HomeMy WebLinkAboutNorman "Sam" Pack, Brazos Valley Heroes H
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One in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest
l i: Generation'' who served our country during World War 11
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N orman "Sam" Pack was seventeen when he b of fi gers and toes." VA
Fiii Ieft home and went to work at Duncan Dining Hall After the German advance was halted, Pack and
• on the A &M campus. his company continued the Allied push toward i
After growing up in the depression, I never Germany.
wanted to go hungry ever again so I got a job In Holland, Pack and two friends, all farm
< where I fed others and got fed myself." boys, went to a farm and home that hadn't been
"In 1943, I received my induction letter and destroyed by the war to see if farming was differ- F F. ,
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reported to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio. I was ent than back home in Robertson County.
assigned to the Army's 5th Infantry Division." "They were nice people but didn't have much r
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g Pack eventually ended up in an anti -tank to eat. We went and got duffel bags of sugar,
O company, and in 1944 was sent to Wales in Great chocolate, flour and things they hadn't seen in
Britain for further training before joining the fight- some time. They fed us and put us up for the night
4 ing going on in France and Belgium. in a feather mattress. It was the first night that I
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"That training got cut real short because of a slept warm in quite some time."
German offensive that started that winter, which After the war, Pack delivered mail in Bryan
• later became known as the Battle of the Bulge." until his retirement. Today he lives in the Shiloh
Pack and his unit were brought into the line at St. community of Robertson County, back on the
Ow Vincent, Belgium. family farm, where he has the best garden around. V
6 "None of us had ever experienced battle "I always thought that going hungry was bad
before and everyone was anxious about what was but I never want to be that cold ever again."
going to happen but the thing that we struggled Sam Pack's name will be added to the Brazos
with from the moment we got there was the Valley Veterans Memorial this fall. For more infor-
rM, weather." mation, to make a contribution or to nominate a
"It had snowed heavily but the cold was what veteran, contact the Brazos Valley Veterans
was terrible. Everything froze. Our food, our Memorial at www.veterans-memorial.org.
clothes. Most of our casualties were due to frost-
gv. The Eagle
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