Their only safety was to dive under a car that wasn't burning and hope it didn't go next. I can't relate the story here. Howard never mentioned it to me until I wrote demanding to know why the major of Soissons, France had sent a medallion from the French government to me for Howard for his heroic efforts in saving their city! All Howard ever said was 'We've been busy as little beavers around here lately.' He received the German Battle Campaign award. He received the Soldiers Medal for valor and the Presidential Unit Citation. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, 'No big deal, they passed them out to everybody.' He seldom mentioned the war. They had to relocate their depot. They took over one the Germans had when they were driven out. It was huge and underground. Howard was transferred to Battalion Headquarters and commissioned a captain on December 8, 1945. He returned to the States on March 1946 and was released from the service in May 1946. Submitted by Violet H. Cottrell, wife Ralph Parkinson Crawford Ralph P. Crawford served in many places. He began his service five days after graduating from Ogden High School. He trained at Camp Hale, Colorado. He was the first scout for the 2nd Platoon. He was in the 10th Mountain Division of the Army as a private first class. He saw action in Naples, Northern Italy, Yugoslavia, and the Austrian Alps. He earned a Purple Heart, a Silver Star and other medals. Heiko J. Dallinga I began in San Luis Obispo, California on 3 March 1941. I also served in a headquarters in Riverside, California. I then went to officers candidates school and graduated as a second lieutenant. On 28 September 1942, I was in Maryland. I was then assigned to an ammunition company and went to Camp Livingston, Louisiana. We did much company traveling before departing to England May 1944. I then got on a boat with 20 enlisted men and went to Normandy, Omaha Beach the day after D-Day. I saw more than 200 enlisted men dead on the beach. I stayed on the beach for two more weeks before the rest of the company picked us up. While there, I saw more than 1,000 men at the cemetery waiting to be buried. From there I went on through France, Belgium and Germany to the end. I was also in the Battle of the Bulge. I could tell about many more events. I came home on February 25,1946, and then joined the Ordnance Reserve Unit until 1955 and then retired. Heiko Dallinga received five campaign badges. John R. Dallinga John Dallinga served in the European Theater Operation during the war. He writes: 'I did get to England and France early in 1945. I served in a Railway Shop Battalion.' 84 Arnold Charles Dellamore Arnold served with the 339th Infantry Regiment, known as the Polar Bears, so nicknamed because of the unit's service in Siberia during the First World War. He had served for one year, seven months, and ten days in the National Guard and was inducted into the regular Army on November 27, 1942. He was discharged on December 4, 1945. He served in the battles and campaigns of Rome-Arno, Northern Appenines, and the Po Valley. He received the American Theater of Operations Service Ribbon, European-African-Middle Eastern Service Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Bronze Star, Distinguished Unit Badge, WWII Victory Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and Sharpshooter Rifle M1. Ralph Delquadro Two stories in particular that I fondly remember Dad telling me about were when he was a medical airman and gave emergency treatment to casualties on the battlefield under the line of fire. He assisted in carrying wounded soldiers to medical aid stations and all that he could say was 'Geez, I went to training with that guy and I just spoke to that guy yesterday about his family and I was good friends with that guy . . .' and these were 'guys' that were either dead or near death and it affected him deeply. I wonder if this was the reason (or part of it) why, when he returned home after the war ended, he disposed of all the medals he had earned. They simply made him uncomfortable. Perhaps he didn't believe he really earned them. Among his modest items was the absence of any medal of any kind! The other story was rather amazing, especially coming from my Dad. When I relayed the story at his funeral services, it didn't seem as funny as when he relayed it to me. He was a medical airman and medical technician. He was responsible for all the medication - which mostly consisted of aspirin. His sergeant or 'Higher Up' kept stressing the importance of 'ordering more aspirin'. 'We can't run out of aspirin.' 'Can't run out of aspirin', he would remind him continually. So much so, that Dad neurotically kept ordering copious amounts of aspirin. Then after the war ended, he went to his commander-in-charge and asked him '. . . what should we do with all the bottles of aspirin?' The commander-in-charge looked at Dad with a dumbfounded stare, shrugged his shoulders and looking clueless answered, 'I don't know, that's your problem.' Exasperated, I guess, by the 'desperately overstocked amount of aspirin', he told me that he waited until it was very late at night and went outside to a desolate area, made a hole and buried hundreds and hundreds of these bottles of aspirin. He told me he didn't know why he did it in such a secretive, clandestine way, but he did! The honors he received included: Philippine Liberation Ribbon with two bronze stars, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the WWII Victory medal, and the Army of Occupation Medal. 85