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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCharles K.Horner, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle First of Two Parts Charles K. Horner is a man who was educated and trained as a musician prior to World War II and was trained further as a musician by the army during the war. But when he landed in France, his musical instruments. ' would be replaced with a rifle until the war ended. Life for Horner began on July 10, 1919, in Abilene, Kansas. According to Horner, " I was born at home and the house we lived in when I was born had been purchased by my parents from General/President Eisenhower's grandfather. General/President Eisenhower's parents lived next door and Mrs. Eisenhower assisted with my birth. Growing up I never thought that I would be ', serving under my neighbor's son, trying to defeat Hitler R4 and Nazism." "I graduated from Abilene High in 1937 and enrolled at Kansas State University with a double major i in physics and music. I got my degree in the spring of 1941 and got a job as a band teacher in Phillipsburg, Kansas. I was making good money, about $100 per f month. "After Pearl Harbor, I was home for Christmas visiting family and friends. While out with friends, for a lark, we decided to run by the draft board. We introduced ourselves and they appreciated us coming by and getting to meet us because they were going to send me my notice after Christmas. My life has never been the same since that very moment. "I decided I needed to volunteer if I wanted to avoid carrying a rifle, marching through mud and getting blown up. Everywhere I applied I was turned down until the army said they could place me in the luartermaster Corps. All I thought I would have to do was issue equipment to those unfortunate ones who would be carrying rifles and getting blown up. And that is how I became a patriotic draft dodger. "When the day came for me to leave to go to Kansas City, I packed an old suitcase, kissed Mom goodbye and started to shake my Dad's hand. But instead he bent down, took my suitcase and said he could carry it for me. We walked downtown to the train depot without a word being said. When the train arrived I reached out my hand to shake Dad's hand. Instead of shaking hands, he put his arms around me, an almost unheard-of show of affection for my Dad, and he said, `Well, Charles, do your best but take care of yourself if you can.' I have cherished that moment for over 60 years now. "I was sworn in and sent to Ft. Warren, Wyoming, near Cheyenne for quartermaster training, thinking that I might have a pretty good life in the army passing out blankets and uniforms. That changed when they also tried to train me as a truck driver and then motorcycle driver. One day I was practicing motorcycle maneuvers over a hump on the motorcycle course The lieuten t in charge of training had stopped to I landed I landed pointing directly at braking, I hit the throttle. I didn't kill hi didn't survive. "That incident caused me to be range for training. I remember lying on my belly in zero-degree weather with the wind blowing at about 100 mph when a lieutenant came up and asked if I was Private Horner. I wondered what trouble I was in now. Someone had apparently reviewed my records about my music background, because he took me to the band hall where I was asked if I wanted to be a member of the post band. It wasn't much of a choice between being on that rifle range and playing baritone and trombone inside a warm band hall. "Sometime later, after being in the post band, I saw a notice for army band school. I took the exam and was sent to Ft. Meyer near Washington D.C.. After graduating I was appointed as a warrant officer junior grade with a `NMB' designation. I learned later that meant `No Mention Branch,' which meant you could be sent to any branch of the army. I was soon on my way to Ft. Bliss to be part of ananti-aircraft group. But after arriving there, I was reassigned to the infantry. "Before I left to go to Ft. Bliss I went home on leave. While home, I visited with Mrs. Eisenhower, who was on up in years and becoming somewhat forgetful. When she saw me in my army uniform, she said she had a son in the army and asked if I had run into him. I told her no but that I would write to him and tell him all was well at home, which I did. "One day I received a letter from Supreme Headquarters from General Eisenhower thanking me for my letter and inquiring about my family and others back home in Abilene. Within hours of my receiving my letter from Supreme Headquarters, I was called into the division commander's office. He wanted to know why I had received a letter from the Supreme Headquarters. '. I explained what I had done, but I don't think he ever x believed me. "I and 28 men at Ft. Bliss were assigned to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to become part of the 69th Infantry Division being formed there. It took us five days to get out of the great State of Texas. The 69th was trained exclusively for combat, and it had been decided the `band boys' would be combat soldiers just ''f like everyone else. While at Camp Shelby, the 442nd ' Combat Battalion, made up of all Japanese-Americans, was also training there. They earned the reputation of being a finely tuned combat unit, which they .proved '' again in actual combat. "We were sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, as '' the final staging area before boarding our ship. We boarded ship in New York on the SS Lajune and we were assigned to the extreme forward part, where the sides of the ship come together in the bow. We were to learn later that the waves in the ocean caused this part ", of the ship to move up and down very fast. It was. like ` riding an elevator that didn't stop. We encountered a massive storm on the way over and about 90 percent of ". the men aboard became sick. The smell was something less than Channel No. 5." an Next week, the music stops and the firing starts. watch and when /f you want to have 8 name added to the veterans him. Instead of Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, m, but his uniform orifyouknowaWorldWarl/veferanwhosestoryneeds to be told, contact the BWM at www. veteransmemorial. sent to the rifle org or Bil/ Youngkin at (979J 260-7030. By Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Second of Two Parts When Charles K. Homer and the members of the 69th Infantry Division band made landfall in England, they were dispatched to Winchester. Their duty was to entertain the troops with concerts all over England and to provide music fof dances every night. Homer also conducted a performance at Winchester Cathedral.As he recalled, "After D-Day, we received our orders for the 69th to go to France. The band received orders to put away our instruments and to prepare to land on the continent. We were now going to do what we had been trained to do, function as combat soldiers. We boarded ship and that night crossed the [English] Channel. "At dawn, you could see the shore of France. LSIs came along side to take us to shore. Getting on an LSI~ in 30 to 40 foot swells is a difficult task. "I made it aboard without breaking a leg and headed to shore. When the ramp went down, I assumed we would be on dry land. I was wrong again, because we had to wade in chest-deep cold water to get to the shore. After wading to the shore, we were trucked to Leon, France. "We stowed our instruments in a small town -the name I can no longer remember -and we were moved by train to Belgium. After we arrived, we knew we were in a combat area, but no one seemed to know exactly where the enemy was located. "Our first night in the line, I set a perimeter guard and we sent out patrols. The mud was everywhere and made a sucking sound when you walked.l was with one of the patrols when we heard that sucking sound coming toward us. "They seemed to not be in a hurry, they just kept coming. We spread out and I demanded they ident'rfy themselves. They didn't stop, but continued to come toward us making more is foot noises. I zeroed in on the location of the sound and fired. The sound stopped. "We spent a sleepless night wondering what was out there. Daylighttold the story. I had shot and killed a cow. I went ( down in the history of the 69th Division Band as having fired ~, the first shot in combat, but killing a cow, not the enemy." The Germans started an offensive that would later be called the Battle of the Bulge. Horner and the 69th were sent to join in the battle. Homer recounted these experiences from that battle: "The thing I remember most was the cold. From the time we landed in France to VE Day, I don't remember being warm. What we did during the Battle of the Bulge was survive. After all these years, there are some things that happened that are ' difficult to talk about, but what is done is done." When the German offensive failed, the American forces started the drive into Germany. The objective was to enter `;~ Germany across the Rhine River. The Germans had destroyed ' ' all the bridges except for the railroad bridge at Remagen. Homer recalled ff this way: "I was in the area of Remagen when the bridge was discovered still standing. We had captured it sort of intact. I was in about the last group to go across before it became ' unsafe to use. "I remember the action on the east side of the Rhine a being pretty lively. The Germans were well-entrenched and - anxious to make us retreat, but the bridge was not usable to re-cross. It may be that the only reason we did not pull back was because there was no place to go. "The other incident that will forever be in my mind was ''• when we liberated Dachau outside Munich. I was sent to Dachau with the assignment to contain the prison population, .. get them fed, cleaned up, medicated and remove the bodies "'' of the dead. "When I entered, t smelled death. There were bodies in '? the ovens still partially burned. Those alive were almost dead, °;` just walking skeletons. They were `housed' in temporary-like barracks, stacked into the bunks, three to a bunk, just like cordwood. Some of those in the bunkswere also dead. "When they looked at you with their dull sunken eyes, you could tell they hardly knew we were Americans. Those ,'; that could stand and move had to be contained. "ff they had been allowed to leave the camp, there would have been a mass murder of the German civilians who lived ': across the road from the camp. I can't say 1 would have blamed them 'rf they had. "To contain the prisoners, we had to use our rifles. We '' buried and identified the dead as best we could. Most of the people seemed to be from Poland and the Balkans. "We billeted our troops in the German civilian housing '', after making the German families move out. We did give them the option of staying in the camp, but none of them took us `_ up on ouroffer. {After the war, I have retumed to Dachau twice now. The German people have made Dachau into a beautiful memorial to those who perished there.) "When the war ended, my commander wanted me to '' re-form our band. I explained to my commander that our ; instruments were in France. His reply was that was not his problem; he just wanted his band. "Without orders, maps or approval, we commandeered somevehicles, drove to France and collected our instrumens. When we retumed, we played for all kinds of functions. We held concerts all over Europe to include playing for the King of Denmark at his summer palace. "We were in such demand, I didn't think I was ever going to be_allowed to go home despite having the points necessary." Homer did return home, however, and entered the business world in Kansas. He became an executive with the _. Chult Corp. He ended his career supervising Chult's production plant ~. in Navasota before retirement. He has lived in College Station since 1976. When asked about his experience and what it meant to him, he responded, "I became a patriot as a result of my experience. I became, aware of the price required for the freedoms. we enjoy." Charles Horner who expected to just be one of the boys in the band during the war, was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor in combat. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial and need more information, or if you want to make a contribution or know a World War II veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWMat www. veteransmemorial. s org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030.