I know this is gonna be another crazy bump, but I was searching again through online records and came across this thread. I haven't been on the AH forums for nearly 7 or 8 years.
We've scanned more of his stuff and I'm going to request his records (if they survived that fire in the 70s).
That TV show on Netflix, The Liberator, covered a lot of the stuff he was involved in (though a different regiment). The book is better, but Flint Whitlock's The Rock of Anzio is MUCH better read in my opinion. If anyone is interested in the Italian Campaign, it's a great book written when many of the Greatest Generation was still there to put their own words to the pages.
Interesting fact, one of the names on that Unit Roster of his (Jack Treadwell) ended up earning himself the Medal of Honor in a different Company later in the war.
Not so long ago when I was on Sand Hill at Ft Benning, my Company was attached to the 3-47 Barracks as our Battalion Barracks (2-29) had not been finished yet. Those Barracks are named after him and I got to talk quite a bit with my cadre about my family history with the Army. Being in the Texas Army National Guard and now being a member of the 36th Infantry Division with a battle history that shared many triumps and tragedies with the 45th Infantry Division is something I take great pride in. I met some 45th Brigade (Oklahoma's guard unit) when I was at Airborne School and they're great guys who follow that same lineage. One was in the 180th before it converted to a Cav Regiment.
One of the crazier letters he wrote that my father had photocopied and sent to me when I was there was him talking about their breakout from the Anzio beachhead. They rucked for 7 days and nights chasing the German Army stopping to eat maybe once a day. Whitlock's book describes the same scene my grandfather wrote about in his letters about them using smelling salts to wake guys up who passed out in the middle of the road.
Another sobering fact was him talking about how after the Anzio campaign, there were less than 10 guys he had landed on Sicily with. I also learned that he had been in Naples recovering from a severe case of Pneumonia when his company had earned their Presidential Unit Citation and William Johnson had earner his Medal of Honor. The Pneumonia that nearly killed him at the same time, probably saved his life. G Company was nearly totally annihilated in that action, with a handful more survivors than Felix Sparks' I/157.
I hope all of you guys here are doing good. Mods, I hope this doesn't get you too upset but I couldn't help but reply to this after seeing all the due diligence TxMom had put forth researching this on behalf of my family. TxMom, thank you very much. We appreciate this more than you know after all of these years.
I practically grew up playing this game and playing here so it's good to see some familiar names after all of these years. I'm not a kid like I was and I hope I'm not as dumb as I was when yall knew me.
<S> 1pLUs44
