Unsung Valor: A GI's Story of World War II

Cover/Title Page/Copyright/Dedication

MORE PRAISE FOR UNSUNG VALOR "[HJistory should be most grateful to the handful [of veterans] who produced memoirs that capture the novelty, monotony, frustration , anxiety, drama, and horror of their wartime experience. A. Cleveland Harrison belongs to that select class of veterans, and his memoir . .. should rank as a minor classic. Harrison tells his story in an honest, compassionate style that turns commonplace happenings into fascinatingreading. This is a book that will inform, entertain, and haunt all who make its acquaintance." —GREGORY J W. URWIN Arkansas Historical Quarterly "Your magnetic and inspiring book honors the spirit of the Pogue Prize, awarded to scholarly, historical works in the field of the U.S. Army in World War II. Congratulations on such an outstanding accomplishment that goes beyond explainingdetails of troop movements and decisions, to include prose that dares to penetrate the emotional surface of the soldiers of WWII." —KEVIN WILLEY Assistant Director, EisenhowerCenter for American Studies "Cleveland Harrisons book. .. surpasses . .. with all theaccessibility of a well-written literary work, the very best of what one expects from memoir . .. coherence, integrity, insight, and compassion with regard to the 20th century's central event." —JEROME KLINKOWTTZ Author of Yanks OverEurope: American Flyers in World War II and With the Tigers over China 1941—1942 "With a style as clear as spring water, a sense of the dramatic, and a gentle flavor of humor in the midst of both chaos and barracks-room boredom, Harrison brilliantly recalls his youth in the army late in World War II. As a moving recollection, Unsung Valor typifies the experiencesof so many others in the European theater who faced grim realities with a surprising innocence and a firm integrity/' —BERTRAM WY\TT-BROWN Richard J.Milbauer Professor of History at the University of Florida "The story of the ordinary soldier is the hardest of allwar stories to tell. Cleveland Harrison has told his withremarkable clarity and detail. It captures the day-to-day experiences of one draftee's journeythrough army life: the training, the waiting, and the terrifying conclusion of first combat. It's an essential part of the total story." —SAMUEL HYNES Author of Ike Soldier's Tale: Bearing Witness to Modern War and flights of Passag: Refactions of a World War II Aviator "A treasure trove of a soldier's detailed memories of World War II, written by an ex-GI who was there day by day." —ROBERT KOTLOWITZ Author of Before Their Time: A Memoir University Press of Mississippi Jackson jj| Cleveland Harrison Unsung Valor A GI'S Story of World War ll www.upress.state.ms.us The UniversityPress of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Copyright © 2003 by A. Cleveland Harrison All rightsreserved Manufactured in the United States of America Print-on-Demand Edition 12 ii 10 09 08 07 06 0504 4 3 2 1 oo Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harrison,A. Cleveland. Unsung valor: a GI's story of World War II / A.Cleveland Harrison, p. cm. ISBN 1-57806-615-8 (pbk.: alk.paper) i. Harrison, A. Cleveland. 2. World War, 1939-1945—Personal narratives,American. 3. United States. Army—Biography. 4. Soldiers—United States—Biography. I.Title. D8n.H342 2003 940.54*8173—dc2i 2003049702 British LibraryCataloging-in-Publication Dataavailable regardless of their duties or fears. in the best ways they knew how, serving dependably and loyally, who went, like me, when called, the Politiical Division, U.S. Group control council, Ninety-fourth Infantry Division, and Company B, 30 lst Infantry Regiment, the Army Specialized Training Program and TOMYWARTIMECOMRADESin This page intentionally left blank All squalid, abject, and inglorious elements in a war should be remembered. The intimate mental history of any man who went to the War would make unheroic reading. I have half a mind to write my own. Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox~Hunting Man This page intentionally left blank ...