517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team Benedict James Barrett H Company

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The Army Years:

I tried to enlist in the army 1937 but was turned down for physical reasons. I spent two years in the Civilian Conservation Corps and tried to enlist again in New Hampshire where I again failed the physical (heart murmur).  The recruiting officer suggested that I go over to Maine -- "They are taking everybody".  I did, and he was right.

I had basic training at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts.

In those days, the army sent you to where they wanted.  You had no choice in what branch of the army you would serve with.  I was assigned A Battery, 22nd Coast Artillery Regiment at the Coast Artillery base in Portsmouth, N.H., a soldier's paradise in the peace time army because, besides being near the ocean, you were usually stationed near a large city. We were about fifty miles from Boston and we could get a 2:00 AM train back to Portsmouth in time for reveille. In the regular army you might get away with some infractions, but missing reveille was not one of them.

I eventually obtained a Staff Sergeant's rating and later became a boson on an Army mine planter. One day, with about four other soldiers, we were aboard the mine planter General Richard Arnold placing buoys for a minefield that was to be planted later. At that time the ship was manned by civilians. The captain got a call to go out to sea to rescue the L88 which was disabled in a storm. My commanding officer sent a yawl out to take the army personal off the ship since we had been out since 4:00 am. The Arnold reached the L88 but also was in trouble and had to have a large mine planter Absolom Baird come to the rescue of both ships. The Arnold sank with the loss of ten men. Fortunately, our Commanding officer had the good sense to have us taken off the ship before it went further out to sea.

After Pearl Harbor, I tried to get transfer to a unit that would likely go overseas.  You could sign up for the paratroops. I gave up my rank and went to jump school with the 515.  I thought the 515 was a good unit but it didn't seem to be going overseas at that time, so I turned down a 1st Sergeant's rank and volunteered to go overseas as a replacement.  After a tour in Sicily, I became part of the cadre for the parachute school in Rome where the FFI and American volunteers were being qualified as paratroopers. 

I joined the 517 in Sospel area in Southern France.  I was with the 3rd Bn when it had its headquarters in the Golf Hotel which was a target for German artillery.  Howard Hensleigh recalls plaster falling on the officers on the first floor. Our platoon was on the third floor from where the plaster was coming from.

Around the middle of November we marched about fifty miles to the outskirts of Nice, and soon after boarded 40-and-8 boxcars for Soissons. 

On December 18, 1944, we boarded trucks for the Ardennes which was where The Battle of The Bulge was beginning.  We moved around the area for several nights.  I was in "H" Company. 

We spent Christmas Eve in Malmedy, and the next morning the fog lifted and the sky was covered with American bombers headed for Germany.  On December 27, 'H' and ' I' companies led the successful attack on Manhay, and about a week later we entered Trois Ponts. 

On January 4, 1944, we were relieved and marched to Bergeval.  That night, January 5, I was wounded by a German shell that caused 17 casualties. 

After about six months in the hospital, I was discharged at Lovell General Hospital, Ft. Devens, MA, where I had entered the army in 1940.

-- to be continued --

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