From Lexington to Ledo, from Keydet Cavalry to F Troop, and then Home from WWII
Dad never talked a lot about his experience in World War II. We knew he was a soldier. We could see the scar on his shoulder from getting shot. We saw his Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals. But there was very little conversation about what he did and where he was. After a recent visit to the Virginia War Memorial where our docent talked about this subject and said "Just ask", I wish I had been a little bolder in asking but I wasn't. So I am left with what I can reconstruct from what he left behind.
Here goes my attempt at that, and all mistakes are mine, mostly due to not doing adequate research, I hope. (Note- On many pages of the illustrations, it is better to view them as a whole page for legibility. I have included small versions in the narrative to keep it flowing but added full pages for legibility in sequence at the very end.)
Maybe VMI is a good place to start. Possibly because of his love of cowboy movies, Ken Maynard, and Tom Mix, Dad joined the cavalry section at VMI. Then again there may have been another reason: In an interview with Michael G from the Greenbrier in 2012, Dad says that at that time the VMI Keydets had to choose between Artillery, Infantry, and Cavalry. Although he had not much experience riding, he had read a book my grandfather had about WWI in his attic and couldn't have missed seeing the horrors of trench warfare. That makes Cavalry a pretty logical choice.
Much, much later Dad gave an interview to the VMI alumni magazine in which he spoke about VMI, premonitions of the war, and preparation for it.
The timing is interesting- Dad graduated from John Marshall High School in June, 1939. He was in the cadet corps there (maybe all the boys were?):
He matriculated at VMI as VMI was celebrating its 100th birthday and at just about the same time as Germany invaded Poland in September and the war started in Europe.
In 1993 the Richmond Times Dispatch printed an article about members of the VMI Class of 1943 gathering for their 50th Reunion. While Dad was not one of the four interviewed, he must have shared the same feelings they expressed- outright fear about the war, about the Ratline, wonder about whether they could take it and make it, horror and shock at the Ratline experience. While I have heard Dad express wonder about how he survived, he put on a stoic face for the VMI interview and said "Well, there was nothing more or less than I expected [about the Ratline]. There was a tendency to get into trouble whether you were responsible for it or not."
Dad was also a Boy Scout and the motto which I think he adhered to was "Be Prepared". He knew the draft was coming and did not want to "just play along and get drafted". Like so many he was interested in doing his part. So VMI made sense.
The military draft did come in 1942 and everyone of a certain age had to register with what became Selective Service. Here's his registration form:
In his VMI interview Dad talks a bit about his love/hate relationship with the school. He did not think the school prepared him very well for what was coming- lots of time for drill and parade but we "never got a chance to ... get acquainted with an M-1 rifle".
Borrowing again from the RTD article, WWII for the US started right after Thanksgiving in 1941, right after VMI beat Va. Tech in football (yes, that did happen occasionally back then), and two weeks after VMI's Ring Figure where the third year Keydets got their school rings. To continue from the RTD, Dad's class graduated a month early because of the war. His classmate is quoted as saying "By Wednesday [after Saturday graduation] half the class was married," and then off to war. The article mentions the dedication of the graduates and even mentions a trick Dad used decades later in renewing his drivers license- some would memorize the eye chart in order to pass so they could serve.
For much more about VMI, including letters, school newspapers, many, many photos of classmates and the barracks, see my grandmother's album. Here are a couple of items-
I have added a full page copy of this book review at the end of this narrative:
Dad would have gotten a student deferment from the draft while he was at VMI. He said that his class was the first to go straight to Officers' Candidate School (OCS) after graduation so everyone in his class graduated as a corporal (full page added at the end).
As it worked out, OCS did not start until the fall of 1943 so Dad went to work at Albemarle Paper in the lab prior to heading off for training. Later on I would wonder how Dad managed to get 55 or 60 years of service recognition from Ethyl and Albemarle and now I know. In the interview with VMI he slyly noted that at that time he was drawing two paychecks- one for corporal's pay from the Army and one from the paper company.
Dad, two classmates who stayed long term friends, John S. Halsey, a future Paper Company employee, and Jeffrey G. Smith, a future general in the Army and then in charge of Ethyl's Washington DC government relations office much later, along with many others were ordered to OCS at Fort Riley, Kansas. He had another life long friend from VMI, Prince Woodard, whose orders sent him elsewhere.
The full three pages of the orders following completion of OCS and commissioning him as a second lieutenant effective 15 Jan. 1944, complete with all the Army abbreviations and mumbo jumbo are shown at the end:
Secondarily, on 15 Jan 1944 Dad received an addendum to his commission as a Second Lieutenant Cav-Res. I think paragraph 2 of the commission is a bit humorous- "You will not perform the duties of an officer... until specifically called to active duty...". This full page is also available at the end.
In the full page of this photo of Dad's OCS class at Fort Riley at the end, you can see him clearly (third from the right, middle row), along with John Halsey, and Jeff Smith. At a reunion of the group someone got out this photo and had some of the attendees sign it.
The second page of the earlier three pages of orders for the graduates notified Dad that he was being sent to the 56th Cavalry Brigade in Fort McIntosh, Texas which Dad always referred to as Brownsville Texas "on the Mexican border."
A note about Fort McIntosh- This fort was established in 1849 to protect the border near Laredo TX. Dad must have been in heaven to be stationed at an actual fort where the US Cavalry of all those western movies he watched had been present. After the Civil War the 10th Cavalry composed of African-American "Buffalo Soldiers" was headquartered there. Perhaps it is because of this that he loved Frederick Remington's "The Alert" painting (postcards and business cards found in his office) which portrays a mounted Buffalo Soldier, although it has not been firmly established that this soldier was one from the 10th. The Army closed Fort McIntosh after almost 100 years of service right after WWII.
Facilities at Fort McIntosh from Wikipedia:
The Alert by Remington (full page at the end too):
I recall Dad telling us he used to have a sweetheart on the Mexican side of the border that he almost married. That must have been from his service at Fort McIntosh and would have been a good story to get more details about but I didn't push.
Dad could have been driving up to San Antonio for flying lessons when he had leave because he kept an October 16, 1943 copy of the Tale Spinner, the newsletter of the San Antonio Air Cadet Club, through all these years. Or perhaps he took lessons from the Civil Air Patrol unit also stationed at Fort McIntosh.
After perhaps 4-6 months of training down on the border Dad was transferred back to Fort Riley. He kept up with the flying lessons. One day the instructor told him to come back the next day to solo. But, his VMI interview continues, then orders came out that no one could leave the post because they were waiting to ship out overseas. He somehow got around that (VMI was good on teaching you how to get around orders, he said) and showed up to solo, but his instructor had gone out of town.
Backtracking a bit, I don't know how the assignment was made, but Dad was placed in the 124th Cavalry Regiment. I am not sure whether it was about this time or later that he was assigned to F Troop within the 124th. I am not sure whether this is when the group of soldiers from Mineral Wells Texas joined his unit or whether they were already there. Before being absorbed into the Army, the 124th had been part of the Texas National Guard. The motto of the 124th was the Spanish or Mexican phrase "Golpeo Rapidamente" which means "I Strike Rapidly":
(Dad must have gone to some reunions of the is unit because we still have his tie from the 124th, a few of these stickers, and a membership roster.)
These are the Mineral Wells boys after they got to Burma:
In May 1944 the 124th came back to Fort Riley with all their horses. The unit was beefed up with new soldiers and left July 7, 1944 for California. (For perspective please remember this was a month after D-Day in the European Theater.) In a strange twist they left their horses behind but took all their saddles etc. On July 25, 1944 the unit boarded the USS General H. W. Butner troop transport ship for a slow southerly route to Bombay, India (to avoid Japanese submarines). Dad said they made a stop in Melbourne, Australia long enough for him to buy an ice cream cone but that was all.
The full page print about this ship and its history is included at the conclusion.
From Bombay (now Mumbai) on the west coast of India, far away from any action, the unit moved by wide gauge rail across the country to the Ramgarh Training Center in the province of Bihar (I think Ramgarh is now called Rangpur and is in Bangladesh.) This is 150 miles west of Calcutta (now Kolcatta) (east side of India). Ramgarh was a training center for the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
The Army had a little surprise for the 124th in Ramgarh. The 124th was dismounted but would retain its Cavalry designation. It was renamed the 124th Cavalry (Special) and reorganized as a long range penetration unit. I think it is pretty fitting that Dad, the big fan of western movies, had the luck to be a member of what was recognized as the last horse cavalry unit in the US Army.
The destination for the 124th was Burma (now Myanmar). Burma had fallen to the Japanese in 1942, and then it had been fought over intensely due to the Burma Road from India to China. The Chinese needed supplies from the Allies (another route was flying the "Hump" over the Himalayas, also very dangerous) and the British and Americans did not want the Japanese to find an attack avenue into India. The Japanese were intent on preventing Allied supplies from getting to China.
The regiment left Ramgarh on October 20, 1944. Transportation was on primitive rail and river steamer up the Brahmaputra River to Guwahati (in Assam, India). I found a photo (included at the end) in the archives of the unit walking on a spindly bridge to the edge of the Brahmaputra. Here is a picture from my 2018 cruise on the Brahmaputra River showing the significant build up of silt that makes the channel hard to find:
The unit then went by narrow gauge rail through the Assam Valley to Ledo, from Ledo to Myitkyina, Burma by C-47 aircraft, and then to Camp Landis by truck. It took 11 days and I doubt it was easy travel.
At Camp Landis the 124th joined the famous Mars Task Force, previously in existence. Mars was thus composed of the 124th Cavalry, the 475th Infantry Regiment (formerly known as Merrill's Marauders), a Chinese Combat team, two battalions of field artillery, some quartermaster mule pack troops, and medical and other support units. It must have been a quite substantial operation in motion. Here is a photo from Army archives of the unit and its mules crossing a river in Burma:
There was more training in Myitkyina to prepare for an offensive to the Burma Road near Lashio. The first goal was to push toward Bhamo (You can see more detail in the full page version of this map later.).
The mission was to clear Northern Burma of Japanese forces and to open the Burma Road for truck traffic to China. Paraphrasing from the book "Marsmen in Burma", a first edition of which, signed by the author in 1946, Dad kept in his home office, the force moved more than 200 miles by foot over hazardous terrain consisting of mountainous jungles, steep trails, swift streams and rivers, hot days, cold nights, rain, mud, malaria carrying mosquitoes and the constant fear of typhus from mites. They were cut off from friendly lines and dependent on the Army Air Corps for supplies by parachute.
Dad noted in his VMI interview "everyone in the Cavalry at that time was issued a .45 automatic pistol.... Just before we went into combat, they made us turn in all our .45s."
Chinese forces advanced north to link up with other Chinese forces and the Mars Task Force was to block any Japanese retreat to the south, in particular to clear the mountain ridges near Loi Kang which overlooked the Burma Road. Some of these hills were higher than our Blue Ridge Mountains (3800-4200 feet) and thick with trees and underbrush.
The 124th made contact with the enemy on January 18, 1945. It took over hills near Namhpakka where the Japanese had a large ammunition dump. Ultimately the Marsmen could not secure a full roadblock and the Japanese continued to evacuate troops. The next order was to clear the Japanese from the southern end of Loi Kang.
Dad's commanding officer of F Troop was Lt. Jack Knight from Mineral Wells, Texas. Jack and two of his brothers, Curtis and Lloyd, were all in the 124th together. Dad was with Jack Knight on the fatal day described below when Jack won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I have included a photo of pages 10-11 of the July 1954 issue of the Ex-CBI Roundup, a newsletter about the China Burma India theater, written by Boyd Sinclair, which covers the action on 2 February 1945.
While you can read the full print version I have reproduced at the end, I have quoted here from what was written:
"On the morning of 2 February (1945) Knight and his men jumped off at 6:20. Following a barrage [of artillery support] (Dad's notes on a copy he had say he "never saw support from artillery or air") Knight's troop moved 1500 yards through the Hosi Valley jungle, then up a 250 foot slope...; in all there were about 400 men against as many Japanese. Only two Japanese were met on the way. Knight killed them both with his carbine.
" 'There's nothing up here, come on up!' [His] men reached their objective 35 minutes after jump-off. The men began to dig in as Knight reconnoitered the slope [further]... He spotted a Japanese pillbox and grenaded it. He found two more pillboxes and gave them the same treatment.
" 'There's a whole nest of them here', he shouted. Knight found himself in the center of a horseshoe formation of pillboxes. He threw a grenade into his fourth pillbox, then fired his carbine into it."
Here I need to interject a comment from Dad that is in his interview with Michael and his interview with VMI- he stated that the Japanese were good soldiers and said you could be within a few feet of one of the dugout pillboxes and not see it.
Back to Jack Knight- "A Japanese soldier tossed a grenade at the lieutenant. The burst caught him full in the face. As he turned and walked back... to get more... ammunition, the men saw blood dripping from his face. A Japanese soldier tried to bayonet him as he walked past a pillbox. Knight took half of [another soldier's] ammunition and started forward again. As he broke into a run, he muttered... 'I can't see.'
"The troop had caught up with him by then. Concentrated fire came from the pillboxes. Men were falling all around Knight. He regrouped his squads by arm motions and went out front again. He grenaded his fifth pillbox. A grenade landed nearby and wounded him for the second time. This time he went down."
Knight's brother First Sergeant Curtis Knight saw him fall and ran forward... "He was dropped by a bullet under his heart (but survived). ... Lieutenant Knight continued to encourage his men. Then on hands and knees he started to crawl to another pillbox. He was hit by a bullet. It was the end."
Dad was there when Jack Knight died and said, very emotionally, in his interview with Michael, that his last orders were for Dad to finish them [the Japanese] off.
Lord Mountbatten later named this hill Knight's Hill in honor of the Medal of Honor winner. See also p. 189 and on in "Marsmen in Burma" for a fuller description of the Battle of Knight's Hill.
At some time in this action on 2 Feb, Dad's notes say he was shot in the shoulder.
On the back of a photo of a friend in a half track later, the friend wrote that he is qualified driver of the vehicle and now "at least I'll have more cover than we had on one occasion I can think of." I bet he was remembering 2 Feb 1945.
There is a family story that he wrote his mother later that day and opened the letter with "Today I forgot to duck."
The map below is taken from a book "Elephant Company" that Dad marked up with where he was shot and where had to go to get care at the 204th General Hospital in Ledo, India (reproduced later in full).
This story about his unit was from 15 Feb 1945 while he probably would have been in the hospital:
I can't find how long Dad was in the hospital recovering from his wound. I know he was watching the news about the other fronts from this China Command Post newspaper he still had in 2022 dated 23 February 1945 (see detail later):
His regiment went south to Lashio on 28 February (see earlier map). Dad possibly caught up with the 124th there. Then they were flown over the Hump to Kunming China by May 14. The assignment there was more training, training more Chinese troops, and even Military Police duty for a while. Mostly they were anxiously and fearfully waiting the assignment to invade Japan. Service in China earned him (and others) the Breast Order of Yun Hui with Ribbon from the Chinese National Government (not the Communist Chinese Government yet) in 1946.
In Dad's interview with VMI, he mentioned how he learned about the end of the war- He and another officer were playing chess and a bunch of the guys went into another room to listen to the BBC news. They came back into the room laughing. Dad asked why and they said the BBC had announced a new type of bomb had been dropped on Japan. BBC said it expected the war to be over in a few days. No one believed it. When the Japanese did surrender I can imagine the cheers and relief.
Here's the way the Richmond Times Dispatch portrayed the surrender (from my grandmother's scrapbook) (the detail later is very interesting)-
The way the troops were sent home after the war was by a point or lottery system since I guess there weren't enough transports. His group was sent back to Calcutta to wait. Here's a photo of him looking well recovered from his wound with some friends in Calcutta-
I don't know the name of the transport back to the States but I know he went from Calcutta to Singapore to Manila to Hawaii and was dealing with seasickness from Hawaii on.
These are his discharge papers in April 1946 from Fort Bragg, NC (full page shown later):
But the Army wasn't quite finished with him. He was in the reserves and even called up to active duty in 1949 with the 318th Parachute (!) Infantry in Richmond for a 24 hour period (see orders from June 1949 at the end). On a positive note, he was able to take advantage of the GI Bill and earn his Masters in Commerce at University of Richmond courtesy of his WWII service.
I have to add that I am thankful for all that training from VMI, Fort Riley, Fort McIntosh, and Ramgarh, for the field hospital staff in Ledo, and everywhere/everyone else which helped to get him home safely.
Postscript-The 124th Cavalry Regiment has been memorialized in a song called "The 124th Lives On" by John Edmond which is available with a simple YouTube search. It is country and catchy and has some great video with it.
And here is the map that is the frontispiece and the end piece of the "Marsmen in Burma" book (also shown as the last of the full pages to follow)-
Closing note- again, all errors are mine. My main sources were the 2014 VMI interview, the interview with Michael at the Greenbrier in 2012, the article from the Richmond paper in 1993, Patrick Feng's article on the 475th, the Ex-CBI Roundup article on Jack Knight, and "Marsmen in Burma" (which is still available on Amazon). wmg
edited 12/2/2023 but the edits were not transposed to the Word version.
