PATRIOT BULLETIN - Military Order of the Purple Heart

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PATRIOT BULLETIN
was a horse staring me in the face. Bringing livestock into the farmhouse to conserve heat in the Winter
was common in Europe but wasn’t what I’d expected.”
After about six-months in Ireland, in April 1944 the division was moved over into southern Wales, landing
at Pembrokeshire, and was positioned at various places in Glamorganshire where they spent the remaining
weeks in preparation. When the invasion came, 2d Infantry Division was part of the forces embarked in the
Bristol Channel that crossed over to France the following day and landed at Omaha Beach on D+1, June 7,
1944. Herman Haydon’s 9 th Infantry Regiment, as part of the division, was immediately committed to
action enlarging the beachhead and was part of the next three day’s fighting. By June 10 th the regiment had
crossed through Cerisy forest outflanking Trevieres and resulting in liberation of the town. In the days and
weeks afterward the division proceeded in the direction of St. Lo, securing Hill 192, a key enemy strong
point on July 11 th . Herman was wounded on July 27 th when still fighting in the hedgerows of the bocage
country in Normandy. Today he says, “A German machine gun opened up and I was hit in both legs. At
the time, I believed that one of my legs had been shot off, and in fact it had been nearly severed. No one
was with me and I had to crawl to reach the safety of the hedgerow.” He was taken back to a field hospital
and then sent to a General Hospital at Hereford, England. After one month and 20 days in Normandy, the
war was over for him.
After months in the hospital in England, Herman Haydon was shipped back to the United States. He
arrived in Boston on January 4, 1945 and was told he would be sent to a hospital near his home. Instead, he
was sent to Hammond General Hospital in Modesto, California, and he wasn’t the only one. Herman says,
“During my nearly five years service, I had never run across anyone else from home, but in Modesto there
were three or four men in the hospital there with me that were all from Leander, Texas.” Herman was
transferred to a Convalescent Hospital near San Diego, but after only a few weeks there it was determined
that he was not ready for convalescence, but still required treatment of his wounds. As a result, he was
transferred to Bushnell General Hospital at Brigham City, Utah. He had been granted brief furloughs home
and during one such visit he had met a Miss Edith Guynes, a girl from Elgin. In June 1945, on a furlough
home from the hospital in Utah, Herman and Edith were married. The doctors at Bushnell Hospital had
plans for his continued treatment, but Herman insisted and he was granted a disability discharge on
November 29, 1945.
After his return home, Herman says, “There were many discharged servicemen everywhere, all looking
for jobs. I got a job at Camp Swift working with German P.O.W.’s under my supervision. When the camp
was closed out, I did vocational training at Austin High School under the G.I. Bill, and then worked at
several local businesses. I was with the Marfus Company for about six months, then worked for Rainhart
Company producing laboratory test equipment for soils and materials. After that I did some machine work
for W.F. Smith and Son and then in 1952 had been with Modern Supply Company only a few months when
I was interviewed and hired for a job with the University of Texas.” Herman was employed by the
university’s department of Engineering Mechanics at Balcones Research Center, and later transferred to the
Petroleum Engineering Department on main campus, and lastly closed out thirty-years with The University
when he retired from the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1983. His entire career was in research
instrumentation, fabricating equipment used in engineering science, and he proudly reports having built
instruments that NASA had sent to the moon. In the meanwhile, Herman and Edith had a family of four
sons; James Ray who had served in the Navy, Ronald Edwin of Cedar Creek, Terry Joe a Marine Corps
Vietnam veteran coping with Agent Orange related conditions, and Philip Randal of Cedar Creek. After
having been married for over 60 years, Edith passed away in 2006. Their eldest son James is also deceased.
Herman joined the Military Order of the Purple Heart as a life member shortly after our chapter was formed
and throughout the early years Herman and Edith had regularly attended meetings together; now in recent
years he is most frequently seen at our breakfast get togethers. This month PATRIOT BULLETIN proudly
salutes Patriot Herman Haydon.