It was an ordinary day. Going through an old suitcase full of memories that my wife, Carol, had saved from the early days of her childhood. Photograph after photograph, mostly all in black and white, with most already showing signs of sepia. When she opened one of the old envelopes, my history lesson of the day escaped into her lap. There was an article titled "5 Neighbors in Army Together 26 months.
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Left-right: T-5 Paul K. Long, 340 E. Liberty St., T-4 Charles E. Brill, 415 E. Ross St.,
T-4 Ralph M. Campbell, 645 E. Madison St., T-4 James W. Jones, 327 N. Reservoir St,
(Carol's father) T-4 Charles A. Baker, 614 E. Madison St. |
Story was about five Lancaster, Pennsylvania Sixth Ward Neighbors who served together in the United States Army for two years and two months. They were all inducted together on the same day on March 10, 1943 and took their basic training together at Camp McCain, Mississippi. And, to top that off, they all were assigned to Company A, 301st Signal Operation Battalion and sent to Tennessee on maneuvers with the Second Army. Then they all reported together to Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Not long after they were granted furloughs for the 1943 Christmas holidays, and returned to Lancaster together. They then reported in February, 1944 to Camp Miles Standish, Mass., where they were readied for overseas and at the end of that month boarded the transport George Washington and sailed for England. Together, the five soldiers landed on Normandy Beach in France on July 6, 1944. They then served, all together, in the Third Army under Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. They all saw service in Luxembourg and Germany. They all returned together to the United States from Germany on November 28, 1945 and were discharged together at Indiantown Gap, December 4th. Each one is entitled to wear the Good Conduct Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African/Middle Eastern Ribbon with five battle stars and the Meritorious Unit Citation. They all looked forward to maintaining their association by holding a reunion every year. I never knew any of this information until I read the story in the old newspaper that Carol had found in the old suitcase that we discovered in our garage.  |
| T-4 Charles Baker |
Along with the newspaper article we found a photograph of her father, Charlie, in his uniform with a note written on the back of it to his new wife, Grace, which read: Hi honey, Seems silly for me to say Merry Xmas or even Happy Anniversary because it will neither be happy or merry for either of us, but I just keep on telling myself that this thing can't last forever and some day, soon, we will both be together and forget all the heart aches that we had while we were apart. Millions of kisses, Loads of hugs and for the 99,999 time....I still love you all the muches. Your loving husband, Charlie. Making discoveries such as we did brings back so many memories which lead to untold tales about family and friends. Perhaps another old suitcase will lead to yet another story! It was another extraordinary day n the life of an ordinary guy.
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