Old Hickory Recon, Memories of the 30th Infantry Division 1943-1945 - Marion M. Sanford

I owe someone a book. Is it you, Tom? I have some hardbacks and paperbacks in now.

 

Those of you who have read Old Hickory Recon will appreciate this:

Mr. John Stephens (Stevie) Rouse died this past week and is to be buried today (Saturday 18 Jan, 2013) at a church near his home.

He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Geraldine Rouse, one son and two daughtes, eight grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.

Mr. Marion and I drove up to visit him in his house a couple of weeks ago. He had been ill through Christmas, but was well enough to have visitors that day. We talked to him and his sweet wife for about an hour and he signed my book next to one of the pictures of him that is in it.

Here is one of the photographs from the book of Mr. Stevie (L) and Mr. Marion (R), taken at Fort Riley, KS in 1943.

 

Sorry to hear about Mr. Rouse. After reading your book, I feel like I knew him. If you attend the funeral, give my best to his widow. 70 years is a long time. RIP

 

He was a good soldier. If you notice in the picture, Mr. Rouse is wearing T-4 Stripes (sergeant), yet Mr. Sanford has not yet made PFC. The two men were drafted and went through basic training together, afterwhich Mr. Rouse stayed at Fort Riley as training cadre and Mr. Sanford joined the 30th ID at Camp Blanding, FL.

Eventually Mr. Rouse was detached from Fort Riley and sent to Europe in early 1944 to the 2nd Replacement Depot, where he languished until after the war. He had excellent clerical skills and when he arrived, the depot HQ put him to work for them until he was to be sent to a unit. He was never assigned elsewhere and stayed with the depot until after the war, unofficially working for the depot, but not actually a part of it.

Here is a photo from the book of Mr. Rouse in Europe, made at the repple depple. Mr. Sanford had finally caught up with him in rank as they both were T-4s.

 

I could not drive up for the funeral and I talked to Mr. Marion last night. He had to go to another funeral today for an old friend who also had fought in the war. He said, "There ain't too many of us left." He's doing okay with it - he and Mr. Stevie had been friends for most of their lives and I think that they talked fairly regularly, even when they did not get to see each other. We talked briefly at church today, but I had so much other going on that we could not do more than say "Hi, how ya doing?" I have several things to do in the big city nearby tomorrow, but I may drive to his house (the other direction) and visit with him. We'll see.

 

Thanks. Interestingly enough, Mr. Sanford has what looks to be an original of this. I gave thought to putting in the book and wished that I had now. We went down this list and the Christmas list, trying to see if he had any special memories of the men. Some he did, some he didn't. The stories that we could develop further were included, but there were very few. Seventy year old memories are sometimes hard to conjure up. He is still trying to remember what Mack's real name was and they were together daily for about eight months.

 

I talked with Mr. Sanford today at church. He's been cleaning out some old storage space and has found some more photographs that his first wife had stored before she died. He did not know that they were there and they include one of Meintjie that was made in 1944, about the time he met her in Heerlen. He said that there are some more photos made during the war. I am driving into town tomorrow on some other business, but am going to stop at his house to see them. I plan on scanning them, also.

 

He said that the thought of almost accidentally killing those women really shook him up, then the wretched state they were in angered him to no end. He said they were half naked and about starved.

There were in the area around Heerlen, Kerkrade and Valkenburg from mid-September to mid-December, 1944. Then in January, they went back to Kerkrade and stayed within easy driving distance until the division crossed the Roer River in late February, 1945. He said a large number of the men from the division had families that they visited and stayed with as often as they could work it out. He visited with the Duster family often enough that they referred to the room he slept in as "his" room.

He really agonized about putting that story in. I eventually convinced him that the Army was not going to bring him up on charges for it!

Thank you for your kind comments.

 

My favorite of his "funny" stories is the one about the restaurant in Belgium. I could not do the story justice vs. the way he told it.

I also liked the one where he got arrested after he and some of his men got into a fight in Reims, France after war. "Fights just seemed to follow us around." I didn't put it in the book, but he said, "if there hadn't been so dang many of them, we would've whupped them MPs.)

 

Well, I went to visit Mr. Marion this morning after he told me that he had found some photographs. Did he ever!

I have a good 20-25 photos that were made in Belgium, Holland and Germany during the war, including some originals of the scan of a poor scan that I had to include in the book for lack of better quality. He had another pic of Mientjie, made a few years later, the Bible that she gave him and that he carried for the remainder of the war. There is also a picture of one him and his classemates made at Fort Riley in 1943. He has a divisional newspaper from February, 1945, an original program from their 1943 Christmas dinner at Camp Atterbury. He has some mementos from the first 30th ID reunion.

A good bit of it I would have included in the book had he found it last autumn instead of now. I will probably post some it later here as I scan everything.

 

I can't wait to see these extra pictures. I'm sorry you couldn't put them in the book, but I'm glad Mr. Sanford found them.

I agree with KB that this was an excellent book. There are too many personal stories to recount, but suffice it to say that the personal account of the Old Hickory Recon unit was a good one. Mr. Sanford's recollections are, by turns, hilarious and poignant. Thanks to him for telling it, and to you for writing it.