Page 99 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

– 'If you got the blood, I got the
back to where our company was
to deliver fuel, but they were no
longer there. I followed a truck
that came by to another outfit,
and the First Sergeant there said,
‘Stay here for the night', so we
did. I finally found the company
the next day. We drove day and
night to deliver supplies. We
would use cat-eye lights at night.
You could only see about 20 feet
in front of you. Later, we were
ready to cross the Rhine (River),
but the Germans knocked out the
bridge. We had to wait until our
engineers built a pontoon bridge
across the river. Driving across, I
had two tanks in front of me and
water was running through my
truck. I wasn’t sure I was going to
make it across."
“I remember getting a glimpse
of old General (George S. Patton)
in Nuremberg. The troops used
to call him ‘old blood and guts’
guts'. How important were the
truck drivers to the war effort in
Europe? One armored division
commander said, “The Black
drivers delivered gas under
constant fire. I wouldn’t want
their job. They delivered in the
heat of battle. We were in our
tanks praying for them to come
up.” General Patton, who was
always racing ahead of his supply
lines, concluded that “the 2
½-ton truck is our most valuable
weapon.” As for W.E., he was
awarded four bronze star medals
for his service: “one for France,
one for Belgium, one for Holland,
and one for Germany.” He was
also awarded the WWII Victory
and Good Conduct medals.
“I was in Brussels, Belgium,
when a captain said that the war
Lubbock Senior Link 99