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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGeorge Mallard, Brazos Valley Heroes i a i ,.gam 6 .., y 6 erie of trihu ' . '' - '' or ""i he Cir to t "4 ' Generation".whoserved our country during World War Il , z Y s r ., r :A. v F. - k '• !''''*] ..":"'..':''..';'' . '..'?..ii :-'..1 ..41 "-N., . 7 ' - ..e.1,: i George . i , : Mallar� `, w George Mallard has a lot of memories of his morning I heard voices. I woke the guy with me, keep - service as a U.S. Marine during World War 11 - some ing my hand over his mouth so he wouldn't cry out. He good, others not so good. But the one memory that got behind the machine gun and started spraying the IL will always remain is of the longest cab ride he ever area. The Japs started firing back and tossing took. grenades. This continued until daybreak. The five of us Mallard was born in Iola but moved soon after held our ground and I didn't lose a man. That hap y'' birth to Robert Lee in West Texas. Later he moved to pened every night for about the first three weeks, but Colorado City, where he graduated from high school. we had a little more help thereafter. We would work all In 1938 he enrolled at A &M to become a member of day and then fight the Japs all night." the Class of '42. Mallard's other job was reconnaissance, which "When Pearl Harbor was bombed, everyone was needed with the division on the move. started preparing for their own entry into the war. I "I sp t most every day in a Jeep doing recon- decided I wanted to be a Marine. Also, the Marines naissance. O ne day I was trying to locate a water point would let you remain in school until you graduated, and came to a bridge that had been destroyed by the which for me was June 1943. Japanese. Two of us walked across the bridge to check "My wife Sissy and I decided to get married, the other side for a suitable spot. There wasn't one, which we did in November 1943. I was stationed for a but the whole time we were there, I felt I was being short while in San Diego, and Sissy joined me there, watched. On the way back over the destroyed bridge knowing I would be there a short time. I was sent to we met an infantry platoon that was going to take up a the South Pacific in the latter part of February 1944. position there that night. The next day, I learned the t! Leaving Sissy was the hardest thing I had ever done. I entire platoon had been wiped out that night. To this was worried about coming home again but was more day I don't understand why they didn't kill us also. worried about leaving her alone in California and her After Okinawa was pronounced secure, Mallar having to make her way home to Bryan. Travel back was sent to Guam to train for the invasion of the I then was always a struggle." Japanese mainland. It was there that he was re- united Mallard was sent to Guadalcanal. where the 6th with his brother -in -law, Pete Adams, who was with the Marine Division was being formed for the invasion of 4th Marines. After the bomb was dropped and the war Okinawa and the Japanese mainland. He was assigned ended, Mallard returned to the U.S. in November 1945 to the headquarters company of the 6th Engineer "I was processed out at Camp Pendelton outside -. Battalion. San Diego. At any travel station, be it plane, bus or "We were trained as combat engineers. We were train, the lines were unbelievable. Some guys had been to have responsibility for building roads, airstrips, waiting for days. About that time an old, long Cadillac mine removal, reconnaissance and water supply. The taxi pulled up to let someone out. I walked up and last two were my job. I was in charge of the water sup- asked the cabbie if he would consider giving a guy a ply for the division, and I taught and ran a reconnais- ride to Texas. He said maybe. When he said how sance school for the division. Reconnaissance was the much, I told him to wait and found two more Texas a eyes of the division." buddies. We hired that cabbie to drive us from San Mallard and his fellow Marines landed on Diego to Dallas, stopping only for gas and food. My Okinawa on April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday and April brother -in -law Pete Adams, who had already gotten Fools Day. That was the first day of continuous home, and his wife Lucille drove Sissy to Dallas to rt kamikaze attacks from the Japanese. Mallard's ship meet me. I don't remember how much that cab ride ' was narrowly missed by one plane before he went cost, but it was worth every penny." �` = ashore. That area of the bay around Okinawa would Mallard went to work in the insurance industry later be referred to as "Iron Bottom Bay" for all the after the war, first with the Insurance Commission of ships sunk there. The Navy lost more ships at Okinawa Texas and later in his own business, Mallard Insurance than in any other battle of World War II. Agency in Bryan, which he ran until his retirement. "The landing was unopposed except for the "I volunteered for the Marines and did my duty, kamikaze planes because the Japs thought we would as a Marine and for my country. I am proud of that. To land elsewhere. That first day, our colonel found a this day, when our flag is raised and the Star Spangled house he liked, so we set up our headquarters around Banner is played, my eyes sting." him. We had to get the water supply going. I located George Mallard's name can be found on the our water system near a stream on the western side of Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. If you want to make our bivouac area. There was also a road that ran into a contribution or know of a World War II veteran whose our area. I was given four men and a .30- caliber story needs to be told, contact the Brazos Valley machine gun to keep our area secure. I and another of Veterans Memorial at www verterans- memoriai:org or the men took the watch the first night. Early in the next Bill Youngkin at 260- 7030.