Salt Lake City

                                             July 9-13, 2009 

St. Cezaire and Les Arcs today

A Company in Life Magazine 1944

Pvt. Harry A. Hill, B Company - 200 photos and clippings

Pvt. Richard L. Lynam, H Company, KIA

Operation Dragoon After Action Reports

Mail Handling Procedure During the Invasion of Southern France

Kenton Floyd Immerfall

Thanks to Ben and his inclusions in the recent "Memorial Day" Mail Call, I'd like to recall a Special Band of Brothers on this most reverent morning.  Along with my uncle, 1st Lt. Floyd A. STOTT, the following brave soldiers afforded each American the full measure of their being at Manhay, Belgium, 27Dec1944.  To the family and Buddies of PFC William "Billy" J. ECKART, I'll say a prayer today for his memory.  And to the remaining names and faces of that early morning fateful Platoon, May Your Souls Rest in Peace!  Cleo N. BROWNING, PFC Fred H. ISERMAN, Pvt. Merle A. KAMINSKI, Pvt. John S. PENN, PFC Paul A. RZONCA, Pvt. Frank O. SCOTT,
Cpl. Courville B. TARPLEY, Sgt. Wendell J. TINGER, Pvt. Albert J. VASQUEZ,
PFC Edward G. WALSH,  and Pvt. Edward W. WEIMER.

You who served alongside these brave soldiers, and the family who knew these brave men, will remember their faces as young men.  Those faces are maybe distant memories but lasting memories they will remain.

Sincerely...Kenton Floyd Immerfall

Note to Cecil Doty,  I remember one incident very well, but do not remember the Sgt's name.  If I did remember it, i might have some question as to whether I would put in Mail Call.  There is a possibility that there were two Sgts. in this situation  and that we are talking about different ones.  I remember only one incident.  Here is what I remember:

Richard Jackson, deceased, commanded H Company at that time and had his CP right on the front line where the ridge started to fall off very steeply.  His CP took a direct enemy artillery hit at least once, but it was well dug in and covered with timbers.  No one was seriously wounded.  I would say that we looked mainly South from this ridge toward the enemy down in the valley and to get at our lines the enemy troops would have had to climb up almost vertically. 

An H Company sergeant disappeared from the lines for almost 24 hours.  We found a lot of spent ammunition casings around his spot in the line.  He stated that he had been a prisoner of the Germans.  I spent several hours in Piera Cava with him using maps trying to get accurate information about enemy positions so we could bring artillery and mortar fire on them.  I wrote down several pages of notes, but did not get anything substantial.  He was vague about his exact whereabouts.  Jackson and Paxton, the Bn. CO, doubted this man's story.  They suspected that the sgt. laid low for the time he was absent out in front of our lines or elsewhere in a safer position and made up the story that he had been taken prisoner to get out of future combat in Europe.  There was a rule that German prisoner escapees were exempt from future front lines duty because of what the Germans would do to them if recaptured.  I do not know whether they were shipped to the States or given a job in the rear echelon. 

Like you, I never saw him again and do not know what happened to him after that.  I have often wondered if anyone else remembered this incident and am glad to have found one who did.  I am fairly sure we are talking about the same man.

Howard Hensleigh