HomeMy WebLinkAboutJoe L Palermo, Brazos Valley HeroBY it ll Youq
Special to The Eagle
who served our country
For Joe L. Palermo of Bryan, now 93 years of age, his
memory of World War II comes in stops and starts. But'dyou
take the time for his mind to unfold those experiences, it is
time fulfilled. When asked what branch of the he served in,
his response was "The Walking Army "which to any veteran
means the infantry.
Life for Palermo began on March 16,1915, just a couple
of blocks off Texas Avenue. He attended high school at
Stephen F. Austin in Bryan and worked at his dad's clothing
store. After leaving school he entered the bartending
business and later, the bar business, a business that he
would continue for the rest of his career.
According to Palermo, "After Pearl Harbor the draft
picked up and I was drafted and sent to Ft Sam Houston in
San Antonio for induction. From there to El Paso for training
at Ft Bliss.'
It was at Ft Bliss that his "walking" began in earnest
As recalled by Palermo, "One of the last things we had to do
in basic training was to hike 25 miles in full gear. The big
boys had a lot of trouble and mostfell out When we stopped
the first sergeant said we had walked 27 miles in one day's
time"
It's a good thing that walking didn't bother Palermo,
because he was going to do a lot of it before his time in the
army was completed. Palermo would become part of the
newly assembled 103rd Infantry Division and the 409th
Infantry Regiment, the "Cactus Division" as it was named
because of its West Texas roots.
The 409th trained in Louisiana and then was set to
New York to board ship for the trip to Europe. That day was
October 5, 1944. The ship, a converted luxury liner, was
no longer luxurious. Instead, it was an overcrowded troop
transport ship. Seasickness made the stay below deck pretty
miserable. The men were allowed out on deck for limited
periods. Some of the prime features of the time on deck
were crap games, sometimes conducted right next to chapel
services. When the ship passed the Rock of Gibraltar, most
everyone figured the destination to be the Port of Marseille
in France. They were right
Offloading from the ship, the men were marched several
miles to their bivouac area. As recalled by Palermo, "I walked
from the shores of France, and my walking didn't end until
we reached the Alps in Austria' Another thing recalled by
Palermo about the first few days in France in early November
1944 was how cold it was. The cold would only get worse.
The rumor in the unit had been that the 409th would
not be sent overseas or that they were to only be an army
of occupation for Germany after the war ended. But when
to road, they
knew they were headed to combat On November 9,1944,
they entered the Vasques Mountains near St Die, France, for
their first combat action.
When one of the men asked the American troops they
found there where the front lines were, the response was
"Hell, son, your on the front line now." it would be the day
the first man from the unit was killed by German artillery
fire.
The first battle involved crossing the Faintmx River. As
recalled by Palermo, 0 1 had never learned to swim and still
don't know how to swim. I was as afraid of drowning as
much as anything else." That river could be waded, but it
would not be Palermo's last river crossing. It would be his
last river crossing of the war that would be his most difficult
and the nearest he came to serious injury.
By December 1944 Palermo and his unit reached the
Siegfried Line. They were now in Germany but would not
be there long. The German offensive known as the Battle
of the Bulge would begin and Palermo and the 409th were
moved back into France. By March, they again attacked the
Siegfried line and on into Germany again.
It would be another river that would create the most
trouble for the non - swimming Palermo. As recalled by
Palermo, "We reached the Danube River, which was heavily
defended. We dug in along the river, but German snipers
were set up across the river and were very accurate. One shot
hit my helmet, but fortunately it wasn't on my head at the
lime. Our C.O. told us to stay down in our foxholes, but the
guy next to me got thirsty and wanted to get some water
out of the river. When he left his foxhole to go to the river, a
German sniper shot him in the throat, killing him. That kept
the rest of us in our foxholes.
"When the big guns opened up, we attacked across the
river but in boats that had been brought up, which was good
because I knew I couldn't swim across. On that trip across
the river, it was a constant stream of shells overhead, theirs
and ours."
The war ended for Palermo and the 409th in the Austrian
Alps at Wong 1, Austria. Their walking was not over, however,
because they would be required to march in a parade for
General Patton. After the war, Palermo came home and back
into the business which he ran until he sold out and retired.
Looking back on that experience, he recalled "I was glad
to see the war over with and glad I made it through it"
If you want to have a name added to the Veterans
Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution,
or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs
to be told, contact the BWM at www.bvvm.org or Bill
Younokin at (979) 260 -7030.
One in a series of tributes to members of" The Greatest Generation"