World War II Remembered

Limited Service

33 Limited Service • John Fagan U.S. Army Ijoined the 75th infantry division while it was on Louisiana Maneuvers in the spring of 1944. It was a drastic change from St. John’s University in Brooklyn, where I had spent the previous three months in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). When that program ended, I wondered what assignment I would get: when I had been inducted at Fort Dix, I had been classified “limited service” because of poor vision in my right eye that made me ineligible for flight duty. The Infantry proved to be a more democratic army than I expected. Captain Walsh and the other officers of “C” company shared the same living conditions as the enlisted men. We all walked through the mud, slept in pup tents, ate the same food, and swatted the same insects. The many former ASTP men who arrived when I did provided great company and I was soon thoroughly enjoying the experience. Four of us— Bob Doyle, Bob Millspaugh, Wendell Underwood, and I—were all in the same squad and came to be close buddies. The shared experiences on maneuvers soon bonded the approximately 180 men of “C” Company. 34 World War II Remembered One such experience was the crossing of the Sabine River, which runs between Louisiana and Texas. We approached the river on a training maneuver at approximately 4 a.m. in total darkness. A pontoon bridge was in place over the river but it was barely visible to those of us running in the dark. As our company was crossing the river, the spacing between men became too tight. The walkway sank below the surface of the water and several of us were swept into the fast flow. I dropped my rifle, helmet, field pack, and cartridge belt into the water and managed to reach one of the pontoons and pull myself back onto the bridge. Bob Doyle escaped from the river in a similar manner. A third man was not so fortunate. He was swept downstream while making a loud cry—and was lost. Shortly after maneuvers we were moved to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky, for additional training. Here we gained practice with weapons, and some of us were assigned specific tasks. During rifle range practice, for example, Underwood and Millspaugh both earned “expert” ratings. As a result, Underwood became the squad scout and was given a rifle with a telescopic sight; a scout normally walked in advance of the squad, alert to any sign of the enemy. Millspaugh became the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) man, the only man in the squad with an automatic rifle. Two other guys, Mallory and Russo, became a “bazooka” team. I expected to become a mortar man or machine gunner so I could sight with either eye; however, my superior officers lacked my insight and instead promoted me to Sergeant. The classification of “limited service” had vanished, and I learned to fire from the hip. From Wales to Belgium The move overseas that October was aboard the transport ship Brazil . We were in the center of the convoy enjoying moonlight nights on deck despite tight bunk space below. After arriving overseas, we spent a month in the town of Porthcawl located on the south coast of Wales. Soon after that we left for France, where we were loaded onto a 2.5-ton truck and transported to Belgium. I remember the night they loaded the platoon of 40 men onto the truck at 10:00 p.m. We all had full field packs and rifles as we squeezed aboard. My position as Sergeant of the 3rd squad made me the last to board. I found space sitting next to Limited Service: John Fagan 35 Sergeant Smith on the roof of the cab with my feet dangling into the crowded open-top truck. We both did our best to maintain our balance there as the truck proceeded in a convoy without headlights. It soon began to rain, and we had to sit in a cold puddle on this December night. It was around 2:00 a.m. when we finally stopped and could download. The driver poured gasoline from a GI can into depressions in the frozen ground and lit it, and we all circled these fires and tried to thaw out. I managed to open the pasteboard container on a K ration—with my teeth, because my fingers were frozen...