''~The costlypatrol"This is an order," said Lt. Bussy Holmes."Come into my fox hole, one at a time. Try andwarm up a little (from a tiny Coleman stove)and write a Jetter home." Later he passed thestove from one fox hole to another to give alittle comfort to the 2nd Platoon, Co. C, 275th.It was at Angelsburg on January 6, 1945. Theyhad climbed up from Philippsbourg on a darkand freezing night and arrived early in themorning.Bill Rorabaugh recalls a costly patrol.T/Sgt Sig Rusley was killed at Hill 364 just afew yards from where Sgt. Tom Higley waswounded and evacuated. Rusley was awarded aposthumous Silver Star. Highley remembers:"We had only frozen K rations which wecarried in our pockets for five days. I oftenwondered where our mess was."Here's Rorabaugh's recollection:It was about the 5th (correct) or 6th of January1945, that the scattered remnants of Cregrouped at the end of Philippsbourg (towardNeiderbron) and moved from there up into thehigh mountains to the Angelsburg area. It wasbitterly cold, icy winds and deep snow, and wehad only the clothes on our backs. I had myBAR, a full belt of magazines for it, my entrenchingtool, and a large hunting knife, muchlike a Bowie knife, which my father had hadmade for me. (I still have it.) I believe that wehad a few 10-in-1 rations but no water as Iremember melting snow in Joe Sueltenfuss'canteen cup (mine had a hole in it from either abullet or shrapnel).We had no contact with the enemy sinceleaving Phillippsbourg and after reaching thehigh ground in Angels burg area we dug in. (Mysquad was lucky! We just moved into somevery good 2-man oversize foxholes.) We set updefensive positions. Joe and I shared one andhad the BAR set up, well camouflaged withunderbrush and branches. Once we were dug inand inactive the bitter cold got to us and it waspure misery-nothing to do but let your teethchatter, shiver and shake.We had no contact with the enemy and only a6general idea of where they were; so it wasnecessary to send out a lot of patrols to try todetermine their movements and locate theirpositions. Sig Rusley led a number of thesepatrols and had little trouble getting volunteersas it was a way to get warmed up somewhatrather than freezing in your holes. On oneoccasion he approached Joe and me and 1volunteered as he wanted a BAR to go along forsome firepower. Since we were spread out sothin, (it is the estimate by Major D. C. Spence,275th historian , that the I st Bn, 275th had nomore than 80 to 90 riflemen left in action atAngelsburg!) It was the policy to have one manin each foxhole at all times so Sueltenfuss wasleft behind over his objections.Odd how you remember little things of nosignificance-! recall taking the bi-pod off theBAR and handing it to Joe as I was leaving. Hewas a bow-legged little Texan who never saidanything that didn't start with "yu-all" and hesaid, "Yo-all come back now-Yu hear?' '(Joe died just a few years ago.)It was a 6-man patrol with T/Sgt. Rusley inthe lead, armed with a carbine, four men armedwith M 1-s, and myself with the BAR. (Sig wasone of the few men I ever knew who wasactually very, very accurate with a carbine.)We traveled quite some distance throughmostly wooded terrain, taking advantage of allthe cover we could find , and staying just belowthe crest of the hills . We saw and heardnothing-no sign of the enemy-and subsequentlyturned back, having traversed a largeloop in our search.It was shortly after turning back that wesighted some Germans below us on the sameslope some 70 to 80 yards away. They were justcoming out of the woods into a clearing andfollowing around the contour of the hill-eightmen all together in single file, moving slowlythrough the snow with about 4 to 5 feet betweenthem. They wore the long overcoats and thoseduck-billed field caps and carried those cylindricalcannisters slung as though they were on amarch rather than a patrol. They were blacksilhouettes against the snow. We had droppeddown into the snow when we first sighted themand now Rusley was passing the word down theline that we should open fire when he fired andwork from the ends to the middle of thecolumn. We all took up kneeling positions andwhen Rusley's carbine cracked we all openedup with rapid fire-! was firing the BAR inbursts of 3 and 4 until the magazine was empty.It was over in a matter of seconds and wemoved out on the double and kept going, expectingpossible fire from the woods below usbut all was quiet. We returned to our positionsand reported to the company CP. Rusley waselated. but I had mixed emotions, even thoughwe had evened some scores for those we hadleft behind in Philippsbourg. As near as I canremember that patrol was between the 7th andlOth January 1945.The hills were coldand Angelsburg was darkLife list zoomsAnd still the list lengthens ....Life Members now number 264. Seventeennew Lifers have been enrolled inthe past quarter.While regular membership dues wereset at $10 last year, the Life Membershipfee remains the same, $100. There areadvantages to all concerned. The Liferneedn't remember to keep his dues upto date. The secretary-treasurer needsto do no bookkeeping. The <strong>Association</strong>benefits from the interest on such dues.The newest Life Members, as of November10, 1987, are:Thomas A. Barthelemy, Dayton, Ohio;Robert E. Buhl, New Kensington,Pennsylvania;Paul R. Conwill, Nettleton, Mississippi·Harold I. Hicks, Houston, Texas; 'Calvin L. Jones, Portland, Oregon;James A. Kearley, Nashville, Tennessee;Robert Markland, Holiday, Florida;James D. Meador, Lee's SummitMissouri;'Robert L. Miller, BloomingtonCalifornia;'Robert W. Miller, Freeport, Illinois;Robert L. Mingle, Portland, Oregon;Chester L. Morgan, Hamilton, Ohio;Henry T. Murphy, Yorktown, Texas;John L. Simonetti, Brunswick Ohio·John E. Sims, Donaldsonvill~ Geo~gia·Donald A. Tousignant, Lakeland'Florida and'F. Gerrit Veldman, Lansing, Michigan.If you are a Life Member and yourname has not been announced in the"Trail blazer," please notify the editor atonce.The <strong>70th</strong> <strong>Division</strong> * had more thanone set of twins, despite what the"Trailblazer" magazine said sometime ago. To prove it, we even havea set that has just become <strong>Association</strong>members.They are Charles and DeanMiller, both of H/27 4 and both ofUhrichsville, Ohio."Reports of my*death are greatlyexaggerated." That's what MarkTwain said and that's what GeorgeHoger says.George, a C/275 veteran, was erroneouslyreported deceased in arecent issue of this magazine.He's not only alive, he's the newmayor of Bull Shoals, Arkansas.<strong>70th</strong> <strong>Division</strong> Assn TRAILBLAZER