The Men Who Made The Journey

I was a buck sergeant in charge of two squads when we boarded the landing craft on June 4th.  As of that point, the landing was to be June 5th. (Inclement weather forced General Eisenhower to push it to June 6th).  My men were from the hills of Missouri, from the city of St. Louis, from the wheat lands of Minnesota, from the mines of Pennsylvania and from the shores of the Mississippi River in Iowa. All had grown in our training....names such as Milos, Allen, Brewer, Vocker, Worocek, Tressler, Davis, Ogren, Sokolich, Swain, DeRousa, Epps, Shelton, Haneline, Voss, Chavez, Miller, Teas, Gryzbek, Dawdle, Greenlee and Seaton were with us that day - a real mixture of Americans committed to finishing the war. (Dal Estes-Tracks Across Europe)

A few of the names above I vividly remember from stories I overheard as a kid, and took part in as an adult.  The two that come to mind most are those of Tommy Milos and Sgt. Herman (Red) Greenlee.

"He was a great man" my Dad would proclaim each and every time Red Greenlee's name was mentioned.  He meant it, as he didn't throw those terms around lightly.  When Tommy Milos' name would come up in conversation a grin would come upon my Dad's face, his head would shake from side-to-side and he would just laugh out loud.  The kind of laugh that you might express towards a crazy younger brother who you love, but wonder what the hell he is thinking most of the time.

Tommy was of Greek descent.  I know this because Dad also referred to him as "that crazy Greek". Tommy was the ladies man of the 467th.   As the unit was on the way out to training in California from Georgia, Tommy went missing for a couple of days.  According to his account, a young, beautiful woman walked by him with a laundry basket and needed help carrying it.  Chivalrous to the end, he helped her and subsequently missed his train.  He eventually showed up in the California desert and was reprimanded, but went on to prepare with the unit for the invasion.

Months later, after the D-Day invasion,  Tommy went missing again in the little town of Pont A Mousson, in Northern France.  Determined to find him, Dad went into a little cafe and asked the French cafe owner if he had seen a soldier.  The owner pointed upstairs. Dad and some other members of the 467th, walked upstairs, heard some "commotion" and found Tommy in the bed of a "nice" French girl, with a barking dog at their feet.  Dal would laugh when he told that story, and in subsequent trips back to France, he and my siblings have looked for that house in order to raise a toast to Tommy, but have not been able to locate it.  One hope for my journey back in June is that I can find the house that was the source of so much amusement in my family through the years.

As unpredictable as Tommy was,  Sgt. Herman (Red) Greenlee was just the opposite.  A "calm, cool and collected Tennessee hill country leader" (Dad's words), Red Greenlee was responsible for turning this rag tag "bastard" unit into a cohesive fighting team.  According to Dad, he did it by his demeanor and his leadership.  Red was wounded on D-Day and his rescue was photographed on this now famous image below. That's Red being pulled off the beach the morning of D-Day.

These men and these stories became a part of my youth, and like any good story teller my Dad had a way of creating these "characters" in my mind.  So much so, that Red, Tommy and a few others became almost folklore like to me.  When I finally saw photos, and especially the one below, I was reminded that they were very real men with a very tough job to do.  When I get to Normandy and see that beach, I will think of Red in this photo and take a moment of gratitude for what he meant to Dad and the others.  And as I am driving around Northern France looking for Tommy's "house", I will chuckle one more time at the thought of the barking dog and the "crazy Greek".