Fall - 70th Infantry Division Association

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YANNIAS, Steve C. FISHER, William MARKLAND, Robert 14Y2 Madison Street 3707 Manchaca Rd ., # 146 308 Redwood Drive Oak Park, IL 60302 Austin, TX 78704 Holiday, FL 34691 HONORARY MEMBER 'FLOSI, Mrs Toni (Shirley) McCORMICK, Jack 11603 N 91 Way PO Box 109 VAN NUS Ill, Henry Lt. Col. Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Bluffs, IL 62621 AUS (Ret) 25372 Hugo Road GREGOW, Arthur MEARS, Ralph E. Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 3611 Scarlet Tanager Dr. 19819-63rd Ave. Ct. E CHANGE OF ADDRESSES Palm Harbor, FL 34683 Spanaway, WA 98387 HAINES, William BECKEY, George 1911 SW 42nd MORRILL, Keith 3500 N. Dirksen Pky, Lot 131 Pendleton, OR 97801 7400 Crestway # 1401 Springfield, IL 62702 San Antonio, TX 78239 BUNDY, Dean HIGGINS, Edgar 836 Cambridge Avenue MORROW, James 16950 Covina Road Youngstown, OH 44502 1114 Bunker Ridge Trail Bend, OR 97707 HOBEN, Michael Soddy Daisy, TN 37379 CRUELL, John 15830 Gleason Lake Dr. NAEF, Robert 101 E. Brighton Plymouth, MN 55447 6415 N Ridge Rd, Lot 39 Mandeville, LA 70448 HUSKINSON, Hal Madison, OH 44057 DAILEY, Theron Suite 2131 PEARSON, Thomas 3403 Dudley Street 1420 NW Gilman 330 Home Avenue Sarasota, FL 34235 Issaquah, WA 98027 Terre Haute, IN 47803 DONOFRIO, William JUAREZ, Benancio POLSTON, Ernest 11060 Gifford Drive 8089 Old Austin Rd. #l74A 238 S. Denny Street Spring Hill, FL 34608 San Antonio, TX 78233 Indianapolis, IN 46201 ELWELL, Cecil KAPPEL, J Donald REARDON, Paul 11804 Gate Way 83 Hickory Hills Rt 2, Box 2539 Austin, TX 78727 White Haven, PA 18661 Fleetwood, PA 19522 Axe-head Archives Whenever we get a letter with colorful exotic stamps. we know it 's Ted Mataxis reporting in from some remote corner of the earth. This time it's from Peshawar, Paki>tan. He reports: "Well. my 'tour' out here this year is about over. I am working for the Committee for a Free Afghanistan for three months each year since '83. I spent years out here with the Army so this is 'old home week.· "The war is heating up here with the Soviet air force striking across the border and their agents planting bombs and rocketing key installations. "I am also working with the Cambodians. organizing a Committee for a Free Cambodia. (This is based on the Afghanistan organization for which retired Brigadier General Mataxis is field director). I was chief of the military mission in Phnom Penh in 197 1-72 and have kept in touch with senior generals. So when they asked me to help. I stopped off at Bangkok. (Thailand) for a couple of weeks to go up to their location on the Cambodian border. I'll be stopping there on my way back home again (to Southern Pines, North Carolina) ... A lifelong resident * of Chattanooga. Tennessee, James (J .C.) Lawrence, A/275. died Fall, 1987 there in March. He had been employed at the Chattanooga Armature Works for 37 years previous to his retirement and he and his wife. Velma lzetta had just marked their 40th wedding anniversary. * Docs anyone remember "Crash" Campbell, 70 Recon? If so, please let us know. He used to live in Portland , maybe still docs. So some of our Oregonian friends might try the phone book . Lt. Bruce Campbell was a well-known stock car racer, and in the 40s was an outstanding stunt pilot and driver. Someone has sent us a clipping from the "Portland Oregonian" for March 3, 1947. Good ol' Crash had just imported a custom-built, creamcolorcd German roadster that he had bought in Germany for 3500 Marks and brought home with him. The word around Division Headquarters was that Crash was anxious to sec some action. And getting a medal would be nice. So he'd grab a jeep. "volunteer" a couple Gls and roar off to the German lines. It is probably apocryphal but there is a story that he was discouraged from doing this by a bullet from one of his own men that prevented him from sitting down for a considerable time. 'Roof, Mrs Ora 2037 Ashmore Drive Dayton, OH 45420 ROOS, Max Box 1674 Zillah, WA 98953 SHARPE, Thomas 1344 Leisure World Mesa, AZ 85206 SHOOK, Wayne Box 118 Spencerville, IN 46788 SKAGGS, Mike 155 Bell Street Mt Zion, IL 62549 SMITH, Edgar 605 Mt Airy Drive Johnstown, PA 15904 SQUIRE, George 970 Holiday Court SW Salem, OR 97302 SWANSON, Glenn PO Box 421 Hayward, WI 54843 WRIGHT, Randall 1301 U.S. 27 Falmouth, KY 41040 "Associate members ********** Lieutenant General James L. Richardson who was G-3 for the 70th Division, died at the age of 77 at Letterman Medical Center. Funeral services were conducted January 23 in the main chapel at The Presidio, headquarters of the Sixth US Army that he commanded before his retirement in 1967 after 37 years of serv1ce. He served in both the European and the Pacific theaters in World War II and in the Korean War. He commanded the 25th Infantry Division against the Japs. He was later deputy chief of staff for personnel in the Pentagon. Unusual for a general officer, he won a Purple Heart as well as the Silver and Bronze Stars. A native Nebraskan, he was a West Point alumnus and a graduate of the Naval War College and the National War College. He leaves his wife Louise, two daughters and three grandchildren. During his Trail blazer service he was regarded as one of the finest, ablest and most humane of all Division officers. ********** 11
There "Were a lot of teenage Trailblazers in No wonder I, at the age of 32, felt like an ooold ooold man in the 70th ' There were a lot of teenagers aboard and many of them are now entering their names in the " Baby of the Battalions'· sweepstakes. (Or, as some prefer " Younger Veterans. ") A combat veteran who joined the Army at the age of 14-and was kicked out two years later for being too young-may be the youngest Trailblazer. We place his name at the head of the adjacent list but put a question mark right behind it because we don 't have any specific dates. Rex Jeffrey, F/275, sends along a photocopy of a newspaper clipping. Abysmally weak on specifics, the story says that William D. Burch had arrived at Camp Shanks, New York to be separated from the Army. His age was given as 16 at that time. Unfortunately, the idiot who wrote the story didn' t put in any dates, either of Bill 's birth, induction into the service or return from the ETO. A couple other glaring errors make the documentation less than engraved in stone. Supposedly he enlisted in Des Moines at the age of 14, solemnly affirming he was 18. He was in combat all through the 70th's service there. Anyone who has any information on Brother Billy will undoubtedly tell us. Especially if this claim is inaccurate. Harold Osias, C/276, sends in a change of address notice (thereby saving the Association 60c, thank you!) and a PS: " I was born May 16. 1926, which may make me the youngest." Charlotte Sample (who in the last issue asked members to write to her severely ailing husband, Robert Sample, B/276) says: Bob's birthday is June 27, 1925. He continues about the same. They get him up · for about an hour every day in a wheelchair. He continues to fight infections. Quite frankly, I don't know how he has continued to hold up under all that he's been through. l trust we wi ll continue to be in your prayers." Noah Kennedy, E/276, went on to become a justice of the 13th Court of Appeals of Texas, an office he still holds. " I was born February 28, 1926 and was 18 when l went overseas. I marked my 19th birthday in the !24th General Army Hospital near Salisbury, England. (Ed. Note: When the 70th Division returned from Europe in the fall of '45, we were put up in Tidsworth Barracks, almost next-door to the hospital.) I have since learned that most of my squad was killed or wounded. The only survivor that l have heard of is Gene Volz, of Willow Green, Pennsylvania, who became squad leader and, th rough correspondence, has provided me with most of my information." * In the same Company. I of 275. was Rudy Senser who was born April 21, 1926. "I enlisted in January, '44 and went into ASTP. When that program dissolved, I came to the 70th. " In less than an hour after contact with the 12 enemy-on New Year's Day, '45-1 was on my way to the rear with a machinegun bullet through my thigh. This occurred near Phillipsbourg in what is incorrectly referred to as 'The ambush on the Bitche Road ' in the book 'Ordeal in the Vosges.' It really wasn't an ambush; they simply didn 't want us to take the road to wherever it was going. "After six weeks in the hospital in Epinal, France. l returned to my unit. Everyone was getting ready for another assault in mid February. During that time and until the end of March, my complexion turned a pea-green from fright. I didn't lose that color until! found that the Germans were retreating faster than we could advance." And yet another "younger elder": Writes Robert Worley, C/275, " My birthday is May 17 , 1926 (which puts him just about halfway between Everett Austin and Nevin Rauch, both C/274) I enjoy the 'Trailblazer.' For one thing , l never really knew where I was until you describe the incidents and explain them with a map." Another 19th birthday was "celebrated" in an unorthodox manner by Bob Clark, C/275. " I was born on New Year's Day, 1926. My last teen birthday was marked as we went into YOUNGEST SWEEPSTAKES 1929? 1927, May 1 All in 1926 August 12, June 27, June 26, May 25, May 17, May 16, May 12, May 8, May 6, April 29, April 21, March 21, March 20, March 9, March 9, March 5, March 3, Feb. 22, Feb. 28, Feb. 14, Feb. 11, Feb. 9, Feb. 5, Feb. 3, Jan. 29, Jan. 26, Jan. 21, Jan. 20, Jan. 5, Jan. 1, William D. Burch R. D. Kelly Matthew Warminski Robert Sample Joseph Kenavan Nevin Rauch Robert Worley Harold Osias Norman Grover Frank Frohlich Everet Austin Wellstood Tipton Gerald Thaw Rudy Senser Albert Ernes Stuart Lucas Wtllt Winebreener John McGuire Vincent Ravitz Gene Krueger William Hines Noah Kennedy Bill Owen Leon Hyatt, Jr. Raymond Wilkinson Roy Scherre William Griffin AI Hedrick Edward Savois Jack Apostol J. Lynn Hughes Herbert Gallahan Jack Barton Bob Clark Philippsbourg. I have been a member of the Association for two years and would have joined earlier if I had only known about it. " Born a year and two days later, May I , 1927, is R. D. Kelly, Medics/275. * ··1 may not be the youngest Trailblazer," concedes William Griffin, 1/275, "as I was born February 5. 1926. "But I bet I'm the only one drafted out of the I Oth grade' " That was in May, '44. F.D.R. was saying 'Mamas. your 18-year-olds will not be sent overseas.' At the same time Capt. Long was saying to me: 'Griffin, do you want to stay with your outfit'7 This is where your buddies are. Now don't you want to ship out with thcm·r "'Ycssir 1 Ycssir' I'm ready' Please don't split me off from my friends. Sir, I have hardly been out of Arkansas and here our President is trying to sabotage my free trip to France and Germany..· "Easy ride on 40-and-8 through France. Used tic rings to swing my shelter half into a hammock . . the best bed on the train. " Saw tracers and was the first into a ditch in an ambush. Came off the hill wi th frozen feet , spent 19th birthday in hospital. Rejoined Item Co. in February. Got it in the butt from a tree burst and back to the same hospital. Penicillin (new then) every three hours for 28 days whether I needed it or not. Research? Back to I. week after VE-Day. Lined up and watched the girls go by. No touch !! Enjoyed V J-Day with a party in the rain. "September. 1945. I'm in the 3rd Division, somewhere. Now I am a cook. "December 25 . To the 78th in Berlin. Prime duty. Touched the girls. Played good game of basketball. Now I am a supply sergeant. Without stripes, though. Rc-uppcd for 90 days. " July, '46. Back home in Arkansas. Later, agriculture degree from U. of Arkansas. Spent years with Farmers Home and National Park Service. Retired; became self employed in real estate. Threw away the clock and calendar. Now 61; gonna work till I' m 100. "Thank you, God, for permitting me to live in this great country, in a great period of history. And for allowing me to be a participant. And , Capt. Long, the circumstances of my life that you took part in brought me home with a whole body and healthy mind. My memory of you is full of love and affection ." * He knows he won't be the youngest, says Roy Sherre C/276, but he is among the youngest. " I was born February 5, 1926, and I'm just a few days older than William Hines who was in Charley Company with me. I joined the 70th at Leonard Wood and stayed with C Company until they began to break us up. I was sent to the 29th Infantry in Frankfurt then finally enl isted 70th Division Assn TRAILBLAZER.
Page 1 and 2: -or- _oa.> Eg> oa.. u a.> a.> Q)V
Page 3 and 4: Old Times was company clerk forM. H
Page 5 and 6: One man's battle: As Docken saw the
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Page 9: New Members ADAMS, Raymond E. (Bett
Page 13 and 14: L Help Wanted If the proposed 70th
Page 15: 'We took first POWs' But opinions d

Fall - 70th Infantry Division Association

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