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Memorial Names

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JAMES STONE

E-9 CHIEF MASTER SERGEANT

US AIR FORCE

HOME : ROSEBURG, OR

Plaque : Wall 2, Row E, Col 7

March 1943 when l was drafted (ordered to active duty) when minimum the age was lowered from 21 to 18. I was inducted into the US Army at Fort Douglas, Utah and trained as an infantryman anti-tanker at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri with prime weapon and jeep towed 37mm cannon. My one year there was followed by three months maneuvers in Louisiana. I departed with the 75th Division, on my way to Europe as a replacement in the fourth coming invasion. I boarded a small troop ship on 11 May 1944 and joined a 65 ship convoy that zigzagged avoiding U Boats 18 days to Liverpool, England. My brief three weeks in England kept me moving ever southward. l was on the Salisbury Plain on D Day, 6 June 1944. I was aboard a huge Netherlands (English possessed) awaiting a storm to subside, finally debarking and joining a replacement group on D Plus 12 (D Day plus 12 days). A short while later l joined the 83d infantry Division, assigned to an anti tank platoon with the third Battalion, 331 Regiment accompanying l, K, or L Rifle companies throughout the war. On 3 Dec 1944 at 1500 entered Germany at Aachen and into the Hurtgen Forest where we relieved the 4th Division and we pushed the enemy to the Rur River. On Christmas Day we were relieved by remnants of the 104s Division who survived the Bulge (a German counterattack aimed at splitting our lines all the way back to the ocean). We trucked to Gey, Germany where we were served in our cold mess kits a turkey dinner. On that same Xmas Day we again boarded trucks, traveled through Maastrich, Holland to Liege, Belgium to be regrouped and refitted to head off the German spearhead. This bulge cut us off from our Division in Luxembourg so we were assigned to the British under Viscount Montgomery. We were returned to combat on 1 January 1945 in our new camouflage white capes to blend in the snow. ln the ensuing month I was not able to change socks, warm by a fire, and rarely got four hours of sleep. We eventually returned to our division, fought to the Rhine River, had a shower, and were issued clean socks and clothes, and the German panzerfaust (their shoulder-fired bazooka which can knock out German tanks). Our six pounder was developed for panzers of North Africa, but was no match for the Tiger tanks we now encountered. On 23 April 1945 we crossed the Elbe River on two pontoon bridges named the Truman and the Roosevelt, then sat less than 100 miles from Berlin waiting three weeks for the Russians. After 220 days of combat we finally settled in Pfarkirchen, Bavaria. We began training for reassignment to the Japanese war. Thankfully that war ended in August so we began the long period rotating and discharging the millions from the service. I was discharged at Ft. Douglas, Utah and arrived back home in Bonners Ferry, Idaho before Christmas 1945. I spent three years out of the service working in the woods and attending college. The government kept me in the Army Reserve, and being wary of eventually being recalled and with trouble brewing in Korea, I enlisted in the Air Force. I started as a clerk typist in the legal office eventually becoming the non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the Judge Advocates Office (Legal Service), and each succeeding JA Office at Stead AFB, Nevada Geiger Field, Spokane Goose AB, Labrador, Canada Forbes AFB, Topeka, Kansas Beale AFB, Marysville, California Anderson AFB, Guam and Westover AFB, Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts where I retired with twenty years of military service and had reached the grade of E-9, Chief Master Sergeant. ln closing, of all my hero buttons, medals, etcetera. My most precious was the Combat infantry Badge (CBl) which came with a $10 per month extra payment. Few in the Air Force were authorized the CBl None received pay except while serving in combat.

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The Patrick W. Kelley VFW Post 2468, of Roseburg, Oregon
1127 Walnut Street, Roseburg, OR 97470

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