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HomeMy WebLinkAboutArmstrong, Bob-part 1 of 2--undatedValle„ By Bill Youngkin Vedal to 1heEagle First of two parts. Bob Armstrong's roots in Bryan and the Brazos Valley go back a long way. His family lived in Navasota and Bryan and his father was an attorney in Bryan. He attended Travis Elementary when it originally opened and Stephen F. Austin High when it originally opened. His home was across the road from what is now the Women's Federal Prison, which was then a cotton field. He has seen a lot of changes since his birth on December 9,1923, some 85 years ago. Butthe changes that affected him the most were his experiences during World War 11. According to Bob, "I graduated from SFA in 1941 and enrolled atA &M that fall. I was a 'day duck,' which meant I lived at home while attending A &M. I had a car and would pick up other local boys and drive the five miles from Bryan to the campus each day. "I remember December 7,1941, very well. I was out driving in the family car listening to the radio that Sunday afternoon. I remember that t was about in front of the Systems Building when the radio announcer came over the radio with the news of Pearl Harbor. That guy must have heard Orsen Wells' "War of The Worlds" story, because he kept repeating 'this is real -this is real: I remember going home and waking my Dad up from his nap. I remember him getting mad that I woke him with such foolishness until he heard It on the radio. It was hard for me to believe myself. "I was on campus when they filmed the movie We've Never Been Licked and I remember you could be excused from class if you wanted to be in the marching scenes. My second year I got to feeling guilty about still being in school with so many of my friends already in the service. I drove to Dallas on New Years Day to enlist with the Marine Corps but failed their eye test. I dropped out of school, and it wasn't long before I received my draft notice. "I was inducted in Houston, sent to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio and then to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, for basic training. I applied for OCS but it was full, so the army sent me to the Army Specialized Training Program, which would allow me to continue my education in engineering. 'They sent us to Oklahoma State College at Stillwater. I remember when our trucks pulled onto campus there were all these women leaning out the windows whistling at us They were women who had enrolled in the navy and were there for training. I was to be sent on to Purdue but saw on some of the paperwork that an opening was also available at A &M. So I got the derk to change my orders to A &M." OES "I was now bade on carn taking courses like thermodynamics and other engineering courses when I received a letter from a relative with an APO address. That made me feel guilty again that I, too, wasn't overseas, so I asked to be dropped from the program and told the army I wanted to be sent for training for overseas duty. I got my wish. "I was sent for training in the desert at Yuma, Arizona, for infantry training. I ended up in a'wire section; where ourjob was to lay phone lines so our command posts could communicate with each other. When we completed our training I was going to go home and get married to my childhood sweetheart but went to Mexicali, Mexico, before I left. We celebrated completing training, but I was also able to buy my mother and fiance nylon hose and perfume, things they could not get at home. "I was sent to Ft. Dix, where mywifejoined me. We took a trip into New York City and stayed at the Taft Hotel. The next morning when I walked out of the hotel, it was almost likethe city was deserted. Then I noticed the headline in the paper. We had invaded France. D -Day had occurred while we slept. "We soon left for Europe on the Queen Mary, all 18,000 men in our division. I slept on deck one night and the next night in bunks below deck. We rotated like that until we reached Glasgow, Scotland. From Glasgow we weretmcked to outside Manchester, where Patton had assembled his Third Army. We were now part of this army as the 80th Infantry Division. It was a division made up mostly of coal miners from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. "We went over the Channel and were offloaded into a LST. As we were going over the side we were each given a complimentary carton of cigarettes which had printed on the side that they were the compliments of some funeral home from Little Hock, Arkansas. I declined my carton. "The hedgerows had just been cleared when we arrived. We gathered outside of St. Lo, France, and that is where Patton broke loose, making it almost to Metz before running out of gas. We would lay lines every time we stopped and leave laying when we left. When we stopped we were just outside Nancy, France. The Germans realized we were out of gas and weren't going to be moving, so we were shelled all day and all night. We would remain in constant combat for the next 10 months" Next week, Armstrong's memories of the Battle of the Bulge, and earning the Purple Heart medal. Bob Am isbong's name isfo and an I he &ws Valley Veterans Memorial ff you wart to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, formorein formanon, tomakeacontrilwbon, orlfyou bmaWoridWarll veteran whosestoryneeds tube told contact theBWMatwww .lrvvm.orgorBillYoungkinat (979)260-7030. One in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest Generation"