Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011
BARROW JOURNAL
PAGE 7C
Local veterans share, remember stories
By Lorin Sinn-Clark
lorin@barrowjourncd.coin
They served their country
years ago, but for many of
the Armed Forces veterans
living at Magnolia Estates
Assisted Living in Winder,
memories of those experi
ences remain as clear as they
have always been.
Recently we sat down for
lunch with a group of the
Magnolia vets and listened
while they shared their sto
ries and reminisced.
Alton McDaniel
Mr. McDaniel was bom in
Barrow County and grew up
on his family’s farm. He was
drafted into the Army “fresh
out of high school” in 1944.
He served in the 81st Tank
Battalion under Gen. George
Patton until he got out of the
Army in 1947.
“It was hurry up and go, no
breaks,” McDaniel said. ”We
were in the middle of it.”
McDaniel said serving
under Patton was an honor
and a pleasure.
“I sat beside him, ate with
him and shook his hand,”
McDaniel said. “He was no
different from you or me. If
he told you to do something,
he would do it himself. He’d
never tell a soldier to do
something he wouldn’t do.”
McDaniel recalled watch
ing Patton wade through
mud “as high as those high
boots he always wore,” to
“get a boy sitting by a tank
crying...The rest of us were
just looking at the boy. Gen.
Patton, he’s the one that
saved him.”
With regard to how accu
rate the movie portrayals of
Patton are, McDaniel would
only speak “off the record,”
hinting that the General wore
a gruffer exterior than usual
“when the big brass was
around.”
In spite of all the action
McDaniel was in the midst
of, he only had two brushes
with bullets and suffered
only a single flesh wound.
Just after crossing a "small
bridge in a pretty place”
in Germany, McDaniel
and some others got out of
their tanks for a quick look
around. Suddenly, he felt a
bullet whiz by his leg “so
close I could feel the heat off
it.” That left the 19-year-old
McDaniel shaken, but when
his Col. told him “I was a
soldier after that,” he was
able to shake it off. "He said
you weren’t a real soldier
until you’d experienced a
bullet one way or another.”
The other bullet actually hit
McDaniel, a flesh wound to
the lower arm, but it could’ve
been much worse.
“Smoking a cigarette saved
my life,” he said. "We got a
chance for a little break and
I decided to have a cigarette.
Right after I lit it and leaned
back on the tank to smoke
it, a bullet came whizzing
by and hit me in the arm —
right on the outside of the
arm that was holding that
cigarette. If I hadn’t have
leaned back to enjoy that cig
arette, it would’ve killed me
for sure. It was just a small
skin wound, but it scared me
badly enough.”
McDaniel said he had
plenty of other stories about
the war and his time in the
Army, but “it’s just too hard
to share... only people who’ve
been there (in military ser
vice) can understand.”
He jokes that one of his
best days in the Army was
“the day I got out.”
He went back to the fam
ily farm, raised a family
and worked there until he
retired some years ago. As
for Germany? He never went
back.
“It’s a pretty enough place,
but I felt no need to go back
there ever again...No need to
relive all that," he said.
Emery Tackett
Mr. Tackett, also a Barrow
native, was drafted out of
medical school in 1951 to be
an Army Combat Medic dur
ing the Korean War.
"I came up number one out
of Barrow County (during
that round of the draft),” he
said. “I was scared.”
During his four years of
service, Tackett said he saw
a lot of action and "learned
to keep my head down.” His
memories are vivid and he
said he tries not to revisit
them.
"I saw a lot of blood and a
lot of bodies,” he said. "So,
many terrible wounds...and
the smell of blood, that’s
something you never for
get.”
Having seen so many die,
Tackett emphasizes how
lucky he was to make it
home and out of the service
in 1954. He finished col
lege and became an engi
neer, raised a family, then
later went into business for
himself.
R.D. Crook
Another Barrow native,
Mr. Crook is 101 years old.
He remembers that he served
in the Army, but most of
the details have left him. He
does proudly state that he
graduated from Winder High
School and that he was born
in 1910.
"I bet you can’t believe I’m
101,” he says, a big smile on
his face. And, those around
him always agree.
Roy Lytle
Like McDaniel, Mr. Lytle
served in the thick of things
during WWII. He enlisted
in the Army in 1944, “to
get off of the farm,” saying
“you know a young fella’ —
he’s got to see what’s going
on.” He served in the 29th
Infantry Division until 1947
and participated in the inva
sion of France.
Like Tackett, Lytle said, "I
don’t mess with the memo
ries any more... They’re just
too vivid. It all just comes
rushing back....There was a
lot of hard work and so many
sad things...But, it’s my
country. I have no regrets.”
When he left the Army in
1944, Lytle went to work
as a Medical Technician in
a Veteran’s Hospital where
he spent the next 30 years,
Alton McDaniel served under General Patton in the 81st
Tank Battalion from 1944-1947. It was “hurry up and
go, no breaks — we were in the middle of it,” he said.
A Barrow native, McDaniel was drafted into the Army
“fresh out of high school.”
Photo by Lorin Sinn-Clark
TAKING A MOMENT TO REMINISCE
Jack Linn (L) and Roy Lytle had very different experi
ences in the Armed Forces. Linn was in the Air Force
from 1961-1965. He worked on the radios and transmit
ters. Lytle served in the Army, 29th Infantry Division,
from 1944-1947. He fought in the invasion of France and
saw more than his share of battle action.
Photo by Lorin Sinn-Clark
HE SAW IT ALL
Emery Tackett was drafted into the Army and served as
a Combat Medic in the Korean War, from 1951-1954. As
a medic in the middle of the action, he said, “You kept
your head down.” Photo by Lorin Sinn-Clark
then retired. He, too, raised
a family; he never went back
to the farm.
Robert McCormick
Mr. McCormick has noth
ing but fond memories of
his time in the Army, from
in the late 1950’s and early
1960’s.
Like the others, he was
drafted. He was sent to
Munich, Germany with the
98th General Hospital and
served as a clerk there. He
met and married his wife in
Germany - she was in the
Women’s Air Corp (WAC.)
“She had 46 WACs as
bridesmaids,” he said. “At
least none of them had to
buy a dress , they were all
in uniform.” He also remem
bers seeing Elvis Presley in
concert “numerous times...It
was when he was in the Army,
stationed in Germany...
imagine that, hearing Elvis
all the time for free.”
After leaving the service,
McCormick worked as Ford
Motor Security Supervisor
for 38 years. During that time
he raised a family. He recent
ly donated a new American
flag to Magnolia Estates.
Marvin Murphy
Mr. Murphy was an Army
reservist when he was called
to active duty in 1954 as part
of an effort to beef up “the
vastly depleted Army after
Korea,” he said. He served
until 1964, working on the
Distant Early Warning Line
in Canada. Their job was
to detect incoming Soviet
bombers during the Cold
War.
He said the most unpleas
ant part of his time in the
service was when he was
stationed in Labrador, a
“small town with absolutely
nothing in it and nothing to
do,” off the coast of northern
Canada.
After leaving the Army in
1964, Murphy taught history
and government and “did a
darn good job of it.” (He,
too, was married and had
children.)
Jack Linn
Mr. Linn served in the Air
Force from 1961-1965. He
“ran radio and transmitters,”
on Dolphin Island, south of
Mobile, Ala. He said "the
best thing he got out of the
Air Force” was his wife.
“She pushed me to go to
pharmacy school and we
raised five kids together,” he
said.
After leaving the Air Force,
Linn worked at Dekalb
Medical Center as a pharma
cist until he retired.
Veterans Charles Lynch
and Raphael Barnett were
also at the lunch, but clidn't
share memories.
THANK YOU, GENTLEMEN...
...for your service in the Armed Forces and your role in
keeping us safe. This group of veterans lives at Magnolia
Estates Assisted Living in Winder. They gathered over
lunch recently, to share stories and reminisce. Shown
are: (Front, L to R) Raphael Barnett, Emery Tackett and
Robert McCormick; (Standing, L to R) Charles Lynch,
Alton McDaniel, Jack Linn and Robert Lytle. R.D. Crook
joined them for lunch, but is not in the photo.
Photo by Lorin Sinn-Clark
October 19, 2011 ~ Crossword Puzzle
Across
1. Site of 1956 Summer Games
10. Sorcerers
15. Once more (2 wds)
16. Related maternally
17. Suspends in the air
18. Full range
19. “-zoic” things
20. Cutlet?
21. Litmus reddeners
22. Renal calculus (2 wds)
25. “Gimme !” (start of an Iowa
State cheer) (2 wds)
28. Dust remover
29. Clickable image
30. Present
32. Intermittently (3 wds)
36. Computer info
37. Despot’s duration
39. Length x width, for a rectangle
40. Female employee (2 wds)
42. Academy Award
43. Dressing ingredient
44. Juliet, to Romeo
46. Absorbed, as a cost
47. Unrestrained
51. Kiss
52. Charged particles
53. Alternative to acrylics
57. Express
58. Italian restaurant
60. Change, as a clock
61. Having high regard
62. Amount of hair
63. Female clairvoyants
Down
1. Blemish
2. "... happily after”
3. Bulgarian units of money
4. Lively
5. grass
6. Land on Lake Victoria
7. Popularity of TV program based on
audience poll
8. Bridget Fonda, to Jane
9. Lifting to heaven with praise
10. Measure of explosive power
11. Tropical constrictors
12. Street urchin
13. Short composition for a solo
instrument
14. Adjusts, as a clock
23. Anger
24. Computer picture
25. “No ifs, ...”
26. Wyleof “ER”
27. “What’s gotten you?”
31. Crowning achievements
32. Black gold
33. Boat in “Jaws”
34. Accomplishment
35. Charge
37. Baltic capital
38. Religious recluses
41. Dark red gemstones
42. “ moment”
44. Kind of seat
45. Heavy overcoat
47. Certain berth
48. Bing, bang or boom
49.1962 and 1990 Tony winner Robert
50. Sentences
51. Breed
54. Western blue flag, e.g.
55. Ancestry
56. Declines
59. Athletic supporter? (golf)
CUSTOM
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