Page 50 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine

Frank Odom On the Front Lines in
“ ou never get used to
combat.” Frank Odom,
Yage 92, of Lubbock spoke
these words nearly 73 years after
his time in the Army in Europe
had ended. They could have
been spoken by any one of the
thousands of American combat
soldiers during WWII. While
over 16 million American men
and women served during WWII,
it is difficult to get an exact
number on those engaged in
actual combat. What is known is
that, by April 30, 1945, over three
million American soldiers had
served in the European Theater.
While the Americans were some
of the best-trained soldiers in
the world, nothing could have
prepared them for actual combat.
According to the veterans
themselves, you simply had to
witness it and endure it the best
you could.
Frank Odom was born January
3, 1926 to John and Florence. His
dad was a farmer and did odd
jobs. He had two brothers who
also served in the military. Frank
50 Lubbock Senior Link
Europe
by Larry A. Williams
grew up in Wickes, Arkansas and The 100th pushed on through
went to a one-room school – eight northeastern France and liberated
grades in one room. He quit numerous French towns, fighting
for a couple of years to help out all the way. As winter was
his dad. He went back to high coming on, Frank added. “We
school and completed the 11th advanced quite a bit, but when
grade. He was drafted into the we would get hit by the German
Army on March 18, 1944 and sent 88’s, you had to dig your foxhole
to Camp Fannin near Tyler, Texas a little bit deeper. You had to use
for 17 weeks of basic/infantry an axe on the top layer and then
training. Next, he was assigned your shovel.” Once the Battle of
to Fort Bragg, North Carolina the Bulge began, the 7th Army
and the 100th Infantry Division, was ordered to set up a defensive
which was sending replacement position south of Bitche. German
troops into combat. counterattacks were repulsed
during early January 1945, and
There were many rumors as to on March 16, 1945, Bitche fell to
where the 100th was going to be the 100th. The Mayor of Bitche
sent - some said the Pacific, some
said Norway. Neither destination made them honorary citizens,
was accurate. In August 1944, and the men were thereafter
the word came down that they called “The Sons of Bitche.”
were to be sent to the European The division crossed the Rhine
Theater. They boarded a train on March 24th. Recalling the
and headed for Camp Kilmer fighting from town to town,
in New Jersey. After a 12-hour Odom noted, “After a little
leave and a trip into New York shooting, we took a lot of
City on a sight-seeing tour, Frank prisoners. Once we got to stay
and his unit boarded the troop in a cellar and had a German
ship George Washington and set prisoner with us.” Frank
sail for Marseilles, France – and suffered from trench foot (a
combat. The Germans had sunk
numerous ships in the harbor,
so the men had to climb down
cargo nets to board smaller boats
to get to shore. There were so
many men staged there, they
“had to sleep on the ground in
pup tents for about a week.” His
unit finally headed out through
northern France with the 7th
Army. The final destination was
Baccarat, France to relieve the
45th Infantry. Odom noted, “We
went into combat on 11-
11-44 (ironically, the 26th Frank’s brass Bible engraved with the
anniversary of Armistice words “For God and our Country”
Day).”