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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJames G. Rosier Sr., Brazos Valley Heroes y, s~ ~~4 ~ r r a x~ L ~ tea,. , i3 10 s z gym" ames ,k ossier, Sr. w., By Bill Youngkin and my one-half to North Africa. Special to The Eagle "We left Ft. Meade, Maryland on a fast navy transport ship for North Africa, landing at Oran, Algeria. From there First of Two Parts we sailed across the Mediterranean to Naples. We trained there for a period and then to Anzio. We were to be used A lot of people travel to Italy and say it is the best place as replacements, but my unit I was to join had already left IN to visit in Europe. James G. Rosier Sr. of Bryan was able to for Rome. I finally caught up with them north of Rome. I take a walking tour of Italy. The only problem was, he had was now part of the 361st Infantry Regiment of the 91st to fight Germans on that walking tour all the way from Infantry Division, We were attached to the 144st Infantry Naples to Brenner Pass in the Alps. According to Rosier, "It of the 36th Division to get our initial combat experience wasa long walkand itwas always uphill, with the Germans and we moved into the line with them. x always holding the high ground "After that initial experience we were reformed Rosier's story began on November 11, 1918 in Wixon, together as the 361st and we were bivouacked in the Texas, which is now called Wixon Valey. As related by oldest olive grove you could ever imagine. It was there that Rosier, "I attended Edge School until the ninth grade and my job and thereafter during the Italian Campaign was then transferred to Stephen F. Austin in Bryan, where I determined. I was interviewed by a first lieutenant named u RON graduated in 1938. It took me longer than most as I had Billy Brooks, who was only 21 while I was 25 already. In the to drop out of school a couple of times to help on the farm. interview I informed him that I had some scout training. He &1i After graduation, I farmed for awhile and then worked at then asked me, not told, if I would like to join his platoon Duncan Dining Hall at A&M, because he was short on scouts. s On February 11, 1941 1 resigned my job and enlisted "I thought to myself that I probably shouldn't have in the army for what I thought would be a one-year tour, mentioned my scout training. But because he asked I said I was assigned to the 36th Infantry Division and was sent sure: It was a decision that I am glad I made because we to Camp Bowie at Brownwood, Texas. I was counting became friends for the rest of our lives until he died in IgOk down the days on my enlistment when Pearl Harbor was 2002. It worked well for us because he trusted me and I a' attacked. That one-year enlistment would turn into five trusted him, which really helps when people's lives are on years. On December 9, two days after Pearl Harbor, we the line in combat situations. boarded a train for the west coast, ending up at Ft. Lewis, Washington. "That trust situation began the very next morning , when we went on the attack as a unit. Lt: Brooks sent me "They wanted to send us to Attu, Alaska, the most out on my own to scout ahead, and I have to confess I was western island in the Aleutian Island chain, but we weren't one scared soldier out there by myself. Fortunately the IS ' prepared for that so they sent another unit. We would be enemy was on the move and we had no real battle. Three` used us as guards on every asset they thought might be days later we were on the attack again with my squad attached by the Japanese. We guarded railroad bridges, I was now the squad leader - being held in reserve. Our airports, radio stations, you name it - we guarded it:' advance was held up by sniper and machine gun fire. Lt. "While in San Francisco I was trained in intelligence Brooks sent for me and asked me to take two other men e r gathering to include scouting, night compass course and and try to locate the sniper and the machine gun location movement at night without detection. After about eight and report back so we could take out those locations with months in San Francisco we were shipped to the East Coast, our mortars. I picked the men and we took off for what where we did the same type of guard duty there. I had would be my first face-to-face with the enemy, to monitor radio traffic at night for shipping out in the Part two oflames 6. Rosiers story will conclude next Atlantic, so we knew pretty much what was going on with week. His name is found on the Brazos Valley Veterans the war in the Atlantic. Memorial. If you want to have a name added to the "In March 1944 we were assembled in Camp Van Dorn, Veterans Memorial, for more information, to make a Mississippi. They treated us like kings there, which was contribution, or if you know a World War 11 veteran good because this was to be our last duty in the states. We whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www were split up as a unit, with one-half headed to the Pacific bvvm.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030. 3 Y a?r..h y X 4 ~MAr r ta. y u h qq rdRb A ames Rosier Sr. By Bill Youngkin guard on his rifle,l was lying there with my rifle strapped to h my back and no way to protect myself. Fortunately for me he 421 go, Special to The Eagle was dead. I got up and, by using the rock wall, was able to reach I oft dome woods and made it back to Lt. Brooks. They zeroed in on Second of Three Parts the machine gun position with mortars and wiped them out That was to be the first of many situations in which Rosier James G. Rosier Sr. of Bryan served as a scout during World War II. A scout was trained to search for and locate enemy would help locate and remove German positions to prevent his positions before the main body of the infantry unit came unit from stumbling into dangerous situations. through an area. It was like serving asthe permanent point man According to Rosier, "if there was any high ground around b in a modern-day infantry platoon, except you "scouted" for units the Germans held it. On July 4,1944, my squad was given the larger than a platoon and the scouts were out in advance of the assignment to take a villa that was located on a mountain top 70, main body, either alone or in very small groups. nearby. We pushed off at 2 a.m. the next morning and had M During Rosier's first week to serve as a scout in Italy, his moved to within 200 yards of the gate to the villa without any unit was stalled in an advance due to a German machine gun enemy contact, as drawing any enemy fire. "Unknown to us, the army had decided to send up tanks m emplacement and a sniper. Rosier was told to get a couple of men and locate those German positions so mortars could take support, The one thing tanks will do is draw any and all lands 52A; them out. of fire the enemy might have available at them. We got shelled According to Rosier, "After Lt. Brooks gave me all the pretty good by the Germans, killing one of my men. I got hit by Nall. " information he had, I took two of my men and we took off for shrapnel in my hands and arm and was bleeding like a stuck pig ' where we thought the sniper and machine gun were located. Our medic was a Yakama Indian from Washington State and he patched us up after we took the villa. He was killed the next day. When we got there, we discovered that they were probably a set up where we had to cross a wheat field to locate them. The "None of us went to the aid station. We just kept going, g 04, wheat was our only cover, and it wasn't nearly enough cover. up one mountain and down the other side. Some days you ~ "One of the guys with me was shot by the sniper in his right measured your gain in feet, some days in yards and some days kneecap. I worked my way through the wheat to him and asked in miles, but it was always a slow go.The terrain in northern Italy Gw: him if he could get out on his own and he said he could. I told is tough going even without any Germans. You add them to the the other man to go back to Lt, Brooks and tell him where we situation, it really made it tough' thought the sniper fire came from. I had located him by the Survival in combat, despite excellent training and greatskill sound of his rifle bolt opening and closing when he shot Pool in of the individual soldier, often depends on pure luck. One such example was related by Rosier: "I remember one time when k the knee. "But I still had to find the machine gun location. I had now daylight caught us out in an open position and we had to dig z crawled near a rock wall and I knew I was going to have to crawl in. Our BAR gunner had been a coal miner back in Pennsylvania over it. As I inched closer on my belly, the wall seemed to become before the war and he dug the best foxholes you ever saw:' taller. I sent a short volley with my rifle toward where I thought "I told him to trade foxholes with me. I hadn't been in his M they might be and the machine gun raked the wheat above my foxhole more than half an hour when a tank started ring at us.~ = head. I knew for sure now that I needed to get over and behind Around hit about three feet behind that fox hole. It threw dirt that wall. But, the closer I got, thethinner and shorterthe wheat over the top of me and caused me to black out for a second from Z, becameduetothegravellysoil. the concussion. But I realized I wasn't dead. That coo miner- "I knew I had to make a run for the wall so I told the Good constructed foxhole that had saved my life. I made it to the ZZ. Lord he had been good to me for a long time but I sure needed aid station and lay down on a cot. After being able to sleep for his help to get over that wall. I worked the sling of my rifle over awhile, I awoke and was able to return to my unit;' my shoulder and jumped up from the wheat and ran. I had never lames 6. Rosier's story will conclude next week. His name run that fast before or since, but I made it to the wall which is found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, for more was about five feet tall - and vaulted over it, landing flat on the ground on the other side. information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World "To my surprise, I had landed next to a German soldier lying War It veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM spread-eagle on the ground with his hand gripping the trigger at www.bvvm.org or Bill Youngkin at (979)160-7030. TAT T 71; 77-11 C-l!"Mil", s g` - r F e 95 00 g Oft a. :y James G. Rosier, Sr. y 5110, By Bill Youngkin winter in the field.y Special to The Eagle According to Rosier, "We were trying to establish a good defensive line and we were sent to check out the area. By this Third of Three Parts time, our unit-had received 42 new placements and the C.O. said M 'Take these guys with you' It wasn't too long into the patrol that At almost 91 years of age James G. Rosier Sr. of Bryan moves a German machine gun opened up on us. Those 42 new guys took with the quickness of a much younger man. But it is the quiet off in 42 different directions. It took me until noon the next day to manner of his movement that, to those who know him, confirm his find them all. time as a scout in World War II. As a scout Rosier, aldne or in the "In our winter defensive position we fought the rain, we fought company of a small group of other soldiers, would probe enemy the mud, we fought the snow and we fought the Germans. I had it T' lines, investigate the best way to approach enemy positions and reasonably good because we only spent six days in the line and then report back what they observed. three days in a warm dairy barn. It didn't smell so good, but' t was As recalled by Rosier, "Most of the time we were held in reserve dry and it was warm. We had a lot of night patrols where we were until wewere moving into anew area or had encountered resistance out trying to capture Germans to try to get information and they and didn't know what we had run into. It was then that Lt. Brooks were doing the same to us. It was a game of who could capture Y' would send for my squad of scouts. Most of the time a soldier who first. never knew if what they did had any effect on the war, butwe did "By mid April 1945, we were moving again and we reached know that what we did affected those we served with. One time, it the Isonzo River. The Germans had laid a minefield at the river, but affected someone I did not serve with. our engineers had cleared a trail. The problem was our guy turned We were moving along a promontory when Lt. Brooks sent down the wrong trail. The mines and then the German mortars that r back a runner for us because they had spotted some Germans fired on us caused terrible losses. Our brand new C.O. lost his nerve below, outside a small village. We went to investigate with Lt. and Lt. Btpoks had to take over the company. That was when Lt ^E, wa Brooks following right behind us and we had good cover down Brooks was told to take the area ahead of us. He sent me to scout it• to the Germans. My first scout spotted a German at the door of a and when I reported back that it wouldn't work, Lt. Brooks backed Eli! two-story home. He fired once and the German disappeared, and me up and got the higher-ups to change their plans because he 3 he covered me as I zig-zagged to and up the steps and through trusted what I told him. the door. At the same time I came through the door, a German "At the Adagio River we went across on Bailey Bridges, but lieutenant was coming down the stairs dragging an 18-or 19-year- the river bank on the other side was full of snipers. We managed old Italian id.; 9 to get across, locate them, and then directed mortar fire on them "In my best German, I told him to turn her loose, which he did Out came seven white flags. We rounded the German snipers up and raised his arms. She came down the stairs, kissed me on both and sat in a bomb crater with those guys, waiting for the MPs to ~Vl cheeks and ran out the door to her people. That made me feel like come. We had a nice conversation with them. The Germans were ' I was in some movie and not in a real-time war situation. I will tell now becoming more interested in surrendering than fighting, and you that made me feel good because I had helped her out of a really the war was soon over. I ended upon the Yugoslav border watching N'D bad spot. My squad captured nine more Germans who were in the Yugoslavs watching us. I had walked all the way from Naples to other houses and barns in that village. the Italian Alps, but now I got to ride back' "One objective we were ordered to take and that I will always Before Rosier's discharge in October 1945, he was awarded the MZ remember was Livergnano. It was a 300-foot-tall rock escarpment Bronze Star for valor for his actions at the Adagio River. He came with the Germans on top. We knew that we had no choice but climb back toA&M, receiving his degree in 1950. He spent the next 30 almost straight up, and we knew that wouldn't work. We found a years working forthe USDA, retiring in 1980. native who knew about a trail up it and we were sent to check it When asked about what his service meant to him, Rosier q 'out. It wasn't much of a trail, but we could go up it by pushing one responded, "I wouldn't take a million dollars for having done it, but M 01 man up until he was on solid ground and then using our rifle slings I wouldn't give a dime to do it again. I have friends all over the U.S. to help others up. Between pushing and pulling, we managed to from my time in the war and will see what's left of them this fall . get on top, but we lost a lot of people as we were under fire all the in Evansville, Indiana. Lt. Brooks died in 2002 and I sure miss him way up. We finally managed to get three companies on top before at those reunions. He trusted me and I trusted him and because of the Germans began their counter-offensive to push us off. They did that, we both survived the war." their best to drive us off, but we wouldn't drive. We held out long lames 6. Rosier's name is found on the Brazos Valley Veterans s p OWE enough that the Germans finally quit and pulled out." Memorial. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans is By October 1944 the U.S. Army was in the Apennines Memorial, formoreinformation, tomake acontribution, orifyou k F Mountains with the goal of capturing Bologna before winter. The knowa World Warll veteran whosestoryneeds tobetold, contact American forces were unable to reach Bologna and had to spend the theBWMatwww.bvvm.orgorBill Youngkinat(979)160-7030