G Company, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division

As the episodes of G Company have been documented and time has gone on, I have been thinking of individuals more than events, and have some observations on them. Some may be war-inspired rather than war-related, but then, they may be both. At any rate, most every one that was in G Company, 8th Regiment of the 4th Division will know most of the men, and can vouch for the authenticity of this record.

JACK KING-- I met Jack soon after arriving in G company, and found him to be quite a story teller. Some fact, and then again a lot may have been fiction-- for the listener enjoyment. Jack was the mail clerk, and his story on how he obtained this position was quite interesting.

It seems when he was sent overseas with the Company, his arms were too short to shoulder an M-1 and reach the trigger with his short arms. A carbine was cut off to fit, but some Colonel decided that Jack, a 5 foot 2 and about 100 lbs. soaking wet would not ever fit the bill. They made him mail clerk.

Everyone knew him, his diminutive size, shoes about size 5, and a dirty stinking curved pipe that he smoked with pleasure. His dirty beard matched his temper, and everyone was a dirty bastard to him. Friend or foe. And when he was really agitated by someone, he would be a jerky dirty bastard.

He had a remarkable memory for men and names. He could cite where and when someone got shot, stepped in a mine field, or what.

He seemed to know the east coast of the USA quite well, and could recite at length the street where the jail of each city was, as he spent many a nite in each of them. Out side of that, no one ever knew much about his past, or for that matter, nothing is known of him following the end of the war.

Following hostilities in Europe, I helped Jack with sorting a tremendous backlog of mail in Bamberg. There were bags and bags of it, and men were no longer with us were receiving letters from home dated as far back as October of 1944.

THE COOKS.-- Everyone knew some of the kitchen staff headed by a Mosely (from the deep south where else?) Loading the stoves on 6 x 6's going as far front as they could, unload all the equipment and try to get a hot meal to us. Sometime it was cooked OATMEAL, and we did without sugar or cream!!! Then there were the flapjacks and a watery syrup. We ate them, they were hot, and they stayed with us. And Moseley's famous pineapple upside down cake. A few slices of pineapple in the bottom and a flour and water batter on top, baked till it was on the verge of burning, and we all had a treat! They really did the very best they could, but by today's standards some of those vitals wouldn't pass the health department.

Helping Moseley were Carey from Maine, Vanderford, MacCaulley, Scislowisz, and Fontenot a Cajun from Louisiana.

Then there was a William Callen that hung around the kitchen crew and when there was no fighting in progress, he would be with us and telling how tough it was coming across France. I don't know what his job was, but the last I knew him being somewhat employed was near the end of hostilities when he was a dog-robber for Capt Stackhouse when he returned to G Company.

CAPTAIN STACKHOUSE— He was c.o. of G and wounded before I got to the company. By the time he left the hospital Captain Devine was in charge, so Stackhouse took over H company for a time. When Devine was rotated to the states in March 1945, Lt. Paul Ingersoll our Exec. took over the company. It wasn't long before Stackhouse commanded G company by reason of seniority, and Callen was his "aide".

After arriving in a German village, Callen came to me and said to go to this old couple and get a chicken, so that he could prepare it for Stackhouse. I went to this couple and noted they had about 6 hens that they depended on for eggs and meat, and they cried when I told them what I was supposed to do. I went back to Callen and told him what I thought, and said "Get your own dam chicken!"

For the most part the men did not like Stackhouse. This and another incident confirmed my belief they were more right than wrong.

We were stationed in Ochsenfurt, and after a night raid by some Germans from the neighboring town, a squad of us went the 4 or 5 kilometers to Marktbriet to scout the town. The Germans had left, and somewhere I found a motor bike that I coaxed to run. I had it setting along side a brick building and when our tanks came thru, one of them skidded on the cobblestones and squashed my bike. While in this town we gave the orders for all civilians to turn in their guns, camera, swords and the like. I liberated a nice movie camera and took it to the room where I bunked and when I went to retrieve it Callen told me Stackhouse had it. I went to him and requested it. He said,"I've already mailed it home!"

George Zemanick-- from somewhere in Pennsylvania. He would talk to me a lot when we were on some of our long marches. He was short, balding and carried the bazooka. One of his pet peeves was about the time he knocked out two German tanks, and made quite a stand at an intersection, hoping for some award for his heroism, but the only witnesses to his feat were dead.

John Greenip: Company Commander of H and the recipient of a liberated Mercedes that was painted O.D. green and some fictitious numbers stenciled on the bumper, and on the door "Greenip the Great". He had possession of this car until Battalion Hq saw it and it went up the ranks to the 4th Div. General. I saw Greenip in about 1946 when I was in Antelope, N.D. and taking mail to the local trains on the main line of the Northern Pacific. They were just putting on diesel engines in place of the old steamers, and who would be stouble shooting for the manufacturers of the engines, but John Greenip. Had a good visit.

John Cooke a GI from North Carolina came to me in Bamberg, Germany and in his slow drawl said that his mommy hadn't received her allotment from the army. Could I do something about it.

Submitted by his son David
Many thanks David.

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