16. Friends Remembered

Co. C, 58th AIB - Company and platoon leaders:
  1. Capt. Paul Malarkey - Cleveland, OH - Company Commander.
  2. Lt. Ralph Elias - Georgetown, KY - Platoon leader of 2nd platoon. (promoted to captain of Co. B, 1 Mar , 1945)
  3. Lt. Andrew R. Simino - Company 1st Sgt. who later received a battlefield commission
  4. Tech Sgt. William H. McClain - Pittsburgh, PA - Platoon Sgt., 2nd platoon.

Original Squad Members in Louisiana:: - (Headquarters squad, 2nd platoon)
  1. S/Sgt Wallace J. Gomez - St. Landry, LA - Squad leader
  2. Cpl. Ernest F. Renk, Lancaster, PA - promoted to squad leader of another squad
  3. T/5 LLoyd E. Parish, Mitchell, IN - half track driver, killed in action 1 Apr, 1945
  4. Pfc. Alfred J. Blaisdell, Jr.
  5. Pfc. Harley A. Davidson
  6. Pfc. Bernard A. Demcovitz, New Brunswick, NJ - killed in action 26 Feb, 1945, during attack at Merum, Holland.
  7. Pfc. Andrew H. Phillips, Jr., Columbia, MO
  8. Pfc. Roman A. Rodriguez, Phoenix, AZ
  9. Pfc. Okey E. Taylor, Jr., Clendenin, WV
10. Pvt. Lester Wood - a trench foot casualty Jan, 1945. Returned before the war ended.

Replacements: (In approx. order received)
  1. Pfc. Norman Pierson - Indiana - Wounded by shrapnel at factory in Merum, Holland (probably an American shell)
  2. Pfc. Bobb R. Murle, Terre Haute, IN 47802 (1992)
  3. Pfc. Robert E. Edge, St. Claire Shores, MI - Wounded when an American tank fired low into a fence post near Bob's position. The shrapnel hit a .22 cal pistol Bob was wearing which probably saved his life.
  4. T/5 Lewis Barr, Jr., Lancaster, SC - half track driver
  5. Pvt. Harvey A. Schaffer, Eugene, OR
  6. Pvt. Olin Smith, Monroe, NC
  7. Pvt. James W. Belcher
    I have always thought there were others wounded and more replacements but I am not sure. I also have no idea who each of these men replaced.

58th A.I.B friends:
  1. S/Sgt John A. Anderson, Jacksonville, FL (3rd platoon). John & I went all the way through the war together and returned home on the same ship. He was across the street in basic training and we were in ASTP together and in the same company the rest of the time. John died in St. Petersburg, Fl on 19 Apr 1994.
  2. Pfc. Thomas Coffield, Detroit, MI. Tom was wounded in both legs on 26 Feb 1945 in Holland. Visited him several times in Detroit after the war.
  3. Pfc. William Anderson, MI - 58-A. Bill came to Detroit for a reunion after the war.
  4. Pfc. James E. Johnson, Rockford, IL (3rd platoon) - Killed in action 1 Apr 1945.
  5. Pfc. Ferry G. Hamblin, Kanab, UT. - Wounded March 1945. Died 2 Oct 1956.
  6. Pfc. Jacob Miller, Detroit, MI - He was an aidman in the 78th medical battalion and went to medical school and became a doctor after the war. Died 13 Aug 1977.

Friends from ASTP: (Army Specialized Training Program):
  Members of Section 8 and roommates. (We all shared one medium sized room at the Univ. of Detroit.)
  1. _____ Berlin
  2. _____ Brown, (Brown knows)
  3. John A. Carter, Nashua, NH - 398th AFA
  4. Lewis L. Carter, ? AFA
  5. Frank J. 'Flip' Cassino, New York, NY - 7-HqC
  6. John D. Crenshaw, Marymount, OH - 130-A
  7. William S. Fulton, Springfield, PA - MP
  8. Okey E. Taylor, Clendenin, WV - 58-C

Other ASTP Friends::
  1. Gordon Billheimer, Montgomery, WV (1989) - Gordon was in ASTP with me and in the MP's with Bill Fulton. He was best man at wedding of Joe Wilkinson, Jr. and Mary Welton (Pat's first cousin)
  2. Calvin W. Seitz, Grand Rapids, MI. - 49-HqC. Calvin died 8 Apr 01.
  3. Henry E. Koopman, Grand Rapids, MI. - 88-B
  3. Lawton P. Freeman, Beverley Hills, CA. - 7-Svc

High school and other friends affected by the war:

David A. Taylor - brother. 'Chuck' went into the Air Corps after graduation from high school and was in Europe the same time I was. By the time I found out he was there via mail from home and got his address I was ready to come home. He was stationed somewhere near Marseilles, France in the Air Corps while I was in southeastern Germany or Austria by then so I didn't get to go see him.

William L. Connelly - friend of 'Chuck' in Tulsa - Bill went into the submarine service in 1942. He served on the USS Albacore and completed seven combat patrols as a torpedoman. When they were ready to start the eighth, Bill and 5 or 6 other fellows were given the chance for shore duty. They accepted since they had been on submarine duty so long. The sub sailed without them and was never heard from again.

Edward Andrews - high school classmate and football player. Ed was flying in a B24 over the Ploesti oil fields where he was shot down and captured. He suffered from general bad health after his release and died 16 or 17 years later.

Virgil Andrews - Ed's brother. Virgil was a high school and W & M basketball player. He was killed in Arizona on a training flight in 1944 when two B-17 planes collided..

Ralph Stevenson - high school classmate. Killed in action in North Africa in 1942.

Robert E. Young - high school classmate and band drum major. His father was on the Selective Service board. He was killed in action in the Battle of the Bulge. Bob and his family lived two doors down the street from me. His father moved to California in 1945 because of personal attacks and general harassment by people in Clendenin because of his draft board participation. Bob's sister, Virginia Lee, was killed in a bus accident in the summer of 1945 after they moved to California. She was a drum majorette in the high school band.

Lloyd Kennedy - high school friend, band member and college roommate after the war. Wounded in the leg in southern Germany near either Kaiserlauten or Saarbrucken. He was a rifleman in the 63rd Infantry Division. Lloyd died in 1982 of a heart attack.

William Morris - high school friend and band member. Bill served in the 4th Marines. He landed on Iwo Jima and was wounded in the head by a mortar about 10 days later. He was unconscious for over four months after being wounded and when he came to, he was in the Bethesda Naval Hospital. He has a steel plate in his head and has no feeling in his forehead and no sense of smell or taste. While recuperating in the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bill got into into an argument in a bar with some sailors who said the marines weren't so tough. The sailor took a lit cigarette and ground it out in his hand. Bill was a little drunk and said that wasn't so tough. He took his cigarette and ground it out in the middle of his forehead and didn't bat an eye. He said he won the argument but had a blister like a headlamp on his forehead for quite some time afterwards.

Roscoe Givens - high school classmate. Roscoe lived across the street from me. He was a fighter pilot in Europe. He flew fifty-seven combat missions in P47's and P51's. He said when the war was over, he parked his airplane and never went near another one again. I used to harass him about being one of the pilots who strafed us when my outfit was moving west in the Ruhr Pocket.

John Cornell - high school classmate and band member. John dated a drum majorette, Peggy Glover, and later married her. He was a carrier pilot in the Navy. John worked for Columbia Gas also. We both started the same month and I rode to work with him for a while. He went on to be Chief Financial Officer for the Company. We also retired about the same time.

James W. Fields - high school classmate and another college roommate. Bill was a signalman in the Navy in the South Pacific. He enlisted when he was seventeen and served aboard the troop transport APA Harris.

William Fisher - friend of Pat. Bill served with the Third Infantry Division, Co. A, 15th Reg. The Third Division was near the 8th Armored during and after the Battle of the Bulge. We were transferred from the Third Army to the Ninth Army on Feb 1, 1945. (Audie Murphy was in Co. B, 15th Reg.)

Chris Dingess - friend who worked at Columbia Gas in Columbus, OH. Chris was a tank driver and his tank was blown up. He was the only survivor and he has a plate in his head like Bill Morris. Chris quit Columbia after a few years and returned to Roanoke, Va. where he lived.

August, 2000