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NOTE: In 1986-87 I began a search for our
old company buddies. I used a forty-one year old mailing list.
I was lucky to account for 140 of the 212 members. Forty of them
are dead. Our average age was 67. I have an active mailing list
of 100 of my buddies. We were successful in getting twenty-six
of them along with their wives to have a reunion of our Company,
in conjunction with the 3rd Armored Division 40th Annual Reunion
in Wichita, Kansas, September, 1987. As we corresponded over
that year it was learned that two of the fellows thought to be
killed, were not. They were taken prisoner: Vernon Jensen, the
radio operator I replaced, and Claude Dempsey, another crew member.
Following is a letter written in early
1987 by Vernon Jenson, describing their ordeal. This letter was
sent to Tex Bolt (who was his best friend) and Tex forwarded
it to me.
January 10, 1987
Dear Tex and Shirley,
It was nice talking to you last week. I sort
of got the idea that your hearing wasn't what it used to be.
I'll start as of September 7th, 1944. We had
moved eighty miles in Belgium on mostly graveled roads. We went
into camp in Leige, Belgium. We found out during the night that
our supply trucks had gotten lost. We set out the next forenoon
to find them. Our captain decided that we should take a nice
pretty paved road. We knew right away we were in trouble. Sure
as hell, three or four miles out of Leige, the first shot came
from point blank range from an artillery piece. The first shot
missed us. The driver tried to speed up. I guess you remember
how slow the pick-up is on a half-track. The next one got us,
and McGrew and DeGrandchamp were instantly mutilated. We were
fortunate as the track went down a steep embankment to a railroad
without tipping over. The track started burning and of course
those that could started bailing out. I wanted to get Champ and
McGrew out too, but as Dempsey so delicately put it, "They're
just hamburger." Michaels and myself were practically blinded
mostly by the percussion. Dempsey had a large piece of shrapnel
hit him in the upper leg. Michaels and I were bleeding enough
so that we laid face down in the ditch. We did have time to sprinkle
sulfa powder over our faces. We took sulfa pills and a large
drink of water. We laid down again and suddenly there were two
bursts from a machine gun. Michaels had been shot. I was positive
I was next. It never happened. I don't know why but I figured
that Michaels had his revolver in his hand. Dempsey and I were
taken prisoner shortly after that. As far as I'm concerned, I
was treated very well by the Germans the whole time. I was sent
for two weeks to a nearby hospital. I never saw any more of Dempsey.
For some reason or other I was then taken to an English prison
camp where I spent all my time as a prisoner. I was sent to Dresden
which is considered the Mayo center of Germany.
They really tried to do something about my
eyes. It did no good. I've been blind forty some years. After
five and a half months I was on the exchange prisoner list and
came on the Red Cross ship Gripsholm. I spent over a year at
Valley Forge General. My wife came right out. I didn't have many
lonely hours. They sent me then to Old Farms, Connecticut, where
I received training for three months. I was discharged in March
of '46. My wife and I bought a small town theater. We were very
happy running it for two years. The rumors started about TV coming,
we managed to get the theater sold and we moved back to Plainview,
our hometown. Ruth and I raised four wonderful children. The
two older live in Nebraska yet my two younger live in Minnesota.
I lost Ruth going on five years ago from that damnable big C.
We had a wonderful life together.
Your ol' Buddy who has just come back to life,
Vernon Jensen
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