Page 43 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine

Army
poSt WWii
I drove the Deuce-and-a-half,
hauling cement, sand, and
gravel to help rebuild the
runway at Rhein-Main Airport.” The airport was built
in 1936 and used by the German Luftwaffe (Air Force)
after the outbreak of WWII. The airport’s runways
had been destroyed by Allied airstrikes in late 1944
and early 1945. The Nazis destroyed many of the
buildings on the base, and U.S. forces captured the
airport in March 1945; they built a temporary runway
and established the Rhein-Main Air Base. Don’s job
was to help build permanent runways. “I stayed there
for six to seven months.”
Aviation Battalion out of Frankfurt, “When I had enough points to go
Germany, which was a totally home, we shipped out of Europe
bombed out city.”
on November 30, 1946, and arrived
Don was trained as a Deuce-and-a- in New York Harbor on December
half truck driver. The truck could 11. We went by the Statue of
carry 2-1/2 tons of material, on or Liberty, and all the troops were
off-road, in all types of weather. whooping and hollering. We were
The truck was a staple of the U.S. glad to be back. I was discharged
Army for 80 years. Don added, “I on January 16, 1947, at Fort Dix,
was assigned as a light truck driver. New Jersey.

MICHAEL POSTAR’S

Supporting

Lubbock Veterans

&

Texas South Plains

Honor Flight

Lubbock Senior Link 43