Reeh, Bruno and Julia -Three sons and three sons-in-law

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Veteran's Name: Reeh Brothers- Lee, Milton, Cisco- and Brothers-in-law-- Woodrow Powell, Thurman Glasgow, Harold Krauter
Service Branch: Army and Navy
Conflict: World War II
Shared By: Juell Krauter Brown on 9/22/07

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This story's category:
World War II

shared by Juell Krauter Brown

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Interviews By Juell Krauter Brown In The 1990’S

Introduction: Silence Of Wars

Our German ancestors who settled Comfort left the climate of the German Revolution of 1848, escaping the slavery of the masses by the aristocratic class. Within less than a decade they were in the United States Civil War. They desired democracy, not oppression of the blacks or of anyone. They were intellectuals known as Freethinkers. In this new land, they had to make a quick decision whether to fight for the Confederacy or the Union. Families were split up in their decisions. Fathers may have chosen to join the Confederates in order to protect their families. Their sons, more uncompromising in their ideals, may have tried to get to the Union side. Many liberal thinking Germans were murdered by their neighbors. After the war German descendants retreated politically to a careful conservative Republicanism for survival, as opposed to the Confederate Democrats. No one spoke of who was on what side at that time, and to this day, these choices are not spoken of. Still today the history of the Germans in the Civil War is shrouded in silence. Fear and distrust continue to be prevalent. My ancestors came from a Germany in trauma to a United States in trauma. We are still in shock from that time. We wish to forgive our ancestors, no matter what difficult path they took. Secrecy prevents forgiveness and healing. How many generations does it take to recover from the shock caused by the brutal slaying of brave and idealistic fathers and brothers by their neighbors?

Our world wars as well as the smaller wars are also shrouded in silence. Our veterans have not told us their stories. Tom Brokaw recently wrote “The Greatest Generation” about the World War II veterans. We need stories of the Greatest Generation of Comfort in our Archives, so their sacrifice will not be forgotten. Cisco Reeh created the Liberty Wall with pictures of veterans of Comfort and the surrounding area. We want those pictures in the Archives, as well as stories for each picture.

I am indebted to my uncles for sharing some of those memories with us. The stories are heartbreaking, but we prefer the gory truth to the empty silence. I think my uncles’ stories are a good picture of many aspects of World War II - four soldiers performing necessary duties but lucky not to be sent to battle; a sailor sinking a German submarine; a soldier killing Japs in the South Pacific; a soldier fighting on the European mainland; an Air Force pilot bombing Europe; a commander of the South Pacific troops. These sad stories are woven into a conclusion of forgiveness for the horrors of wars, forgiveness of our enemies and of ourselves, with hopes that our children will not face more of the murders of war.

By Juell Krauter Brown

Interviews by Juell Krauter Brown, Comfort, Texas

Juell Krauter Brown became involved in WWII when her mother Lucille Krauter took a big leap in 1948 with her three children (Juell, David and Tootsie) in leaving Comfort, Texas to join her husband Major Harold Krauter in Shizuoka, Japan. This was part of the United States occupation of Japan after we won and they lost. The family was treated like royalty for six months.Relatives and classmates wrote, and enjoyed pictures and memories whenthey returned. It changedtheir lives. Major Krauter captured this adventure in a picture album, leaving a lifelong interest in war experiences.

Juell retired to Comfort in 1991. She began interviewing her aunts and uncles about their childhoods in Comfort. Slowly over the years, the uncles shared more of their traumatic and painful wartime stories.

In addition to her father Harold, Juell had eight uncles in WWII. She also tried to get war stories from other Comfort veterans, but very few could or would tell their stories. The veterans' stories we do have are in the Comfort, Texas, Archives.

Juell's father, Harold, had died in 1984. He was an avid photographer, and left his memories in a vivid picture album, of the invasions of the Philippines and other islands. He as a Major led his troops into the South Pacific islands that were taken over by the Japanese. In his last days he had nightmares about "his boys" who had been killed in the war.

Juell had in WWII three uncles from the Krauter family and five uncles from the Reeh family. Most had to put their lives on hold for four years, and then could return home to get married and try to live out their lives normally. They each had a different role to play in that world fight for freedom. Some were lucky to avoid direct battle. Johnny and Jimmy Krauter were in Central America, lucky that the war ended before they were sent overseas. Leroy Krauter was sent to Africa, to rebuild bridges and structures that had been destroyed. Lee Reeh taught pilots how to fly. Alice Reeh's husband Woodrow was in the D-day invasion, close to where the Leopoldville sank in the English Channel. Cisco Reeh was the only sailor of the group, and his sighting of the German submarine on the east coast of the US has been recounted. He was also a part of the D-day invasion, but his memories of that event never became very conscious to my knowledge. Milton Reeh was in the bloodiest part of the war, in the Philippines. How painfully those memories surfaced. And then Amy Reeh's husband, Thurman Glasgow, wrote his memories, in grand form. He was the only one in the Air Force and had a role in bombing many of the European strategic points. As a Colonel, he had access to the specifics of each flight, and in 1994 he penned his memories with these details.

In the 1990s, Juell uncle, Cisco Reeh, created Comfort's Liberty Wall. On it are photographs of Comfort area veterans. Cisco entered the Wall in many July 4th parades. In 2001 Cisco and his wife, Velma, entered the nursing home. Comfort's memorial military wall stood still. Juell had started helping Cisco Reeh with his collection of veteran picture. Copies of these pictures, retrieved from Cisco's son Lennie Reeh's files, were placed in an album for the archives. Esther Wiedenfelt, Comfort's historian, noticed that Juell was picking up where Cisco stopped. She assigned Juell a title as Chairperson of the Archive's Veterans Section. On Sept. 11, 2004, Comfort celebrated its 150^th Jubilee. The Liberty Wall was in the park, and Cisco rode on his wheelchair on his Papa’s red pickup on a float, behind a float of other veterans. The lists of Comfort veterans and the war stories are in the one hundred year time capsule entombed at the Comfort Park.

Stories of Comfort, Texas Veterans

BRUNO AND JULIA REEH had three sons and three sons-in-law fighting in World War II - Cisco Reeh, Milton Reeh, Lee Reeh, Thurman Glasgow (husband of Amy Reeh), Woodrow Powell (husband of Alice Reeh), Harold Krauter (husband of Lucille Reeh). Some returned home physically injured, and all were deeply affected emotionally, but after four years of war, all six came home alive.

LEE REEH

Lee Reeh was in the Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1945. He trained at Kelly Field in San Antonio. Then he was assigned to teach pilots’ instruments on link trainers at Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma for two years and at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio. Lee wanted to be a pilot, but he was not allowed because he was color blind. Later, in Europe, his assignment was that of an interpreter. Many of the men he trained at Laughlin had already seen air combat, and he felt they were much more interested in the subject matter.During his foreign tour, he was stationed in a small city near Munich but got to travel to France and Switzerland while on leave. He has mementoes from one of Hitler’s mountain retreats in Switzerland. Most of the bad fighting was over by the time he got to Germany. He didot get a chance to visit the town of Reh while there. He came back to the USA through NYC and was mustered out at Fort Chafee, Arkansas in 1945. After the war, he graduated from Oklahoma A&M (changed to Oklahoma State in the 1960's) with a degree in mechanical engineering. He had a private practice as an engineer consultant, but most of his work was with the Army Corps of Engineers. He married Joan Pettas of Tulsa. They had three children, and they traveled extensively with his jobs.

MILTON REEH (Taking Back the Philippines)

In 1942 when I was 18 years old, I hitchhiked to San Antonio and signed up for the Air Force. I chose mechanics, but changed it to paratroopers, which was a mistake because I could have become a good mechanic. I got my training in Ft. Benning, Georgia. My brother Cisco surprised me there with a visit. The town was nothing but soldiers, and the enlisted men were usually fighting the officer candidates. I took Cisco out on the town, and the few available girls crowded around Cisco because he was the only man in a sailor's uniform. From there I was transferred to California.

After the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor, they attacked the Philippines that same day. MacArthur would not greet our commander who had surrendered. MacArthur said, “We will be back.” When MacArthur came back, the huge fleet of ships was a beautiful sight. I remember eating a fantastic meal at Christmas on the ship before we landed. My buddy Pressgrave said, “They are fattening us up fore the kill!” We went in and took back the Philippines. After the first group had taken over, my group cleaned up. Rather than being an artilleryman, I became head machine gun man, only one in ten chance of living.

Earlier we had been on one of the Solomon Islands, and we were picked to man a 20 millimeter aircraft gun. Then my buddy Johnny Pepper and I, on our off time, would run up and down the sandy beach to keep fit. Soon after this, we packed up and shipped out to Vella La Vella. Upon landing, we put the ramps down to jump out, and the zeros were strafing us; we ran into the jungle. We found a map of the terrain, and we presented it to our artillery captain. They then lobbed artillery into all of the Japanese outposts which were marked on the map. After this, the seabees were able to build an airfield. After accomplishing our mission in Vella La Vella, we were shipped to New Zealand on Christmas of 1943. Our first good meal after many months was steaks, two eggs and slices of tomatoes and milk. We put on clean clothes and went to Auckland, New Zealand where a dairy truck came by and we got some ice cream. Boy, was that good!

After leaving New Zealand, we were shipped to New Caledonia (island west of Australia) where we received special training for the invasion of the Philippines. After landing in the Philippines, our first orders were to help unload supplies from the ships. They asked us for some truck drivers; Pepper and I had big fun racing down the beach to get to the motor pool After ships were unloaded, we packed up and headed for the mountains – that is where the Japs were. Fighting went on for many weeks.

In Caledonia I remember on my 21^st birthday, my friend Johnny Pepper said let’s do something different for your birthday. So we walked five miles to an orange orchard and started filling a sack with huge oranges. Suddenly we heard a dog, and a Frenchman was coming. We ran away and jumped the high fence, clearing it by a foot.

After battles, Presgrave and I went looking for souvenirs. In one incident we went into a cave and found two sabers. Presgrave grabbed a Jap rifle and shot a Jap hiding under a tarp in the cave. We got out of the cave, and hand grenades were flying all over from all the other caves.

Another time we found a foxhole. I counted to three and threw in a hand grenade. The Jap’s hand was blown off. He had caught the grenade, and would have thrown it back at me. Luckily I counted to three before I threw it in. In the Jap’s helmet was a flag of the Rising Sun, and each of his many relatives had put a stitch in the Rising Sun. I still have that flag, as well as a grenade like the one that wounded me.

We were asked why do you go hunting souvenirs in that kind of danger? Well, after a couple of battles where you thought you were going to get killed anyway, and after you were wounded and made it, you think that guy up there is taking care of me, and you lose all of your caution

I was wounded at Balete Pass in Luzon. I was in a Jap pillbox, which to us was an oversize foxhole. I was wounded by a knee mortar shell. It was in the middle of the night. We were surrounded by Japs so I had to spend the rest of the night in the Jap pillbox. The smell in there was terrible. The next morning I was taken to the battalion aid station and spent the next two weeks in the hospital. Then I was sent back to Company K and went up to my machine gun. The Captain asked if I was ready for more action. If I had told him I was nervous, he would either have sent me home or he would have put me on KP duty. KP stands for Kitchen Patrol, but we said it meant Keep Peeling.

One evening after a long patrol we set up a perimeter in the rice field. The captain told us to dig in because a Philippino had seen many Japs back in the hills. We expected a very hard night on guard duty – two hours on and two hours off. Just then a soldier with a German Shepherd dog came. He asked if he could dig in next to me and my machine gun. He dug in and said stay in your foxhole and get some rest – the dog will be on guard tonight. There was an article in the battalion news about a grenade thrown into a foxhole and the dog grabbed it and jumped out with it. Unfortunately that was the end of the dog, but he saved his master.

We made a night march to the other side of the small town of La Pao. Next morning we started advancing into town where the Japs had 35 tanks buried, all except for the turrets sticking out. We couldn’t do anything, so on the fourth day we sent tank destroyers in. Our tanks had no turrets and were open on top. The Japs threw grenades into the open tops and wiped us out. Capt. Michaelson said, “The shit is going to fly now.” He called in Sherman tanks, and in three hours the town was cleaned out. I read later that the Japs had buried gold in that town and in other places in the Philippines because they thought the Philippines would be theirs. I remember men in one tank telling another tank they had five Japs on top, then they shot them off, and the driver said don’t shoot so low. They would stop the tank, the Japs would fall off, and then they would grind them under the tires. Finally those trenches got to smelling bad because there were so many dead Japs. There were small caves in the hills, like ants nestled in, and our men went up with flame throwers, and the Japs would run out to escape the heat.

In the battle for La Pao, I felt air go by my head, and an instant later I saw the muzzle blast of the tank cannon “47 millimeter” and again felt the air go past my head. He couldn’t hit me with only my head showing. The First Sergeant went up with field glasses to locate the tank. The Japs purposely shot his leg off so they could draw us out to help him. My buddy Pepper went to help him, and the Jap shot Pepper’s head off. They both died right there.

I couldn't figure things out about my buddies dying in the army. I asked my sister Amy why my friend Johnny Pepper got killed in the war. She said God takes the good ones, and I accepted it. I don’t like to talk about my war experiences, because then I have war nightmares.

I received a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, a Combat Infantryman Badge, and an Expert Infantryman Badge. I was noted for leadership and for expert accurate shooting.

The Great Depression started when I was in the first grade. I learned there wasn't a Santa Claus, and I worried about Mama and Papa having to buy the gifts. I always worried about money, and still worry about it. Even in the service when guys would gamble away their money, I sent mine home to my sister Lucille. In 1945, the same day I came home, Lucille wrote out a check for $1,500, a lot of money to me, and that was a start. The government also gave GI's $100 a month for three months to start over. I married Celie Karger, and we had three wonderful children. We live in Comfort, where I worked as a farmer, a mechanic, and a school bus driver. We took many vacation trips over the years, and especially enjoyed hunting trips to Colorado.

When you know you are winning and getting somewhere, it is ok. In Korea and Vietnam, we would take a mountain and then lose it, and never got ahead. Wars have to do with making money. Roosevelt wanted to build up the economy. We could have won the war easily without the atomic bomb.

Interviewed 1995-2002 by Juell Krauter Brown

Edited in 2002 by Celie Karger Reeh

Interviewer’s note: I interviewed Milton Reeh in 1995, fifty years after he was on the battlefield of World War II. These last seven years, more details emerged in Milton’s memories, recorded by me and edited by his wife Celie. As the United States is on the threshold of war with Iraq, we think it an appropriate time to publish Milton’s war story. Do the present conditions justify sending a new generation of youngsters into the bloodshed of war, either to be killed or to spend their next 50 years retrieving their memories from their nightmares?

By Juell Krauter Brown

CISCO REEH

I joined the Navy in 1941. (Sister Lucille said Cisco came to say goodbye, and Papa said do it right. Cisco went back and hugged Oma, and patted Lucille on the cheek.) Papa wrote me that he wanted to join the Coast Guard. He was 48, and they were taking men at 42. I was 17. What an introduction to life!

I enjoyed being on the water, only ten days at a time, seeing the world. One time we were on the water in a convoy for 29 days. We went through a bad storm, with the waves going above the ship, and we would go down under the next wave, the ship vibrating. I never got sick. Each ship had its own patterns, and you had to get used to the way it rolled.

We convoyed ships from New York to Cuba mostly and to other places. Sonar is radar under water. We got it from Canada. If Germany had had it, we wouldn't have won the war. Germany could see the lights of ships from New York, before we had sonar. The ship has to be still to hear the zing go out and come back, no splashes. They called us zing jockeys. The machines could tell through echos if there was anything under water. We could tell how far away anything was and at what angle by how the echos came back. Whales will do the same thing, block the sonar, but then I could hear them moan. Many times it was a whale, but I could tell before we shot. I don’t know how many whales we blew up. Sharks and porpoises also sent back echos. Sharks had a screaming sound. Porpoises sounded like pigs. Whales had a sound too. The porpoises would swim behind the whales, and eat the fish that the whales didn’t eat. The porpoises would swim in front of the ship, and play with the ship, criss crossing, and then a whole group of them would fly above the water, beautifully, again and again.

During WWII there were Japanese subs, German subs and American subs all along the United States eastern shoreline. On 6/2/43, my ship, the 107 foot sub-chaser PC565, sank a German submarine right off the shore of Virginia. Fourteen of our ships had been sunk in that area. I am the one who heard the sonar of the submarine that we sank. Our captain said I was the only one who knew what was happening. One of the men heard the torpedo from the German submarine, but it was too low and went under our ship. It would have completely destroyed us. The ship vibrated.

We got such acclaim from the sinking of the submarine in ten minutes but it wasn't like that. We were the best in sending out canons for practice, but this was our first real encounter, and everything went wrong. We saw the submarine. Our ship stopped, like the books instructed, but then started up full steam ahead and kind of skipped along. We decided to ramrod the submarine. At one point everything was smoking, and one guy thought we were sinking and yelled abandon ship. The canons weren't working, but finally one did, which was an illegal one that this guy had welded down for himself. So we didn't have to ram the submarine. When the submarine did blow up out of the water, miles of debris covered the water. The German commander blew 20 feet in the air through the hatch, the only one who survived, floating around in the water. We picked him up. I was the only one who spoke German, so I asked him in German, "Wie hasten du heraus gekommen?” (How'd you get out?)

The commander, Klaus Barston, thanked us for saving him, because we didn't have to take him out of the water. Later, Barston’s boots were missing. There was a locker search. No one thought of searching the officer's quarters, just us lower sailors were searched. The same one who had yelled abandon ship had taken the German commander's shoes. Twelve years after the war, our navy group started having yearly reunions. At our first reunion, this guy brought those boots in bronze, kept one for himself, and gave one to the German commander who came to the reunion.

I have a picture of the German Commander, Klaus Barston, being given an iron cross around his neck from Hitler for having sunk so many American ships.

We got a furlough and awards, because we were on the machine that saw the submarine.

So many mistakes were made in the war. They wouldn’t let us look for submarines in the English Channel, one reason the Leopoldville sank. I was in D-Day June of 1944 which turned the war to our favor. They had a practice invasion on the British side. Our commander had gotten to be a hero from having sunk the German submarine. He was yelling loud orders on this megaphone. Suddenly the megaphone stopped working, and I was supposed to fix it. He had it all apart. Turns out it was just unplugged. All the while we were getting closer and closer to land. British shells were going overhead, and Americans were killed in this practice invasion.

In the actual invasion, everything was very disorganized, no one knowing what they were doing. Our leader was angry, and kept threatening to send us to the enemy. I was on the bridge of the ship where I could see everything. The ducks were the flat beds with three sides taking soldiers into shore. Then the soldiers would walk out into the water to the shore. I saw one big duck sink, and all the little ducks sank, because they were overloaded with all the c-rations and gear of the men.

But we won, and that is another story.

Official report and pictures: http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-521.htm

In 1946 I married Velma Spenrath in Chicago where I attended electronics school. We had two children. I studied radio and transmitter equipment at Ft. Sam Houston. After graduating, I went directly to TV Channel 4 (WOAI) for 11-1/2 years, and then Channel 5 (KENS-TV) for 23 years. (Thurman Glasgow said the TV men all said that Cisco was a genius, working technically with television in its beginning years.)

Both Velma and I retired at age 65 in 1989. I became the Commander of the VFW post. I created the VFW Liberty Wall, collecting pictures of Comfort Area Veterans. Each year I pulled this Wall with Papa’s old pickup in various parades, and won many parade awards. My specialty was playing two trumpets at one time. I could play trumpet, soprano saxophone (tiny one), clarinet, and was learning piano. I played Taps at funerals, and sometimes brother Milton joined me for Echo Taps. I also had a vineyard and made many batches of good wine.

I had a dream of making a museum out of my shop downtown, with World War II memoirs and memorabilia of Comfort veterans, and with TV's and radio's as they changed throughout the years. The first radio the Reeh family had was one that sister Alice got when she went away to school in San Antonio. She brought it back and the family listened to it for many years.

I had a severe stroke 9/24/2001. Since then, Velma and I reside in the Comfort Nursing Home. (Cisco died in 2006 and Velma died in 2007).

Interviewed by Juell Krauter Brown

WOODROW POWELL (husband of Alice Reeh) -

In 1935 I took training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where I stayed for three years; then I enlisted in the Army Reserve staying two years and five months.

In 1944 I was drafted to serve in WW II. We trained at Fort Sill and Camps Robinson and Ruck. I was assigned to the 66th Infantry Division called the Black Panther Division, which served in Europe until discharge.

We sailed for England December 1944; from there the Panthers were scheduled to reinforce Allied soldiers fighting desperately in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium where the Nazis had made a surprise attack.

One of the troop ships carrying the Panthers was torpedoed in the English Channel. The ship was the Leopoldville, which sank about six miles from port, losing 802 men. I was on an LST on which some of our men were locked in below. Some of us were on deck with our trucks. I opened the hatch and let them out, disobeying orders; no one would tell who had opened the hatch to let them out.

The division, being thus depleted, was not sent to the Battle of the Bulge, but replaced a division in their position near St. Lorient, France, where Allied troops had about 50,000 Nazi troops bottled up. These Nazi troops were guarding the submarine pens. The Nazis in this St. Nazaire pocket were poised to break out of the Allied ring. They planned to head northeast to raid and demoralize the Allied supply lines between Cherbourg and the main front. The “forgotten front” might have jumped into the headlines had the Nazis been successful.

I remember the miserable cold and the sound of shells going over and the deafening boom of our artillery. One night on sentry duty I was scared out of my wits by the sudden loud cry of a cuckoo.

Once as motor sergeant I was driving the command vehicle leading a convoy of trucks loaded with ammunition to the battle zone near St. Lorient. This was at night under blackout conditions. We got on a wrong road. I stopped my car to ask where we were, and a Frenchman pointing in the direction the trucks were going said, “Boche! Boche!” I immediately took off to catch them, having to maneuver around each truck to signal them to turn back. They were all in the middle of the road with antitank ditches on each side. Each truck was signaled to turn back, and no life or ammunition was lost.

On May 11, 1945, these German troops surrendered to the 66th Division, which was then sent to various European countries for occupation duties. We were in Salsburg, Austria when we were ordered to Marseille. There we fixed up jeeps and trucks which were to be shipped to the Pacific. From there we were sent to the States and discharged, although we were asked to re-enlist. I was promised a rating of master sergeant to do so.

As to the Leopoldville, few people knew about the torpedoing and sinking of the transport ship on Christmas Eve of 1944. The event received the “quiet treatment” from all governments involved. The German U-boat struck at 5:50 pm six miles north of the French port of Cherbourg, and at 8:30 pm the Leopoldville sank to the bottom of the channel.

Families of the men who died there did not know what happened or where their sons had died and how. Some did not learn until more than fifty years later. The story of the tragedy gradually surfaced. Every combat soldier had a book to write. Raymond J. Roberts did so. “Survivors of the Leopoldville Disaster” was copyrighted in 1997, answering many questions.

On April 15, 1945, General Eisenhower awarded the 66th Division a Battle Star for participating in the Campaign of Northern France. I was proud to add it to my other medals.

After the war, I married Alice Reeh. We owned a night club, and then a ranch, which we still manage in our 80's.

Interviewed by Alice Reeh Powell and Juell Krauter Brown 2000

THURMAN GLASGOW

(Thurman Glasgow wrote a detailed autobiography of his life and his flights in the war. Juell condensed his war experiences for this family report.)

THURMAN GLASGOW (husband of Amy Reeh) had a goal to become a pilot. After two years at SWSTC in San Marcos, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps 12/18/41 and received flight training. On 5/23/44 Thurman and his crew departed Topeka, Kansas in a brand new B-24 enroute to Italy. He flew his first mission as part of a crew 6/22/44. The plane was christened the “Passionate Witch.” His squadron lost ten crews (100 men) the first month they were in Italy.

A normal tour of duty for a combat crew member was 50 missions. If the target was exceptionally dangerous, it would count for two missions. Thurman wrote an extensive autobiography (which is in the Comfort Archives) describing in detail his training and his bombing missions over Europe. He saw many of the aircraft in his flying formations shot down by the enemy, or explode under varying conditions.

One mission on 8/15/44 was the invasion of Southern France to link up with troops that landed in Normandy. On the way they saw three aircraft crash on take-off, and two more aircraft crash in mid-air (50 men). Their role was to hit the beaches with 100 pound bombs to set off land mines and destroy barbed wire barrriers, from an unusually low altitude of 15,000 feet. As they were bombing the beaches, they saw the ships launching landing craft half a mile off shore, coming in with foam streaks behind them. Seven bombs were stuck in the bomb bay, and two men walked out on a catwalk (11 inches wide) with no parachute or oxygen bottle, and lifted and dropped the 100 pound bombs very carefully.

Thurman said these flights reminded him of the saying, “Flying combat consists of hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror.”

On 11/12/44 Thurman was wounded when a terrible explosion shook the aircraft just before “bombs away.” The flack went between the bone and the main artery in the upper leg. He had frostbite around the wound since the pilot’s cabin was 45 degrees below zero at 25,000 feet. The frostbite was removed and skin grafted on.

Thurman was awarded the Silver Star, the Oak Leaf Cluster for the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Award of the Soldier’s Medal. The Silver Star award stated: “For gallantry in action as pilot of a B-24 type aircraft. On 11/12/44, Lt. Glasgow participated in a bombing mission against a strategic enemy railroad bridge in Italy. At the target intense, accurate and heavy anti-aircraft fire was encounted which severely damaged his aircraft and seriously wounded Lt. Glasgow. Despite intense pain, shock and loss of blood, displaying outstanding courage, and fortitude, Lt. Glasgow remained at the controls bringing his crippled ship through for a highly successful bombing run. Not until after the bombing run had been completed did he make known the seriousness of his wounds. Returning to base, damaged mechanism indicated a possible crash landing or parachuting from the aircraft. With complete disregard for his serious wound, Lt. Glasgow expressed his willingness to bail out rather than risk his crew members’ lives in a crash landing. Repairs were completed however, and a safe landing was skillfully accomplished. By his conspicuous gallantry, determination and intense devotion to duty, as evidenced throughout 40 successful missions against the enemy, Lt. Glasgow has reflected great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the U.S. of America.”

After being wounded, Thurman returned to the US 1/45. He married Amy Reeh, and they had four children. The family was often transferred, living in Mississippi, Illinois, New York, Colorado, England, Germany, Texas, Washington DC. In 9/1/48 the Army Air Corps became the US Air Force. In 1963 Thurman was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Among his many assignments were in 1962 Chief of Public Affairs for the United Nations Command in Korea in 1962, and in 1963 Chief of Public Affairs of the Aerospace Medical Division of the AF Systems Command at Lackland. He retired 10/68 with 28 years service, and continued his work in Civil Service for 14 more years.

Thurman held many leadership positions as a lifetime member of the Air Force Association and in the Order of Daedalians (1962-1991) which is a national fraternity of military pilots. Since 3/2000, Thurman and Amy live in the Health Care Center of Air Force Village in San Antonio.

HAROLD KRAUTER

Harold Krauter (husband of Lucille Reeh) was a Flying Cadet in 1931. In 1934 he was a First Lieutenant in the Tree Army of the Civil Commission Corps. On 1/8/41 he joined the U.S. Army and became a military professional. During World War II Harold served in the American Amphibious Armored Corp. He advanced to the position of Major and commanded troops that fought Japanese on various South Pacific islands, returning to the U.S. several times to learn different techniques. Harold received a World War II Victory Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal, PI Independence Medal, and four overseas bars.

He kept picture albums of his experiences on these islands, of the killing as well as the beauty. One story he told was of a tribe in which the women went nude above the waist. The soldiers, trying to instill modesty, gave the native women t-shirts to wear. The next day they were wearing the t-shirts, but had cut out two holes to let their breasts hang out. Humor was found even during wartime.

Toward the end of the war in 2/45, Harold was hospitalized for two months. In 1946 he reviewed the Philippine troops for two months. In 1947 he spent six months in various hospitals. In 1948 he was stationed as part of postwar occupation in Shizuoka, Japan. His wife Lucille and their three children (Juell, David, and Tootsie) joined Harold for six months in Shizuoka and found the Japanese very gracious.

On 6/1/49 Harold was relieved from active duty at age 42 with a 100% service connected disability. Throughout his life Harold was periodically hospitalized with various ailments including chronic rheumatoid arthritis. Each time, with much persistence, he learned to walk again. He died at 78 on 12/22/84 after a lengthy illness at the Audie Murphy Hospital.

Harold enjoyed people, and the caption under his picture in his high school annual said, "Wherever he met a stranger, he left a friend." This propensity for making friends continued into the war years where he was loved and respected by the men he commanded and later by the veterans he served for many years as the District Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He also had the trust of the people of Comfort as shown in his elected office of Justice of the Peace in 1960-67.

Harold, as well as most veterans, did not speak about his war experiences. The traumas were too deep and painful to come to the surface. So we have lost many of the accounts of these heroic and tragic times.

When Harold’s beloved dog was run over in the 1970's, Harold cried uncontrollably. He spoke of “his boys” who had been killed in the war. Year later we found this note he had written, “There’s really nothing anyone can say or do to ease the pain I feel when one loses or is losing someone close. I suffered much emotionally in World War II when losing many of my boys because I had become emotionally involved with all of them.”

The two world wars were difficult for Germans in Texas, fighting the country of Germany from which their ancestors came, fighting their cousins in Germany. Cisco forgave the German submarine commander 12 years after the war, when the commander came to their reunions.

During the war Harold Krauter killed the Japanese, and watched American soldiers being killed by the Japs. Three years after the war, Harold and his family lived in Japan in harmony, and found the Japanese people to be very gracious.

War brings out the barbaric in us all. After the war, we all come together again to try to create a peaceful world. We don’t want our descendants to have to go through another period of killing.

By Juell Krauter Brown

So ends my inteviews and summaries of the Reeh brothers and brothers-in-law, of the Bruno and Julia Reeh family - Lee Reeh, Milton Reeh, Cisco Reeh, Woodrow Powell, Thurman Glasgow, Harold Krauter. by daughter and niece Juell Krauter Brown

submitted: 9/22/2007