Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center Transcript of an Oral History Interview with SHERMAN J. CRAWFORD Rifleman, Army, World War II Medic and Mine Clearing, Army Korean War 2002 OH 72 OH 72 Crawford, Sherman J. (1926-2012). Oral History Interview, 2002. Approximate length: 85 minutes Contact WVM Research Center for access to original recording. Abstract: Sherman Crawford, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, discusses his twenty-year military service in the US Army and World War II duty as a rifleman with the 4th Infantry Division, 12th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Fox Company in Luxembourg, northern Germany, and the Rhineland in central Germany; his return to the States awaiting redeployment to Japan; his reenlistment and being stationed in Korea and occupied Japan; his Korean War experience as a medic with the 8054 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and in an antitank mine platoon with the 3rd Division, 7th Regiment; service as a medical aid in occupied Germany; and his training and career back in the US as a radar repairman at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and as an instructor of electronics at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. After trying to enter the service at sixteen, Crawford volunteered upon his eighteenth birthday in April 1944. He talks of his training at Fort Hood (Killeen, Texas) and weighs the impact of the German breakthrough in the Ardennes on basic training; his January 1945 landing in Glasgow (Scotland) and crossing of the English Channel to Le Havre (France), and his arrival in Luxembourg and placement with the 4th Infantry Division. Crawford describes march- and-fire, town and village warfare and the nature of resistance encountered, relating in particular an encounter with snipers in one central German town. He comments on the state of medical care afforded the injured GI. Sent home on leave and with departure for the Pacific looming, the war ended; Crawford served out the remainder of his enlistment, but reenlisted. He describes his assignment to the 34th General Hospital and a psychiatric ward in Korea in 1948; upon the outbreak of war in Korea, a stint in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Pusan that led to clearing mines; and joining the 4th Infantry Division in occupied Germany as a medic after again reenlisting. Crawford tells the story of how he went from medic to tracking missiles at the Holloman Air Force Base radar site and worked with Wernher von Braun in the Hawk Missile Division of Redstone Arsenal. ii Biographical Sketch: Crawford (1926-2012) during a twenty-year military career served in the US Army with the 4th Infantry Division in Luxembourg and Germany during World War II; in postwar Korea and occupied Japan; and with the 3 rd Division during the Korean War. After service in occupied Germany and work at the Holloman Air Force radar site in New Mexico, he reentered civilian life as an instructor of electronics at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Interviewed by James McIntosh, 2002 Transcribed by Emily Behrend, 2012 Reviewed by Channing Welch, June 2015 Abstract written by Jeff Javid, June 2015 iii Interview Transcript: McIntosh: Where were you born, sir? Crawford: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. McIntosh: In April of 1926? Crawford: Yep, twenty-third. McIntosh: I see that. And so you were still in high school when Pearl Harbor came about. Crawford: I was just about a freshman in high school; I was fourteen years old when Pearl Harbor happened. McIntosh: Well, what’d you think about that? Crawford: Well, it’s [laughs]—. McIntosh: Not much? Crawford: I honestly did not think anybody would start a war again because gas was so bad that you just couldn’t get along with [inaudible]. McIntosh: But as a high school freshman, you didn’t worry about that. Crawford: Yes, I did [laughs]. We were listening to Hitler’s speeches back in the ‘30s, you know. McIntosh: Yeah, I know. I was there. Crawford: Yeah. McIntosh: We had ‘em up here too. Well, did you assume that this would be something that you were going to be involved in? Crawford: Ah, at fourteen—. McIntosh: Probably not. Crawford: Probably not. But I was very disappointed that I couldn’t get in it right away, you know. I wanted in. 1 McIntosh: Everybody did in those days. So, when did you join the military service? Crawford: Well, I tried from when I was sixteen on, when I could pass for eighteen. I kept trying to get in, but my eyes were keepin’ me—. McIntosh: Your parents wouldn’t sign? Crawford: And the parents wouldn’t sign. I was lyin’. I was having friends sign my certificate, you know, even to the Merchant Marines, you know. McIntosh: Yeah, I’m surprised then you couldn’t get in. Crawford: Yeah, I was—well [laughs], I wasn’t very bright, you know. But finally at eighteen I volunteered for the draft, and they took me. I volunteered in April, and I was in the Army in June. McIntosh: Did you consider the other services, or not? Crawford: In fact [??] when I joined—when I was drafted they took us to Milwaukee. And when we went up the interview table—Army, Navy, and Marines— the Navy officer was sittin’ there, and he said, “Well, what service do you want?” And I said, “Well, which is best for me?” And he says, “Well, you won’t get as good of a job in the Navy as you would in the Army because you have glasses, you know.” Straight infantry. Volunteered [laughs] for the Army and got straight infantry. McIntosh: Oh my. And your basic training was in Fort Hood [Killeen, Texas]? Crawford: Yeah. McIntosh: How long was the basic in those days? Crawford: It was sixteen weeks for us. Uh, when the breakthrough came some of those guys that was finished in six weeks got kicked out. They went out the same as I did, you know. McIntosh: Breakthrough? Crawford: German breakthrough at the Battle of the Bulge, you know. McIntosh: Yeah. Crawford: When the Germans broke through, uh—. McIntosh: They cut down basic training? 2 Crawford: They [laughs] were shipping everything out that was—. McIntosh: You’re kidding? Crawford: Over six weeks. Yeah, Fort Hood, Texas was shipping everything out. McIntosh: So if they only had six weeks, they were gone? Crawford: If you learned how to fire a rifle you were gone. McIntosh: Now, that’s the first time someone’s told me that. Crawford: Oh yeah, I met guys up in—I have to—it was either Fort Meade, Maryland or Fort Monmouth, New Jersey I got shipped to, you know. And I met guys up there that was coming out of Fort Hood with six weeks of basic training. McIntosh: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons they got in trouble in the Bulge, you know. Crawford: Cannon fodder [laughs]. McIntosh: Well, I mean 8,000 men surrendered primarily because they lacked experience. Bad decisions made then. Crawford: Well, I think 8,000 men surrendered because it was so damn cold you couldn’t move, and if you ran out of bullets and ammunition—or food, you didn’t have a chance anyhow, you know. McIntosh: Well, I won’t debate that one. Crawford: No, I don’t mean to debate. I don’t give a damn [both laugh]. McIntosh: I understand. There was a lot of reasons. Anyway-- . Crawford: Oh yeah. And it was cold, man it was cold—. McIntosh: I understand. Crawford: Cold McIntosh: I know. So, after your basic, where did you go? Crawford: Well, you know, after basic I got a two week leave, I think it was. It was some place around twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth of December that I got a two week leave before I reported to either Fort Monmouth or Fort Meade, 3 one of those two camps. And I went home on leave, and when that breakthrough came, you know, on the seventeenth or nineteenth of December, man, I got a telegram, “Get to Fort Monmouth,” you know. And when they, uh—. McIntosh: Not individually? Crawford: Individually. McIntosh: They didn’t send you as a group? Crawford: When we left Fort Hood we all went on leave. We all got a vacation. We all got like—. McIntosh: Oh, they sent this to your home? Crawford: To my home, yeah [laughs]. McIntosh: It said, “We changed our mind. We’re taking you back before your leave was over.” Crawford: Before my leave—my leave was four or five days was all. Maybe six days. But I only had like a ten day leave anyhow so it wasn’t important, you know. McIntosh: This was—how soon after—the Bulge began on the sixteenth so when was—. Crawford: Sixteenth or seventeenth, that’s what I would say [laughs]. Yeah, about the nineteenth I was on my way to—I was in Fort Meade at Christmas. McIntosh: So, what’d you think? Crawford: Well, I—. McIntosh: Had you been checking with the radio? Did you know what the hell was going on? Crawford: Yeah, we were listening to the radio, but all through basic training, uh, I lucked out, but all through basic training they kept telling you, “When you get over to fighting the Japs, this is what you can expect. This is what you can expect when you fight the Japs”, you know. When they assigned me to Europe, I was happy as hell [both laugh]. You know, ‘cause I didn’t like that fighting the Japs where you don’t take prisoners and stuff, you know. In Germany they take prisoners, you know.