"The only thing I knew [about the military before I came in] was to volunteer for nothing, and never stand in line in the same place," comments Hilbert Golsch, a World War II veteran who was drafted into the Army in the summer of 1944.
Golsch is the grandfather of 2nd Lt. Christopher Howell, who is assigned to the Air Intelligence Agency's Intelligence Systems Group,Technical Services Squadron.
Military service runs in the family, as Golsch's father was a World War I veteran and Howell's father was a warrant officer in the Army. Howell has a brother in the Navy and another in Army ROTC.
Golsch describes three entirely different versions of the Army; Basic Training, Combat, and the Army of Occupation.
"Basic Training didn't help. What they taught us there was nothing like what we had to live through," said Golsch, who went through basic training at Camp Roberts, Ark. He was told basic training would last six weeks, but was there for four months.
"What we did on maneuvers stateside was nothing like over there," said Golsch. "You were taught the buddy system in basic training, but you never used it. You never had a chance to."
There was no advanced training after basic, they were considered ready to fight. The draftees knew they were Mobilized Infantry, and, if they were lucky, they went to the Army Air Force, said Golsch.
Golsch was given two train tickets: one to come home, and the other for Fort Meade, Md. Once at Fort Meade, he was processed to go to war, and was told to take the Queen Mary to Belgium.
On board the ship, none of the troops were told anything. They didn't know what unit they were assigned to, who their officer in charge was or what they would be doing.
After a train ride, they were led to a barn where their name, rank and serial numbers were taken and assigned to a unit. There was nothing scientific about who was assigned where, "they put us wherever they needed somebody," Golsch said.
Golsch was assigned to the 78th Division, 309th Regiment Company G (George Company). Golsch walked out of that barn into a different world, something he wasn't trained for.
He found out that "Root, Hog, or Die" was the law of combat. "You took whatever you could, you had to fend for yourself or you didn't make it," said Golsch.
Golsch emphasized that the stateside Army had regulations, but in combat you did what you had to in order to survive.
"The first thing you did when you saw a dead soldier was take his rations," he said.
He vividly remembers the winter of 1944, one of the coldest European winters on record. He had four pairs of olive draft or Class A uniforms on at once. When the outermost pair got wet, he put his closest pair of clothes on the outside and moved the others inward to allow it to dry.
Socks were even more important. "You changed socks every chance you had," said Golsch. He wore three pairs of socks at a time, and carried four under his belt.
When a pair needed to dry out, it was placed underneath the belt. On the battlefield, they were never able to wash their clothes, so keeping them dry was important.
Six weeks into fighting, the men had their first bath. They took a shower next to a truck while the Women's Army Corps members poured water over them.
The men ate whenever the meals got there. There was no certain time. "We rationed rations because you didn't know when you might get some more again," said Golsch.
The troops traveled so fast, the field kitchen couldn't keep up with them. "It was sometimes a week before you got a hot meal."
Despite harsh conditions, "shaving was a daily must. You didn't go to breakfast without shaving." They shaved by heating water from their canteens in their helmets and used hand soap for lather, if they had it.
Water was scarce. "Everybody carried more than one canteen to drink," said Golsch. "Water was very important."
The soldiers wrote letters, but they could only write on one side of the page for censor purposes. Mail, like meals, was erratic, "sometimes you got mail daily, sometimes it was a month," said Golsch.
The families and friends writing to them had to be careful about what they wrote because mail could be intercepted by the enemy. Golsch would sometimes get mail that was already opened.
His battalion was one of the first to cross the Rhine River. Shortly afterwards, he was taken to a field hospital and he eventually ended up in the 1st General Hospital in Paris, France, for pneumonia.
After three weeks, he was released from the hospital into a different Army, the Army of Occupation.
The war with Germany had ended and the mission was different. "Then I had the Air Force's life, the life of leisure," said Golsch.
He was sent to Cologne to meet back up with G Company where he started doing interpreter work because he spoke fluent German.
Golsch went to a small village outside of Cologne and then to Berlin where he worked out of the 309th Regimental Headquarters. He was still with G Company, but now he was given his own jeep and worked on his own time.
He questioned German prisoners of war and civilians, then reported daily about what he had learned.
He completed his service and was sent home in June of 1946. Golsch was supposed to go home sooner, but he signed on to stay longer because he enjoyed his job.
Golsch's father, a World War I vet, knew within 50 miles his son's location for the entire campaign because he followed his company by radio and the newspapers.
Golsch says his military experience was, "something I wouldn't know how to describe. I can't say I regretted it, and I can't say I enjoyed it."
May Spokesman On-Line
May Spokesman On-Line