I was just back here at the check-in table a few minutes ago and I asked a gentleman there about how many he had checked in so far.
He said he thought it was 58 people.
Yeah, we had 58 so far.
And we got about how few more yet to come in?
There is a few more to come in and this is counting those that we know will be in.
But through the two days we've been here, we picked up several others that tend to be with us, at least for the band.
So we should have a pretty nice group and a large group picture.
How many new people are here this year for the first time?
I'd say probably two-fifths of them are new.
Two-fifths? I see.
And you don't know where the next reunion is going to be yet?
No, we'll decide that Saturday evening.
It will probably be somewhere in the south and right now we're sort of looking for the Atlanta, Georgia area or somewhere in that area.
We trade off between north and south and as much as the 31st was the National Guard unit from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
And as the war progressed and as a lot of the old veterans from the 31st were transferred into other units and started other units.
But then they brought a lot of recruits and volunteers from the north, the midwest and the Yankee New England area.
Yeah.
Well, I understand that these reunions have been getting a little bigger every year, is that right?
Well, in most cases it kind of depends on where we're at.
But we've been keeping a good average.
We've, in the beginning, well nine years ago the guys were nine years younger so they were able to get around a little better than they are now.
So we lose a few and gain a few and we stand by the same.
Yeah, I found that out with the 167th Company B. We've had some reunions.
We started, I understand the first one, I wasn't there at the first one, they never located me until 1986.
And they had one in Atchison, Kansas in 1985 and there was eight fellows there with their wives and that totaled 16 people.
And about a month after that was over with one of the fellows located me and I went to the next one.
I was the only new guy there the next year when one of the other fellows couldn't make it so we had the same number there in 1986.
Well, we're sort of in a new area in here.
Of course in Niagara Falls that's northwestern New York and then the Sertoga Springs is north of Albany.
So we're getting people from the central Midwest or the eastern Midwest you might call it, from Ohio.
Yeah, right.
And then that area and then quite a few from Pennsylvania and Maryland and Delaware.
My sergeant's there tonight, Dune Marsh Company B.
He's from Greensboro.
He was my assistant squad leader. I was just a PFC in the squad and he's from Greensboro, Alabama.
He had a brother that was a sergeant in Company B too in the same platoon.
But he was brother with squad leader of the second squad and Dune, Eugene Marsh, he was assistant squad leader of the first squad.
So I was in Dune squad and we've located, I suppose, this is the third platoon now of Company B,
we've located about, I'd say about 10 guys out of that platoon alone.
So it's...
It's really a hectic job to try and locate.
Many of them are so much older than me and they're not able to travel like I am.
And they just won't come to these reunions that's so far away from Kansas.
Most of them are from Kansas and Missouri.
And you can't hardly get them over a couple hundred miles away from home when they go east like this.
It's just too far for them to go. They want to be able to get there in one day, you know.
That's right.
When they have to travel 1,200 miles or 1,300 miles, you can't make it in one day.
And it's too big days for them to drive over there. And none of them wants to fly.
Yeah, we have a lot of them that don't want to fly. It's generally the women.
Yeah. And some of them, it's just health is not good anymore.
And they just can't hold up under the wear and tear of a reunion away from home like this.
Well, we welcome any soldier or veteran from any of the 31st units because we're pretty well organized
and we sure would like anybody that would like to come to join us.
I know she sends out newsletters quite often, but how many of those are sent out a year?
Well, about every three months.
Now there's several that send them out under kind of a franking privilege.
And they send it out about once a month.
We find it gets a little expensive when you've got about 240 on the mailing list.
That's right, 240 people now on the mailing list.
That's great. I didn't realize you had that many on the mailing list.
That's family units.
Yeah, that's just like where I'm from, Company B of 167.
And I know I gave you several names. I don't know exactly how many anymore now, but I know there's quite a list.
Well, I sent a special letter out to about 27 that you gave me.
And I got some replies from three or four that couldn't make it this year, but maybe next year.
Yeah, well, I know there's too many.
It really, not a lot of them, was six or seven hundred miles from northern Alabama up here,
which, and then we had one come from Tennessee and he drove six hundred, almost seven hundred miles in one day.
And he was pretty close to getting here Tuesday.
But where it's a great distance, we like to fly because it takes,
like if we went on a bus it'd take a couple days, Amtrak takes a couple days from the Midwest.
We had one in Omaha, Nebraska, and we had a pretty good group out,
but a lot of them were from Missouri and Kansas and Texas, so they came generally north.
You have a story every time you send out one of those newsletters. Where'd you get all your information?
Can you remember all that stuff that happened so many years back,
that you can write it up in a letter form like that and get it out in the mail? I don't see how you do it.
You've got a good memory, I'll say that.
We used to send out some do you remembers and particularly all the funny things that happened.
We had quite a story once on our company bootleggers, and he started in North Georgia,
he kept going overseas, he started out slow just throwing in all the ripe papayas, mangos, pineapples he could get a hold of.
And the jungle juice was a little raw there, but as time went on he was able to accumulate a little money
and trade with the Navy and get sugar and corn mash and so forth, so he had a good operation going.
But toward the end of the war they were cutting down on, clamping down on these.
He was going to re-clamp down so they wouldn't sold it to some other fellow, and two days later they got him.
Well Joe, I wanted to ask you about these tours now that so far you had one today,
and I'd like for you to tell me where that was at and where the remaining tours that you got planned are going to be.
Well, we were at Carlisle Barracks, which is down in Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
and it was richly the property of the British in the early days.
It was considered a forward post in which the British were fighting the French and Indians.
And then during the Revolutionary War, General Washington captured a lot of Hessians at Trenton on Christmas Eve
when the Hessians were drunk and brought them to Kylom Barracks to build up the barracks there.
And then during the Civil War, Confederate cavalry came up there and burned down the barracks.
And then they were called to Gettysburg, and this was on the 2nd, I believe, when they burned the barracks,
and by the 3rd a lot of them were killed in the charges at Gettysburg.
And then following the Civil War and along about 1870-something, they brought in Indians from all over the United States,
and they had an Indian school there.
And some of the great famous Olympians came out of there.
There was Jim Thorpe for one, and Jim was the only person that ever won the...
There were two types of, like the Pentathon, and then there was another one
in which they had to compete in about ten different things, and he was the only one that won both of those.
And years later they found out that in Kansas he had played and got a little bit of money for playing baseball,
and so they took away his Olympic medals, but before he died he got it back because now today there's a lot of professionals in basketball or whatever.
And then during the end of the World War I it was a treatment place for a lot of the soldiers that were gassed,
and then after World War II it became the War College,
and only the very top colonels in the various units of our army are invited to come up and take further courses.
And most of the generals of World War II and a number that were in the battle in the Gulf were from this school.
It was a military school, right?
Yeah, it is now. And of course in there they have archives of most of the army and navy and air force units that fought in any of the wars.
They have museums that cover the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the World War I, and the wars since then.
And there's a lot of research going on in there, and we were able to see a lot of that today.
And really interesting, we had a special tour and then the commander of the post there came down
and he had a special room in which he had a lot of the information from the 31st Division displayed, booklets and pamphlets and everything else so we could see that.
Well what about the rest of the tours?
Well then we go to Hershey tomorrow until about 11 o'clock, and then we go down to Lancaster in the Amish area.
And we eat there and then we visit an Amish home and we see the countryside and see how they're starting to harvest their crops.
Then the girls are waiting for the chance to visit some of the craft shops and the bakeries and so forth.
Yeah, the Amish people are real good at crafts and bakery and stuff like that, preparing food and things.
Quilts and...
You know, I've been to an area in Ohio that has a group like that and I think this is going to be something similar to it.
Yeah, it will. And then of course Friday we go to Philadelphia and we get into the celebration of the Bill of Rights.
It's the 200th year when the Bill of Rights were written and we see the Liberty Bell and a few other historical areas in there and historical documents.
And then we go to Valley Forge and see replicas of some of the quarters at the Worshens troops.
So this will all be on Friday?
And they'll all be on Friday. And then we go to Gettysburg and one of the men from the South brought up a lot of Confederate flags and also American flags.
So I don't know whether we're going to divide the group into two and all the Southerners are going to do Pickett's Charge and the rest of us are going to stand the ground up on the high ground.
But it'll be interesting.
Yeah, well then the Saturday trip is...is that the Saturday trip?
That's the Saturday trip.
That's the Saturday trip, I see. Okay.
This banquet here that you're going to have by Saturday night, now everybody will be here for that I suppose.
Yes.
Do you think any of these people will be leaving early?
There's only one couple that has to leave because they have a special anniversary to go to within the family but they're here now and they'll be here Thursday and Friday and then they'll leave Saturday morning because they have...
Well they live on Long Island so it isn't a big trip but they have to have most of Saturday to get over there.
I know 31st Division was the Southern Division and you're from Iowa. Were you always from Iowa or were you...
No, I was born and raised pretty close to where I live.
Oh, in Iowa?
Yeah, Pounce Blast.
How long were you in there? When did you get into 31st Division, do you remember?
Well, it had been the fall of 1942.
Well, back to 1942.
See, that's when the 156th Louisiana Regiment was sent to England and because they could speak French, in a way they were...
It was not the regular French, it was the Creole French and when they got over finally into France after D-Day, nobody could understand them and they couldn't understand French either.
And then the 124th was part of the regiment that went into Fort Benning and school troops and so they only had two regiments left so they started a 154 and they brought a lot of them from the Midwest and some from this area, Pennsylvania, New York and New England.
And we meshed pretty good together. They would still have battles between the North and the South.
What rank did you hold when you got discharged?
Well, I was just a sergeant. I was in charge of the parts. We had the parts truck and I had the parts and tools and we kept the vehicles going as much as we could.
Trucks and jeeps and stuff moving.
Yeah, and we were part of the motor pool.
Very important part. Well, Joe, it's been nice talking to you. I noticed my light went out on the camera. We're still on camera though but the picture might be a little bit dimmer now.
It's certainly been a pleasure talking to you here this evening.
Thank you.
And I'm looking forward to some more of these reunions and myself and I invite you to come to one if we have any up close your way.
I'll certainly keep you posted on it.
I like that you have it down in the Ozarks. You said that's close to Kansas. Well then, down around there.
Yeah, I don't know where we'll be at next reunion. But we had to skip it this year. It didn't work out right. So I'm planning on having one somewheres next year if I can't get anybody to take it, I'll take it myself again.
If you can't make it, come join us.
Well, Joe, I don't know, we're almost here by ourselves right now. Well, I'll see you again tomorrow and we'll keep it going and I'll probably take some more film.
I'm going to take this camera along and show this to some of the Ohio people next year at our reunion.
Everybody's on hand. Yeah, I don't know where it'll be or anything. Thursday, tomorrow morning at 8.15. Yeah, tomorrow morning at 8.15 is when we board the bus.
Okay, well see you in the morning then, Joe. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Alright, thank you.
Nick Bushko here of the anti-tank company 167 Dempsey. This is Nick's first reunion and he's not going to stay for the whole thing, just a couple of days, right Nick?
Right. And you came here all the way from Cleveland, Ohio. Right. And your daughter with you? Yeah, she is. What's her name? Cindy. Cindy? Cindy, yeah.
Well, I understand you're going to be here for a couple of nights and you're going to miss the banquet and everything. I don't know whether you're going to take any tours or not. You plan on going on tours? No, we're going back to now.
Okay, well you'll get to see some of these videos we took here last year to play at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. You took some of them from there? Yeah, we took pictures. I got it here. We'll go show them tonight.
Well, you got another man here from the same company, right? Pete Racer? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's here somewhere. I think he went over to the museum over there just a little bit ago. We're going back over there at 2.30 so I want to go along with him. That's why I want to get you on camera. Maybe you want to go along with me.
No, I got nothing else to do. I always got something to do. How many years was you in the anti-tank cup? Let's see, three years, let's see, eight months. Three years, eight months, all that overseas?
No, no, three years. Three years overseas. Three years overseas. Well, that's great. You came back all in one piece and everything. Thank the Lord, right? Thank someone, for sure.
What do you think of this outfit here? It's nice. You never heard of it until you happened to see the ad. No, I just happened to see your ad. I kept looking in the... What, VFW magazine? Yeah. And I happened to look there and I just...
Well, hell, I looked for a long time. Then they had that one in Mississippi. But that wasn't for this outfit, was it? Oh, yeah. Was it? Shelby? Not Shelby, but the Hattiesburg? No, it was Jackson, Mississippi. Or Jackson, yeah.
Yeah, I was down there this spring. Yeah, we had a great time. We had 350 people there. Man, you had a lot of traveling, huh? Oh, yeah, right.
Well, you plan on coming to reunion next year? Sure, darn right. Glad to have you. If I'm still kicking a bucket? Right. Same with me. I don't know what I'll be around either, but I hope so. Oh, yeah. I don't know why not.
I don't know where we're going to be at yet, but we'll find out Saturday night. I hope it's up there in Dayton. You hope it's in Dayton? Well, that's the good news. Hope it is, too. Why not? I don't know, heck, they got it every place else. They're all down south. Why is it up there?
Well, I don't know how many we'll get. We've got 90-something people coming here before things over with, coming and going. That's coming and going. You're going to be here for a couple days. Who was that lady that came in here from Florida in the blue?
I don't know. That might have been Marion Hess. I don't know. She's from Florida. Yeah. And she's chairman, if that was her, well, she's vice president of 124th infantry now. Oh, is she here? Yeah.
She's got a speech made out in the bank, I'd imagine. So I'm going to cut this off right here. Okay. And I'm going to get ready to go on over to the museum over here. We're going to go out at two o'clock. You want to go along with me? No, no, no. I'm going to stick around here.
Alright. You're from where? Lakeland, Florida. Lakeland, Florida. Yeah. And you were in the 31st division. What part of 31st division? 167th. I had a tank coming. You know you've got another man here, don't you? Butch Butchko.
I seen old Butch last night. Yeah, we had quite a little talk. Yeah, he's Danny. And I had him on camera just before you came. Did you? Yeah. I'm where he is right now. How many years were you in the service?
Oh, altogether about eight. Eight years? Yeah. Counting overseas? Yeah, most of them overseas too. Oh, he was in Korean War. Oh, you were in Korean War also, right? Yeah. Overseas? Yeah, in Korea. And then after that you got out.
Yeah, I didn't want more. Yeah. Well, you was in the 31st division all the time from the time you first entered the service. Was you drafted in or you enlisted in the National Guard or what?
No, I was, I was going to say drafted, but I volunteered. You volunteered. Yeah, and I was with the 76th division before I got in the 31st. Yeah, I was up in Cabocloy, Wisconsin. And I got transferred from there down to Cabp Becketts, Virginia into the 31st. And right after that, a couple, three months after that, we was overseas. Yeah. Out of the city.
Were you married before you got in the service? No. Oh, you never got married until afterwards? Right after. You never met this good looking lady here until after you got out of the service? I knew her, yeah. He knew, he knew that my family knew his family and his dad, but you better remember I was only 16 when I married him.
Oh, is that right? So before he went in service. You didn't know who he was? No. You had your career was over with before you ever met her then? No, no, no, I went, it was incredible. See, I was married, we was married in 46. And he went back in 47, he went back in service. No, 47. No, it was 48.
Now, he was married, Henry was born the 19th of August in 47 and you went back in November the 1st of 47. It did too. It was about three years. No, you wasn't. He was not.
Anyway, you were out for a period of time, you were in the Korean War and then that ended, when you were discharged, right after the Korean War ended then? I got out in 52. 52? Yeah. What did you do after that? I worked in steel mill. Steel mill? Yeah. What about? I worked in West Virginia. Oh, okay.
And you retired this place? No, I worked there for I think seven years and I went to work for aluminum reduction plant in Attleboro, Ohio. I see. And that's the place I retired from. I see.
And now you're living in Florida? Right. Okay. You're here for the reunion, that's your first reunion. Right. You haven't been down to any of the other 31st Infantry reunions down south? No, we didn't know they existed. Didn't know anything about them.
Because the ones that was in St. Augustine's we could have went, the one that was in Orlando we could have went. But see, he didn't know. I see. Are you planning on staying? How long are you planning? All the way through? No, we're leaving in the morning. You're leaving tomorrow morning already? Okay.
That's why I wanted to get you on camera tonight because I didn't know how long you were going to stay. Yeah, we're going to leave and go in the morning. Well, that's okay. You know, you can stay like we had said. We can stay one, two, three, four, five nights. It doesn't matter. Come and go as you please.
Yeah, I got people up in West Virginia. We're going back up there in three or four more days. If he has 49 degrees, he'll be heading to Florida. Heading back to warm Cusack. Well, I'm sure glad you came and I'm glad you found out about it. How was it that you found out about it? I got your letter. You got a?
Yeah, I found out about VFW magazine. Magazine, huh? Yeah. There were a lot of guys that wrote me and didn't say how they found out about it. I had advertised in three magazines and I didn't know which four magazines it was. And I didn't know which one it came from, which one they saw it in. That's when it was last year, VFW. I think most of the ones I got, they saw it in VFW or more than any other magazine.
Well, I think that's about the only one that they really always all take. Well, American Legion and then the DAV magazine and the military magazine. I had it in all of those. I think I got one or two from American Legion. I don't know if they got any DAV magazine or not. I don't know. But I know most of them.
Most of the Army men, they seem to go with the veterans and the other ones, they go with the American, the Navy's go with the American Legion. That's what it seemed like. I didn't pay much attention to that. But if you just kind of notice that's. Yeah. Because I know my dad was in the Navy and he went in the American Legion. He was in the Army. He was in the VFW.
Well, these reunions have been getting larger. This is our largest. We're expecting 90 people here this year and they're not all here yet. Most of them will be here before the night's over with, I think. There'll be some coming in yet tomorrow. Tomorrow's Thursday.
That's when the tour starts. Some of them won't go on. Some of them will be until Friday. And some of these people will be like, you'll be gone already.
You know, it's nice. Just like me. I even saw an old butcher cut it. He's got this job. 46, 45. And to see a guy like that in my years. Right, you're going to bring back a lot of members. Oh, I reckon.
Yeah. We plan on attending these things next year. These reunions. I might do it. It depends on where it is and what time of year. Okay. It was nice talking to you. I'm going to cut this thing off now. You can go back to what you were doing. Thank you very much.
Okay. This is Marion Hess here. And where are you from Marion? I'm from Inverness, Florida. Inverness, Florida. What part of Florida is that northern? It's the central part of Florida. Central? Not close to the coast? 17 miles from the Gulf.
Oh, okay. And your husband lives in 124th Inverter. He was in Company H, 2nd Battalion. And what happened to him? He died three years ago. Three guys years ago. Okay. And you were coming to the reunions together up to that point?
No. When he was alive, we never knew any of the organizations existed. You found out about it after he passed away? I found out about it when they were planning the 50th in St. Augustine. Oh, that's when you found out about it. And I went to that. My son and I went to that. And then this year I went to Mississippi for the 31st.
That was your first trip there to one of their reunions? Right. And this is my first to service. And in November I go to B Company. And I still haven't met anybody from H Company. You're talking about 124th? Right. And he was in what company? H? H. Heavy weapons. Yeah. Right. And he never got to go to any of these reunions? We never knew any of them existed.
Well, they were kind of late getting started because I was watching all the magazines and stuff and I never seen anything for a long, long time. Well, we moved. I was expecting to get a letter in the mail every once in a while. Because I got that book, you know. And that was the last time I heard from anybody.
Well, see, he went in as a replacement from Pennsylvania. He wasn't with the... Oh, I went in as a replacement too. When did he go in? He went in in June of 44. Is that when he was drafted into service? Right. In June. And he went overseas in December of 44. And he went to Mori-tai. And then he made the...
Well, your husband must have been younger than me then. He was 18 when he went in. I was too. Yeah. Were you married together at that time? Yeah. We had a little boy while he was away. He didn't see him until he was two years old. Uh-huh.
I never got married until I got back from the service. And I was married for 37 years and my wife got cancer. And then she died when I was five. When you got back from the service, where did you live at then?
We lived in Philadelphia first. And then with his job, he was a salesman. He sold printing equipment. Catler. Great big printing presses. And we moved 22 times. Oh, boy.
So if anything ever did come to us... And I don't think that they kept track of the replacements like they did the original boys. We probably wouldn't have gotten it anyhow. Was your husband wounded or anything while he was overseas?
I don't think he was wounded. He was in the hospital because he had an abscess on his neck. But I don't think... It wasn't from the helmet. It was from the helmet, I think. Oh, maybe so. He had a great big scar about that big on the back of his neck.
They sent him to Lady General. Fred. Hess. They called him Little Daddy. Because he was so young and he had a little boy.
If he'd been living now, how old would he be? He'd be 66. 66. But he'd be younger than me then. He was 63 when he died. I'm 67. I thought I was the youngest, but I found somebody younger now. He's passed away though.
Yeah. Well, and you've been to... How many of these now? Are these reunions here? This would be your third one? Well, St. Augustine was the first. Mississippi was the second and this is the third.
Oh, I mean the second one of Joe Wall's reunions. No, only the first. Oh, is this your first one of Joe Wall's? Yeah. I thought St. Augustine was a Joe Wall reunion. Or was that the 31st? Well, that was the 31st. That was the 50th anniversary.
Oh, yeah. I was thinking about going to that, but I... Joe was there. Was he? I couldn't make up my mind. That was run by the Society? Bob Hawke. No, this was run by the Historical Foundation in St. Augustine.
Bob Hawke is the historian of the Florida National Guard. And it was held in conjunction with the opening of the museum at Camp Landing. And that's how I got involved because... How'd you get involved with the 124th Society?
Well, at this reunion I met three young soldiers who are active duty National Guard people. And I found out that the 2nd Battalion of the 124th Infantry is still in active unit. And its headquarters is in Orlando.
So that's not too far. It's 80 miles from where I live. And we were working then on trying to get the money together to have the Colgan Woods painting done.
And they got to talking and they said, we're going to start a plan, a museum in the headquarters of the 124th Armory, the headquarters battalion. And I said, okay, fine. And from there I'm now vice president of the 124th Regimental Association.
I saw you, the literature you had that in Jackson, Mississippi on the table of the 124th.
And we're working on the museum. And the painting is on the wall. And I've been busy lately collecting gear to dress a mannequin in combat mode. Because see, we have General Harrison's uniform with all his stars and everything.
And I said, if that's going to be in the museum, there's going to be a ground pounder standing right next to him. So I've been collecting all this stuff. I've got a carbine. I have him all dressed with World War II equipment.
And that's been kind of fun. But right now all my National Guard guys are down in Miami with the hurricane. I haven't been able to get enough work done in the last month.
But it's coming along. And it's nice.
Are you staying until the end of the reunion through Saturday night?
Sunday. I'll leave Sunday morning.
You always got a nice program lined up with all the tours and stuff.
Yeah. I was here once before with my husband in 1963. We came up for a weekend. We lived in Atlanta at the time. We came up for a weekend and we stayed at the Grove Park Inn.
And it's very historic. It's where Scott Fitzgerald lived for a while and whatever. But I didn't get to see anything. We just came up and stayed in the hotel for a weekend. So I'm kind of anxious to see the Biltmore.
Well, you was over there at that museum across the street this afternoon.
No, I had just gotten here and I was up packing my bags. So I didn't see that. But I'm not going on the tour Saturday. I figured by Saturday I'm going to need to get some rest. So I thought Saturday I'll run over and see it.
You're going to go to the barbecue on Friday night?
Yeah. The only thing I didn't sign up for was the tour Saturday because it's to Chimney Rock and I'm not big on height. I don't like being up high. And I figured you've seen one mat and you've seen them all. So I needed days rest on Saturday.
Well, it's been nice meeting you and talking to you and hope you have a good time here.
Oh, I'm sure I will.
I will.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you.
Yeah. Thank you.
I'm going to cut this thing off.
Very good.
Okay. Thank you very much.
I was looking at a picture here. Well, this is a reunion here at Asheville, North Carolina in 1992. Oh, these are five people here. They're all coming to be 167.
My name is Leo Logo and on my left here is Norman Steely and this is his first reunion.
Right.
50 years with us guys.
It is.
50 years.
I'll try to be back next year.
You're from where?
Reading, Pennsylvania.
He was in the machine gun squad.
Right.
And over here, the old Weidemann.
I'm from two places.
Baltimore, Maryland.
Baltimore, Maryland and from?
Florida.
Yeah, Florida.
And Florida.
Boynton Beach, Florida.
Dune Marsh.
Greensboro, Alabama.
Greensboro, Alabama. This is your second reunion.
Second time, yeah.
That was Bill's third reunion.
Yeah, Bill been here lots of times.
Bill Marine over here.
I'm from Harlock, Maryland.
First platoon, or was it?
Yeah, first platoon.
This is your second reunion.
That's right.
And you're from where, Maryland?
From Harlock, Maryland, on the eastern shore of Maryland, close to the Atlantic Ocean.
Yeah.
All five of us are going to be back next year, I hope.
Lord willing.
We hope.
Yeah, all right.
Where are we going to have it next year?
Well, we don't know yet.
I'm going to try and bring it to Dayton, Ohio.
I'd rather go way up in the New England states.
Well, we can get that next year after next.
We might be dead by then, at the age we're getting.
You got a heap of them left, Leo.
No, Leo, they're all younger than I am.
Well, I think that would be enough for now.
Everybody's on camera.
I'm always at the home of Pete DiGiulio here at 818 Luther Lane in Chicago Heights.
A nice warm sunny day here, about 65, 70 degrees.
We're out here just kind of enjoying the sun.
We just got back from a golf course.
He's one of my old Army buddies, Company B, 167th Infantry, 31st Division.
I was overseas with him all the time.
I never met him until I got overseas.
Pete, how many years were you in service?
Three years.
Three years as all of this 167th Infantry, right?
No, I was with the 106th Division in South Carolina.
From South Carolina, it dispersed, and we went to Camp Pickett, Virginia,
and joined the 31st Dixie Division.
That was Camp Pickett, Virginia.
Camp Pickett, Virginia.
We were with the 167th Regiment, Company B.
Later, we did our training in Camp Pickett maneuvers in the mounds of Virginia, West Virginia.
From there, then we were shipped to Norfolk, Virginia,
and we got on a what they call Jamaican freighter all the way to New Guinea.
I think somewhere in Mori-Ti, this man right here to my right.
I met you in Oral Bay.
Oral Bay.
Well, that's in New Guinea.
That's in New Guinea, right.
Then we went to Mori-Ti.
Yeah, Mori-Ti, Mendenal, all the campaigns.
It was rough, it was laughter, cries, miserable, but we're here.
Yeah, well, we both are.
And thank God.
Thank God neither one of us got hurt.
I got injured once, but it wasn't serious.
And I was, I made Staff Sergeant in combat.
Yeah, he was combat, made staff in the, up on the front lines.
Front lines, right.
Front lines, right under fire.
Didn't want no command because until I knew what I was doing.
And then I hardly knew what I was doing anyway.
Yeah, he was a little bit shaky, everybody was.
Everybody was shaking in the boots.
But as far as this Dixie Rebel Division is one of the best outfits
and most colorful boys that I ever met.
This Alabama boys, Doom Marsh, Dick Marsh, O'Neal from Alabama,
all National Guard, what do you call?
Owen Stewart, remember him, he was our platoon sergeant.
Rough and tough boys.
Owen Stewart was our platoon sergeant.
Yeah, that's the one.
Bert Meadows.
Sergeant Stewart was the one I was telling you about.
Yeah, right.
I couldn't remember that when the point system first came out,
when the first battle that we were in, it was like a fairyland.
It was unbelievable that we were being shot at.
At the same time, the point system came up and two fellows left the premises
to go back home and one was Billy Graham, the bugler,
and the other I don't remember.
But I couldn't understand how we're fighting a war
and they have a point system for these boys to go back.
It was unbelievable, but I was kind of glad for them anyway.
Right, yeah.
Well, Pete, I enjoyed your visit.
I came up here and thanks for inviting me up here.
I'm glad.
And I'm going to invite you down to my place.
It was nice.
Finding a way to get down there.
It was nice of you to come.
If you want to fly down sometime, I'll meet you at the airport.
We had an enjoyable evening last night.
Played 18 holes of golf this morning.
We hacked at them, but so what?
We had a nice time.
And Lee, I appreciate you coming.
And I wanted you to give your widely nice thank you.
All right.
I'm going to cut this off right here then and that will be it.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you a lot, Pete.
We're in the same.