific on February 10. No further information has been received from the government by his parents, but from information received by the family from one of the surviving men of his outfit, it seemed assured that McGEE and several others lost their lives. He was an assistant flight engineer and waist gunner on the Liberator bomber “Royal Flush” and was stationed on the Marianas Islands when last heard from. Bob POAGE, gunners mate second class, of Crane, Indiana, spent Friday night to Sunday with his mother, Mrs. Bennie POAGE. Sgt. Marvin MAGRUDER, who has been in the 8th Air Force in England since September, 1944, is back in the States with 89 points. MAGRUDER landed at Bradley Field, Connecticut, coming by the Azores and Newfoundland. Pfc. Orville BATSELL, son of Lewis BATSELL of Paris, has been promoted to the rank of Corporal at Langley Field, Virginia, Air Forces Training Command Radar Observers School. Pvt. Joseph Edward TULLY, who is in this country after serving overseas in Europe with the Ninth and First armies, is visiting a sister in Peoria, Illinois. He is to report back to Camp Robinson, Arkansas, Friday for reassignment. Cpl. Thomas D. POWERS writes from Germany under a July 22 date that he expects to be back in “good old Monroe County in the next two or three months.” Cpl. POWER is with the 713th Railway Operating Battalion, one of the units which after our crossing of the Rhine, helped to put destroyed railroad lines into operation, and to operate them for the Allied armies. Mrs. Glenn A. STONE has not heard from her husband, Lt. Glenn STONE, for over a month, and believes he must be on the way with his signal corps construction outfit to the Pacific. Lt. STONE saw extended and dangerous service in the campaign across France and into Germany. The job of his outfit was to construct communication lines in battle areas, many times under fire, and over territory heavily mined and planted with booby traps. Cpl. Sidney PILCHER and wife visited in Paris this week, prior to the Corporal’s departure for duty with the Air Forces medical department on Santa Maria Island, in the Azores. Cpl. PILCHER has been stationed at Bangor, Maine, where he has been on duty in a medical laboratory. His new station is a stopover point midway across the Atlantic route to Europe, where the Air Transport Command refuels its trans-Atlantic planes and gives air to wounded men who are being flown back to the United States from the European hospitals. His most weird and eerie experience of the war was early in the conflict, while he was in the harbor of Casablanca, Africa, says GN 2/c Tom McCURREN, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh McCURREN of near Paris. Scuttled or shelled French ships littered the harbor and on many were the bodies of French sailors who had been killed during battle or drowned when their ships went down. For several night, before the wrecks were cleaned up, cats prowled the wreckage at night, and their mournful calls as they caught the scent of dead human bodies was enough to put on end the hair of the sailors and soldiers on guard duty on the ships in the harbor, says McCURREN. Tom came here from Panama for a visit, and will return to duty at New Orleans August 20. S 1/c Stanley BAKER of California, arrived Saturday for a few days visit with his mother, Mrs. Mary BAKER and other relatives here. Cpl. Virgil GREENING, formerly of Stoutsville, a son of Mrs. Freda GREENING of Hannibal, is at home on a 34 day furlough before being reassigned for duty elsewhere. Cpl. GREENING enlisted 04 Nov 1942, and went to England in December, 1943 where he served as a ground crew member of the Ninth Air Force. He has been overseas 20 months, wears six battle stars and a presidential citation wreath and the Good Conduct medal. GREENING returned to the States on the SS India Victory, the same ship on which Gene Pryor KELLY of Paris returned, docking August 4. Violin From Berlin. Mrs. Tom MOWEN has just received a package from her son, Cpl. Earl Thomas MOWEN, with the Army in Germany, which contained a violin of a very famous make. He secured it in Berlin. Also included in the box of souvenirs were a German flag and German arm band, and a picture of Berlin. Cpl. MOWEN is a combat engineer with the Ninth army, and since peace came has been engaged in hauling lumber. Another of the MOWEN boys, Cpl. Howard MOWEN, is on Okinawa Island and writes there is plenty of fried chicken and steak out there. In Super-Fort Training. Roswell Army Air Field, Roswell, New Mexico - - Destined for B-29 Super Fortress combat assignment, 2nd Lt. Leo CURTRIGHT, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellwood E. CURTRIGHT, Holliday has entered a streamlined five-weeks course at the AAF Training Command’s B-29 transition school here to become a co-pilot. His training here will be as a member of a three-man unit consisting of the airplane commander, who actually flies the sky dred-naught as the first pilot, the pilot, who serves as his assistant, and the flight engineer, whose duty it is to “engineer” the battle plane to and from its bomb-dropping rendezvous. After completion of the course here this three-man team will join the rest of the flying personnel of a B-29 in an operational training unit for further schooling. Member of Famous Division. Pfc. Loy HOLLINGSWORTH, son of Mrs. Mabel HOLLLINGSWORTH of Paris, was reported from France on July 16 as being in the North France Assembly Area, preparing to return to the States. Loy was a member of the “old Hickory” 30th Infantry Division. Prior to joining the 30th HOLINGSWORTH was in the ranks of the 76th Infantry which went through the Siegfried battles and across the Moselle in support of General Patton’s tank army. In February, the 76th smashed enemy fortifications on the Luxembourg-German frontier, opening up the vital Trier-Bitburg highway to U. S. supplies and reinforcements. The division was in a reserve position during the Battle of the Bulge poised to strike in any direction Rundstedt showed strength. The division steamed over the Rhine in March and began a drive into Central Germany. Advancing 400 miles in three months, the 76th captured more that 75,000 prisoners and reached Chemnitz, for the historic linkup with the Russians. Loy has three campaign stars. Paul GERSTER left Saturday after a thirty day leave to report to New London, Connecticut. Pfc. Everett F. WILSON of Madison is on his way home from Europe with the 35th Division. Wilson is the husband of Mrs. Edith Ray WILSON of Madison. Capt. Cecil V. EVANS is now located at Haag, Germany, thirty miles east of Munich. An educational program is being set up at his camp and he will be an instructor in animal husbandry. T/Sgt. Gen Pryor KELLY, son of Dennis KELLY of Paris, administrative specialist with the 19th Air Depot Group of the Ninth Air Force, has arrived in this country from France. He has served in both England and France. Lt. Jake HEATHMAN, who has been serving with an Engineer unit in the Pacific, was back in Monroe County this week visiting his family and relatives. Lt. HEATHMAN participated in some of the most famous battles of the Pacific. Eben GREENING of Stoutsville has received word from his son, Sgt. Marvin GREENING, that he has been designated to serve in the Army of Occupation in Germany. Sgt. GREENING, a Paratrooper, was a member of the famous 82nd Airborne Division, and has jumped behind enemy lines three times. Of his original outfit of 400 men, only about 20 remain on active duty. At one time he was behind enemy lines 51 days, and lost 30 pounds in weight. He is now on special duty at Frankfort, Germany. Among the souvenirs he has sent home is a 20 foot long silk Nazi flag which he took from a flagpole in one of the towns his outfit captured. His brother, Cpl. Thoms. GREENING, has been in active service three years without a furlough and is now in the Pacific. In an army hospital in Germany, Lt. Ruth ALLEN, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charley ALLEN, became acquainted with a soldier-patient who was one of the friends of Aubrey TIPTON of Paris, reported killed in action. This information was contained in a letter from Lt. ALLEN to Mrs. Jake TAYLOR, but no details were given. Cpl. W. T. POWERS, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charley POWERS, arrived at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, Monday, and will come on from there to Paris for a visit. Whether of not he is back in the States for discharge on the point system or for furlough his parents do not know. Cpl. POWERS has been in the army four years and for the last 14 months has served in the Italian Theatre of operation. Miss
Ruth LECHLITER, daughter of Mrs. Emma LECHLITER, Paris and Pfc.
William P. DOOLEY, son of Mrs. A. G. DOOLEY, were married August 9th at
seven o’clock at the Trinity Methodist Church in Phenix City, Alabama.
The Rev. Mr. John Park WINKLER, formerly of Paris, read the double
ring ceremony. The bride wore a
navy and white dress and a corsage of roses.
Immediately following the ceremony the bride and groom left for a
honeymoon in Alabama. Mrs.
DOOLEY will resume her position at the office of Dr. F. A. BARNETT, August
20th. The groom is
stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He
is a son of the late Judge DOOLEY of Stoutsville.
Mrs. J. P. WINKLER was present at the wedding. |