Only 4 vets of WWII unit at reunion to swap stories
BY ALLISON NICHOLS
Posted on Sunday, June 8, 2008
Only four came this year.
World War II veterans from the Company C, ™ rd Infantry of the Arkansas National Guard held their annual reunion Saturday at the TA Travel Center in Prescott.
Their numbers have dwindled from about 60 veterans who attended the first reunion 24 years ago, but the men still love to gather, along with their families, friends and widows of other company veterans, to exchange stories and tell jokes.
“We tell the same old stories over and over, but they’re still good,” Imon Cook said. Cook, 86, of Texarkana was stationed on Alaska’s Annette Island for about 32 months during the war.
The men trained together and went to Alaska before the war scattered them.
“I didn’t have a big military career like Bud and Connie,” he said of two other veterans at the reunion.
“I never fired a shot in anger,” he joked.
Connie Frizzell, 95, was a prisoner of war in Germany after being captured in the Battle of the Bulge, and Bud Vandiver, 87, served in Italy, where he earned a Bronze Star.
When asked why he was given the medal, Vandiver said several other men had been killed in battle.
“I took over telling them what to do and didn’t get shot,” he paused, “and then I did get shot.” Vandiver got the Purple Heart after being shot twice in the same day in Italy, the second time while trying to get to first aid.
He had several other close calls, stories he tells more than 60 years later with a lot of chuckling and a knack for comedic timing.
“I could look up and see traces of bullets over my head,” Vandiver said, still discussing Italy. “And you talk about somebody getting close to the ground.” Anne Franks, Vandiver’s daughter, said he’s the entertainer of the group.
He never used to tell his war stories when she and her sister were growing up, she said. “He’s just really enjoying being able to talk about it now.” Frizzell, who now lives in Vivian, La., said his company had been sent to try to slow the German offensive when he was captured Dec. 18, 1944, the third day of the Battle of the Bulge. He said he fought alongside 230 to 240 men, and of those, only 19 weren’t killed or captured that day. He was then marched for 13 days to the first of the five prison camps he would be moved to during the next four months.
“We didn’t have a bite to eat,” he said, adding that the guards didn’t, either.
“The first four days is bad. It hurts. But from then on, your stomach and your brain get used to it.” Frizzell was liberated by the British, who transported him to Belgium and then France, where he caught a boat back the United States.
The fourth veteran at Saturday’s reunion, Lawrence Harris of Little Rock, also served on Annette Island.
“God, there were some bad places to be sent to,” he said. “I tried to be pleased with what we had there.” None of the men’s children went into military service, although one of Cook’s sons was drafted during the Vietnam War.
Cook said he got his son stationed in the National Guard and he never left the country during the war. “I pulled a President Bush with him,” he joked. “I didn’t see anything wrong with that because they made it legal.” While his son didn’t like the service, Cook said he always did. He rejoined the Guard in 1946 and stayed in it until he retired.
“I encourage guys now to get in, course they won’t do it,” he said.
“It’s an experience that sure won’t hurt ’em, and it’ll teach ’em a lot.”
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Only 4 vets of WWII unit at reunion to swap stories
