Spring, 1987 - 70th Infantry Division Association

The
•
memorl{
... across
four decades
Trailblazers
recall
personal
history
It's a good thing that the song "Let's Take
the Long Way Home" is not an olden golden.
For it gives Oscar Schrage a HQ/275, a pain in
the rear. You see-"Coming back from the
ETO, our Victory Ship took the northern route.
About three-quarters of the men got very, very
seasick. So the captain changed his course to
the south and that took six days longer to get
home. And they played that doggone song over
and over on the PA."
Oscar, a retired printer, was in the cadre of
the 91 st that formed the Trailblazers. In Philippsbourg
he was in a 3-man crew that operated
a radio in a house 400 yards to the rear of the
company CP. The Germans launched a 2-company
attack aginst the American rear. But they
kept communications open all night and the
next morning 48 of the enemy surrendered.
With his wife Irene he has a son and four
grandsons .
A cherished possession * of James Vaught,
HQ/70 Divarty, is a citation from the President
of the United States and the Postmaster General.
It's for saving the life of a choking infant
by administering artificial respiration until a
rescue squad arrived. He was delivering mail in
Evansville, Indiana, a job he did for II years
until promoted to supervisor of customer service,
where he served for 21 years.
After the war he played with the Trailblazer
baseball team and did a lot of pleasurable
travelling around Europe.
Less enjoyable was taking shelter in a church
near Saarbrucken only to find out that German
88s were zeroed in on it. Exit was precipitous.
While on furlough from Leonard Wood he
married Jean Taylor. They have two daughters
and five grandchildren.
ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE ...
... including this abandoned school
building on the Camp Adair reservation.
For a jam-packed audience of Gls
out on exercises near the Valley View
School, in July 1944, Pat Krewson is
backed by what looks like an impromptu
band. (Photo by Chester Garstki
who took all the other pictures in this
issue unless otherwise noted.)
While SOP was to put a new man under the
wing of an experienced one, the heavy losses
that A/275 sustained in January of 1945 made it
necessary for two replacements to share a foxhole.
Carroll Scott says he still remembers
how scared both of them were that first night
under fire. That he had an infant daughter back
in Baltimore added nothing to his ease of mind.
But he survived and went to the 3rd Division
after combat, returning in May, '46. He's a
project manager in heavy construction and active
in his Lutheran Church and Masonic
Lodge. With his wife Virginia, he has a son and
a daughter and six grandchildren.
Hearing the news about * the death of President
Roosevelt is the saddest memory of Jack
M. McCormick, B/884 FA. Jack joined the
70th in August of '43 and left service in April,
'46 after also serving with the 78th Signal
Corps. He has retired after 35 years as a trans-
portation driver during which time he won
many safe-driving awards.
He and his wife are great grandparents, once;
grand-parents, 10 times, and parents, six. He
lives in Bluffs, Illinois.
Another great-grandfather * is Calvin
Coulter, D/275. He and his wife Hattie also
have three children and six grandchildren.
They already had two children when he joined
the 70th at Adair in July, 1944. They joined
him at Rolla, Missouri when we moved to
Leonard Wood. For 34 years he was in charge
of maintenance at the Hollywood Candy Co. in
Sarasota, Florida.
A combination career * is that of Robert Cantrell,
l/275. He is an ordained minister of the
Southern Baptist conference and has served for
35 years. He's also a master mechanic. With
his wife, the former Anneata Jones, he lives in
Seymore, Missouri. Their only son is deceased.
The big hoopla over the Statue of
Liberty's 200 years reminded him again of his
greatest thrill while in uniform . . . seeing The
Lady as he came home in 1946. He joined the
70th at Adair in August, '43, and served with
the 3rd Division after the Trailblazers came
home.
There were only nine * other men in the unit
when Henry Dickinson joined D/275. He was
Axe-head Archives
8
70th Division Assn. TRAILBLAZER