One Man in Ten Million: One Man's Tale of Serving with the 104Th Infantry Regiment During World War Ii

By Ronald Powers

The classes of 1942 and 1943 from Americas high schools made up the largest percentage of the 10 million men that served in the American Armed Forces during World War II. Many were drafted, but many more freely enlisted because they felt it their patriotic duty. They did not take this decision lightly. For most it was the most fearsome decision they would ever make.
My father, Richard E. Powers, served with the 104th Infantry Regiment as a part of the 26th Yankee Infantry Division. They fought as a part of General Pattons Third US Army. Both Dad and his regiment experienced many firsts while fighting in the European Theater of Operations.
These men were citizens one moment and soldiers the next. None were professional soldiers, but they experienced the same privations, fears and terror as their professional comrades. Many displayed courage beyond imagination, but if they survived to talk about their experiences, they rarely did. My dads generation was a generation of gentlemen who were very humble. Their sufferings and successes were a means to an end not to be displayed as a badge of honor.
Dad was typical of his generation, from his voluntary enlistment to his combat experiences across the European continent. His story is not exceptional in its difference from other soldiers stories, but is exceptional in its commonality. You will follow Dad from his decision to enlist to his return to the country he loved including the 202 days that the 104th Infantry Regiment spent in combat-one man in ten million.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479787357

Ronald Powers

Ron was born and raised in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. Ron is an Air Force veteran and a recently retired high school administrator. He currently resides in Greencastle, Pennsylvania with his wife, Beth, and their four children.

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Copyright © 2013 by Ronald Powers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/16/2013

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

References

Acknowledgments

When I first started this project I composed a letter describing my intentions and mailed a copy to 150 veterans of the 104th Infantry Regiment. As letter after letter was returned to me unopened I came to the realization that the majority of The Greatest Generation had already passed away, including my father. Thankfully, I did get a few responses. Some were from actual veterans and some were from their relatives. They all shared information and anecdotes I have used in this book. Thank you George E. Hull, Ruth Carey (the widow of Daniel F. Carey Jr.), Erik Rau (grandson of Carl F. Kreider), Kevin Quadras (son of Arnold Quadras), and the widow of Daniel R. Miller, I truly appreciate your responses.

Aunt Iva Mae Miller, thank you for filling in the details from dad’s high school years.

I want to thank everyone at Xlibris for making this dream come true; Randy Hughes, Rey Santos, etc.

Wow, this would not have been possible without the love, support, and motivation from my beautiful wife, Beth, and my four wonderful children; Ben, Lauren, Annie, and Sam. You guys are the best.

Finally, I want to thank my mother and father, Richard and Lois Powers, for always being an inspiration to me and to all those you have come in contact with.

Introduction

Hey, Dad, what does D-Day stand for, ‘Dumb Day?’ I asked. Being a twelve-year-old smart aleck at the time, I thought I was pretty funny.

My dad’s eyes told me something quite to the contrary. Fighting to control his anger, he said to me, You, Son, know nothing about what you are so smugly making fun of. He then practically screamed, If you ever make a statement like that again, I will certainly disown you.

I knew my dad had to be extremely upset to say what he had. I looked to my mother for help because she usually interceded in any tense moment in an attempt to keep things calm. After all, I was only trying to be funny, but I was soon to realize that I had way overstepped the line when I looked in my mom’s eyes. I saw that I was not going to get any help from that arena. In fact, my mother said to me, You owe your father and the other ten million men and women who served during World War II an apology, and it needs to happen immediately.

I apologized right then and there, and I am apologizing again now. After reading and studying about World War II and through talking with veterans, widows, and children of veterans, I realized how callous my question was and why it would arouse an otherwise peaceful man to the state of rage. That my father did not hold me in contempt for the rest of his life is a true testament to him and to all the others who have made huge sacrifices for their country during World War II.

My father’s generation was comprised of a very special group of men and women who served and sacrificed in any capacity asked of them, not for fame or glory, but strictly for the love of country and their fellow man. Tom Brokaw wrote of them as the Greatest Generation, and Stephen Ambrose wrote of them as Citizen Soldiers. After studying where the typical GI came from and after learning of the accomplishments they reached and the privations they endured, it is not at all incorrect to label them as such.

This book is my feeble attempt at redemption for the statement I made as a young ignorant boy and as a tribute to the ten million men and women who served our great country in such a distinguished manner and who, through sheer willpower and guts, brought the most evil empire in human history to its knees. My father was only one of those ten million, but he was definitely cut from the same cloth: humble, patriotic, giving, compassionate, and courageous to a capacity I can only hope to reach.

To all of you who have served and sacrificed for this great nation-salute—and may I do justice to you through the telling of my father’s story, One Man in Ten Million.

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At home before I left for Europe.

Chapter 1

Attention students, staff, teachers and other administrators. This is your principal. It is my duty to announce that the United States, along with Great Britain, has formally declared war on Japan, stated Mr. Grugan. It wasn’t as if I was taken totally by surprise. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor the previous day and practically wiped out our entire Pacific fleet. The destruction and loss of life was horrendous. Although the United States had been hedging entering the war in Europe, I knew that there was no way we could allow a direct attack on American soil to go without retribution. I felt that we would have to enter the war eventually if Hitler and the Third Reich were to be stopped from dominating the entire European continent, but I was mistaken in believing that the first declaration of war to come from Congress would be against Germany, not their ally, Japan.

Once war was declared on Germany, after war had already been declared on Japan, the complication of fighting on two separate fronts against two totally different enemies would arise. I could not wrap my mind around the number of troops that the military would need to effectively fight on these two fronts, the Pacific and the European theater of operations. Also the type of troops needed would be totally different since the Pacific theater would require naval and amphibious troops and the European theater would require infantry and mechanized troops. My friends and I, called by some the Five Bandits Plus One, tried to determine the number needed but gave up, labeling our attempt as a futile one. The number was absolutely mind-boggling.

Toward the end of school that day, I ran into my good buddy Jim Mercury and told him that the Five Bandits Plus One would need to get together right after school ended that day to discuss the situation and to determine what, if anything, we were going to do about it. Jim and I decided we should meet at our usual hangout. Jim said he would make sure that all the guys got the word. Jim and I met the rest of our gang—Tom Messner, Bob Maris, Jim Adams, and Harry Noblit—at Jim’s family’s hot dog shop. We always chose to meet there because Mr. Mercury could be counted on to always hand out free food to the gang; plus, he never let on to our parents what had been discussed within his hearing. Since we had decided to discuss whether any or all of us would volunteer for military service, we did not want word getting back to our parents before we had been able to thoroughly hash out our plans. I knew, at least in my case, my parents would not be happy with me enlisting because they held the opinion that this war was someone else’s fight, and we had no business sacrificing America’s finest in Japan or on the European continent. It wasn’t that they weren’t patriotic. They just didn’t quite accept Hawaii as part of America, and they believed the British could fight the Germans themselves if they were so eager.

When everyone had arrived and Mr. Mercury had distributed some free dogs and fixins, we got right down to business. Each and every one of us were visibly excited about the plans we were about to make. First, we determined that virtually every male in our graduating class would have to serve in some capacity if the military were to reach the number of troops that we had guessed they would need. There wasn’t any hesitation in any of us concerning the question of whether we would volunteer or not; we just couldn’t agree on when to enlist and which branch of the military to enlist in. We all expressed a difference of opinion depending on family military history, personal conviction, and other intangibles.

I, for one, could not make my decision at the spur of the moment, so I informed the guys that I would