Wilbur "Jack" Myers in the Battle of the Bulge

Interview with Wilbur "Jack" Myers conducted by Kaycee Kemper and Jada Delauney, transcript prepared by Ethan Satterlee.

Transcript

Kaycee Kemper: Hi, my name is Kaycee Kemper Kemper and I am here today with Wilbur "Jack Myers" Myers and we're excited to interview him today on behalf of our history class at Hagerstown Community College. Um, and I'd like to introduce Jack Myers corporal Wilbur "Jack" Myers who we're interviewing for Bridging the Antietam, "Stories from our Community" and we're happy to have Jack Myers with us today we're so excited to ask him a couple questions and spend some time with him today Jack Myers was actually born uh very close to where we are today he was born in Williamsport, Maryland in June of 1923 and in 1943 he was drafted into the army and that's what we're going to talk to him about today. Uh, Jack Myers served our great country in the first platoon of the 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, and um, we're really excited to have him here with us today and share some of his insights with us so Jada Delauney take it away.

Jada Delauney: Okay um [Music] what was your rank and duties at the time of the Battle of the Bulge?

Jack Myers: Well you have to turn it up a little bit.

Kaycee Kemper: Can you say that one more time Jada Delauney.

Jada Delauney: What was your rank and duties at the time of the Battle of the Bulge?

Kaycee Kemper: What was your rank and duties?

Jack Myers: Well I was a corporal gunner the entire war from the beginning to the end in this tank destroyer company and uh we fought in uh France and Holland and the Battle of the Bulge in Germany and just, you know I was with a great company and that we had to win, and we did.

Kaycee Kemper: How about your duties at the time?

Jack Myers: Well my duties was a gunner the whole time and we what we first, the first uh combat we had was in Holland and then we came down and went into Germany and through the Siegfried Line and once we got in there, of course, December came along and the Battle of the Bulge started and, and uh, what's the name, Patton wanted us to come over and help, help stop the tank rush so we were involved in the Battle of the Bulge too, until the end.

Kaycee Kemper: And that was wintertime.

Jack Myers: Was it ever! It was cold and at the time we were fighting in a half-track and uh with the towed uh 75 millimeter on the back which really wasn't an answer to the 88 [millimeter] that the Germans had but, uh we found the battle tactics to uh compete and we found a way to do it, so, that's the war, you know, for you 

Kaycee Kemper: Cold long wintertime. 

Jack Myers: Oh yeah, people, some of the veterans froze their feet froze I was fortunate to be able to sleep in the half-track and not sleep on the ground. So I survived a little better.

Kaycee Kemper: How difficult was it to communicate with your loved ones at home? Were you able to do that much was there much time for that?

Jack Myers: No, no when you're in combat you don’t . . . I, I just never was able to talk to my wife at all. I was married then and, uh, the only way we could uh communicate was with mail, you know 

Kaycee Kemper: Through letters.

Jack Myers: Yeah.

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah and I'm sure that probably took time for those letters to get back and forth.

Jack Myers: Oh yeah, yeah. 

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah. 

Jack Myers: But do you do what you have to do and what you can do.

Kaycee Kemper: No email back then huh?

Jack Myers: No email no. [Laughs.]

Jada Delauney: Okay, so I actually thought of a question because I heard you brought up France um so what was war and lifelike in that time, in France?

Kaycee Kemper: What was war and lifelike in France at that time?

Jack Myers: Oh uh well war is H - E -  L - L all the time, you know. It does vary from place to place, but it's never pleasant and we, I was in a great outfit that uh, uh I was with them from the very beginning to the very end. Through uh France and Holland and the Battle of the Bulge and Germany uh both north to south, and so uh we, we had the great experience and lost men and uh I wasn't able to talk about it like this for 50 years. I wouldn't. I'd start to say something and then I think about my buddies I lost I'd break down. So after a while, I'm a Christian, and after a while, the Lord healed me and now I can speak about it, anything about it you want to know 

Kaycee Kemper: How many men were in your battalion Jack Myers, do you remember?

Jack Myers: Not exactly.  I do have I do have a picture of the War Department sent me a picture with everything on it, but uh I was in a great outfit and we had three platoons and four squads in each platoon and uh it was a great outfit and we uh we were able to compete with the 88 [mm] even though I mentioned that my gun wasn't up to par with it, however, later on, I could tell you what happened I did I was able to compete with it later on 

Kaycee Kemper: So you're saying the Germans had uh better technology they were able to develop better guns than what the U. S. had?

Jack Myers: But of course, they were in it long before we were 

Kaycee Kemper: Sure 

Jack Myers: And they had this 88 [mm] it was a powerful gun you know it was faster than sound so if we were in a village and I heard that gun I didn't have to worry about it because it was already gone so but later on I get a 90 [mm] on an M36 [tank destroyer] which I could compete with, and I did yeah. But, we’ll get to that later.

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah, wow so we talked about the communication with home it was you know pretty sparse um you know not being able to really communicate a whole lot um how long were you over there how long were you engaged in the war?

Jack Myers: I got over there right after the battle right after the uh landing in France, you know, and we went in uh right after that and then we were asked to go up to Holland and that was in September uh to relieve them of the uh German occupation so we went up there and fought in that and we were able to liberate them and then we came down into Germany and like early December and uh that's when the Battle of the Bulge started on the 16th and then General Patton wanted us to come up and help him stop his tanks from being rushed, you know, and so we did and I was glad we could uh help him out you know and uh of course we lost men too so this is war you know.

Jada Delauney: Okay so how often did the disease strike camp and what were some of the procedures to prevent it from spreading?  

Kaycee Kemper: Okay one more time Jada Delauney.

Jada Delauney: Um, how often did disease strike camp and what were some of the procedures to prevent it from spreading?

Kaycee Kemper: How long, how um did you guys, did disease strike at all were you guys able to remain pretty healthy or was that something that was a major concern?

Jack Myers: Well we had the, uh, you know the food given to us that we could eat boxed up you know and uh we also got into the Germans’ uh canned fruit and things that were in their basement.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay right.

Jack Myers: And get into those things until when they found out what we were doing and then they started to put poison in there and then we had to quit.

Kaycee Kemper: Wow.

Jack Myers: We had to quit that but uh in Holland we uh we get up there like in the fall and there were some things we could eat off the ground in the gardens and stuff so we just had to do what we had to do, you know. I had a well all along I had a, I had a Native American Indian his name was Albert Haskey and I called him Al Haskey he was the driver in our squad and uh we take a village and uh one time we took this village and we, we set up on the outskirts of the village so if there was a counter-attack we were ready you know.  And uh so we pulled in the back I couldn't reverse my gun out my gun was a thing that I had to traverse it this way and that way to get my target I couldn't do it because it bushes and he right away he jumped out there and started to cut them away and we got a terrific barrage of uh mortar and one of them hit right by him six feet in front of him and a piece of shrapnel went through his steel helmet and came out of the back.

Kaycee Kemper: Wow.

Jack Myers: Everything uh my, my sergeant and I did everything we could do to save him. We couldn't do it so those are the things that are very difficult to get over but he had to be replaced and but I'll tell you more about him too it's interesting later on.

Kaycee Kemper: How did you, um, were there any times in which you had I mean of course you're always at the ready right and you're always uh ready to defend. Was there any points when you guys had any downtime were there things that you guys would do to sort of try to relax? Or there probably wasn't much relaxing during war but. . .

Jack Myers: Yeah that's a good question right after the Battle of the Bulge we, we uh we traveled up to the Rhine, to the Roer, Roer River and we couldn't get across because the bridges were bombed down so we had to set up our guns and fire artillery until the engineers got the bridges that were forced to cross over so this was right around Christmas and on Christmas Eve we got a command to stop firing, now this was very interesting south firing and uh don't you know the Germans stopped firing also and on Christmas Eve they played Christmas carol on the piano and we sang with them! How about that?

Kaycee Kemper: Wow.

Jack Myers: But you know you know thinking about this I never did hate my enemy because I always thought because I could go through a German fallen German that he had pictures of his family in there too that story you know and he was gone but he couldn't say “no” to Hitler so he had to do what he was doing whether he believed in it or not. At least I knew what I was fighting for. So we sang for probably a half hour and that was a wonderful Christmas Eve, I’ll tell you.  Because most times, you know, most every home I went into in Germany had a crucifix on the wall, so they were Catholic I think most of them. [Inaudible.] That was a very special moment right then.

Jada Delauney: Let's see, so did you meet any soldiers from like different countries and if so like what like how um were they like or; I'm sorry, I'm trying to reword this. So like did you meet any like different like soldiers from different countries and if so how did they portray, like, American soldiers?

Kaycee Kemper: Did you meet the different soldiers from different countries and were they always hostile or how did they portray you were there? I mean, I'm sure there was some that probably had the same feeling that you had when, you know, you knew you guys were there to do a job.

Jack Myers: Yeah well you know we were always on the front line. In Holland, I had a, well the, uh one of the Germans came out, came up the road that I was covering with my gun. He had a paper like that he was waving at, well it happened to be a paper that General Eisenhower had told them to surrender because there were going to be defeated anyway, you know, so he wanted to give up.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay.

Jack Myers: So I just told him I said come on in so he came right into our squad position and jumped in there and as soon as he got in there my, my lieu. . . , uh squad sergeant knocked him down and put a gun on his shirt, I mean put a dagger at his throat he said I should kill you, you German S.B. so I mean it's cold I wouldn't have to be here it wouldn't be for you and I said wait, wait, wait a minute Sam you can't do that the man wants to give up come on, so we pulled him off you know but then it's crazy.

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah.

Jack Myers: So we'll take you back and uh surrender you and we took him back on the jeep and put him with the other prisoners that we take, but that was an interesting time.

Kaycee Kemper: I'm sure.

Jack Myers: Sam Peter was his name and boy he was angry and cold, right?

Kaycee Kemper:  Hungry. . .

Jack Myers: Yeah, I understand the feeling one time we took this village and after we took the village we’d round up the prisoners and this sniper was up in the church people he wouldn't quit! He wouldn't quit until he ran out of ammo. And it's cold, you know I'm cold then he comes down he went to surrender.  Grrr. I feel like blowing him away you know but I didn't. I just couldn't ever kill anyone that I didn't have to, you know what I mean? And I'm glad I didn't because I don't think I'd ever forget it. So he came down he wanted to give up I took it and I took his steel helmet, I still have it. Right here for you, to show, I’ll show it to you, all right?

Kaycee Kemper: That’s okay.

Jack Myers: But I have that as a steel helmet as a souvenir and I kept his helmet.  I don’t want to kill anybody that I didn’t have to. . . even though it’s war.

Jada Delauney: Okay so um, I see your pins all on your Jack Myers do you think you can like explain them for me?

Kaycee Kemper: Can you tell us what some of your pins mean on your Jack Myers?

Jack Myers: Yeah well some of these are campaign medals that we fought you know where we fought in Germany where we fought you know northern German, southern Germany, France, and all that. Then this is this is a very important one this is from France they, they gave me this for after the war for liberating them and it's, uh, . . . and they're very pretty. They call it a medal of honor [indicates French Legion of Honor medal] and they told me that it was our outfit that chased the last Germans out of their country I don't know if that's true, but good to hear isn't it?

Kaycee Kemper: Sure yeah.

Jack Myers: So well I tell you what's important about this, they called me and wanted me to come down to Washington, . . . France did, to present this to me after the war and I told them I couldn't go because I had a bowling banquet. My buddies said “you’re crazy!” I said, “no, they. . ,” but it turned out better because they said well Mr. Myers we can come up to your Legion in Williamsport!

Kaycee Kemper: Oh nice.

Jack Myers: And they come up there, the whole deal, you know, all the French embassy came up there with, oh they had wine, they had food, they had speakers and . . . oh, it was wonderful!

Kaycee Kemper: And most importantly they had this for you!

Jack Myers: And they presented this to me and the Herald Mail covered it. So, you see, that was better than me going down there by myself, wasn’t it?!

Kaycee Kemper: What are these Jack Myers, can you explain to us what those are?

Jack Myers: Well, they’re, they’re, uh, they’re called battle, I mean battle ribbons where I fought: Holland, Germany and France, and oh my God, yeah.  And then this is a, uh, this is an important one here. This is the one that, uh, . . . we took a village and he wouldn't stop firing either and he. . . And my lieutenant told me he said he said I go by Jack Myers, and he said Jack Myers I want you to put a high explosive shell in that church window.  It was out there about a thousand yards and so I put an HE shell and what they what they were doing, what. . .  I tell you I was just doing my duty. I did what he told me to do. And I put, and they were, they were. . . He said I think they’re directing fire on it he, we couldn't move and they were wounding our soldiers and killing our soldiers and we had to stop it so I put an HE shell in that church window.

Kaycee Kemper: Done.

Jack Myers: That was it.

Kaycee Kemper: And you saved the day.

Jack Myers: Yeah, so the school children asked me one time, “Mr. Myers did you ever kill anyone?” and I told them this story. I said I was a long-range gunner, and I said, I had to sometimes. I told them about me not killing that guy, the sniper too, but most of the time it was long-range.

Kaycee Kemper: Right.

Jack Myers: But I asked them, do you think I killed anyone? I think whoever was trying to fire on us lived no more.

Kaycee Kemper: Right.

Jack Myers: At least we can move on unimpeded. And by the way I didn't know anything about this until after the war I got a citation from the war department and of course I remember when it happened but when it happened I was just following orders I got from my lieutenant.

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah.

Jack Myers: That's the way it is you know?

Kaycee Kemper: Doing what you need to do to help our country.

Jack Myers: Yeah.

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah. Did you get to be, um, did you get to be a part of any of those liberation celebrations? I'm sure France. . . you know they, I'm sure that there was celebrating happening. Was were you guys involved in any of that or was it just on to the next thing?

Jack Myers: This is, it's a great question, during the war it was all just combat, fighting to win, right? But I have taken I have been taken eight times back to my where I fought, all expenses paid, with the finest airlines the finest hotels, like I was a king! But they, I mean they just they just honor me in so many ways. And I'm going to I just went to Germany in July, and I'm going to Hawaii in, uh, December with, I'm taking my wife along. And she's happy about that too! But, but my celebration was after the war, during the war uh we didn't have any time for that except trying to save lives for good. You know, and get the war over with. But, uh, the thanks and everything is coming now I don't think it's ever going to end. I'm 98 and they're still taking me! I'm able to go, that's wonderful!

Jada Delauney: So what were some of your most memorable experiences during that time as well?

Kaycee Kemper: Most memorable experiences?

Jack Myers: Well I told you one and that was, uh, at the Roer River and of course, the next one was that uh my gunner was killed there. And you asked about us eating, now my, now before he was killed, uh, he was, a he was a, a farmer here in the United States. My, my driver, the one who killed, the Native American Indian? And we were going through southern France and he said uh he said “Jack Myers”—we went by a hog pen and there was some hogs over there weighed about a hundred pounds, something like mid-sized—and he said “Jack Myers, why don't you kill one of those hogs?” and he said—and it's cold out here—he said, “when we get a chance we'll take one of these, maybe we'll have a couple days and I can cut it up,” he said, “I could cut it up and we can have some pork!” So I jumped off and got out of our outfit, went over and kerpow, killed that hog and bled it and cut it up, put it on our fighting outfit.  It’s cold, meat lockers.

Kaycee Kemper: Right don't need a freezer.

Jack Myers: So uh, and by the way we were we had, I didn't tell you when we got the M36 [tank destroyer] and that that was a great moment, back before we crossed the Roer River we went from a towed mount to a tank-like destroyer with an open turret.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay.

Jack Myers: And uh, that was a big change you know. 

Kaycee Kemper: What did that change for you? Did it allow you to see further? Shoot further? More power? 

Jack Myers: All those things.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay. 

Jack Myers: They had a 90 millimeter, okay, compared to the 88, and they were all rifled, faster than sound. Wow boy if I put the crosshairs on something, I had it.

Kaycee Kemper: You got it.

Jack Myers: There weren’t any questions about it.  So that was one big, big, uh, time there. And uh that was, that was a very important part of our campaign, too. I mean that overall war because we went from that towed mount on the back of the half-track to that tank-like uh M36 which, and then, this was also it reduced our squad from nine men to five.

Kaycee Kemper: Oh!

Jack Myers: And those four that were sent out. . . I never saw them again.

Kaycee Kemper: No kidding.

Jack Myers: So that was another big change you know, but we, but uh, back in uh, southern France, but we had the M36 then, and that was the tank-like thing, when I shot that hog I threw it up on top of the tank 

Kaycee Kemper: Did you get to uh enjoy the hog? 

Jack Myers: Yeah.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay good.

Jack Myers: We butchered it, he cut it up, and we had steaks, we had pork chops and that was good, yeah. I mean, beat the rations for a couple days, you know, so I was in a great outfit, really.  Gotta be, good, you got to be thankful for the good things in life, . . . you know, here I am 98 a lot of people ask me about life and how I got here and all that stuff. Well I do have a formula for a long life, she knows about that [indicates Kaycee Kemper Kemper], and uh, I think she has it here, but uh you can have bad things in your life. Just got to get through with the Lord's help and be glad for the good things of God and run with it and that's what I do I just play tennis at 98. 

Kaycee Kemper: He plays tennis twice a week at 98 years old.

Jack Myers: I hang in there. I'll tell you, the last two times I played with, I played on Tuesday and Friday, the last two times I played. I won four I won three out of four times

Kaycee Kemper: Nice

Jack Myers: I won three sets out of four sets.

Kaycee Kemper: So how long did you serve in the army total?

Jack Myers: Well it was almost three years, but it wasn't quite three. It was about, uh, two, three months shy of three years.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay.

John: But, well it might have been yeah about three months shy, because I came home in October and I left in December.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay that's what I was going to ask. So you came home then in December?

Jack Myers: October.

Kaycee Kemper: October you got to come home.

Jack Myers: I was discharged October 4.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay, and that was, where were you when you were discharged?

Jack Myers: Okay, well we drove, after we crossed the Roer River right after Christmas, we drove to uh the Rhine we couldn't get across there either. So. . .

Kaycee Kemper: The bridges were all bombed out there too.

Jack Myers: Yeah. So then we got in order to go to southern France so we had to board. . . and by that time we had the uh M36 like a tank so we put those on a half-track railroad car and. . . a flat car, you know. We went down there and we got off and we were driving through southern France and that's when I killed that hog down there.

Kaycee Kemper: You had your feast.

Jack Myers: Yeah so what was the question?

Kaycee Kemper: Um, where were you when you were discharged and you got the news that you were coming home?

Jack Myers: Oh yeah okay well we drove through southern France into southern Germany and liberated Dachau that was, uh we liberated that's about I think a month before, uh, the war ended.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay.

Jack Myers: It might have been 60 days because I think it was in March when we liberated. . . the war ended May 8, yeah the war ended May the eighth, so we liberated Dachau.

Kaycee Kemper: And then that's where you then got to come home from, yeah?

Jack Myers: Okay those were those were terrible camps I'm telling you.

Kaycee Kemper: In Dachau? 

Jack Myers: Well all of them. Oh yeah the concentration camps, you know. And when I say the prisoners there were skin and bones, I mean every word.  They were nothing but skin and bone, no meat because they weren't getting anything to eat, you know? Yeah terrible but I, we had to win the war, that’s all there was to it. I thought that that program that Hitler had, you know, the super race and all that baloney it just don't work over freedom, you know? We had to win the war and tried to promote freedom.

Kaycee Kemper: And we're grateful you did. 

Jack Myers: Yeah 

Kaycee Kemper: We're grateful you did.

Jack Myers: Yeah, I am too.

Kaycee Kemper: Jada Delauney did we have any more questions for Jack Myers?

Jada Delauney: Not that I know of, um, yeah I can't think of anything else.

Kaycee Kemper: Okay, Jack Myers thank you so much for your time today.

Jack Myers: Well this is very uh interesting to me also and I'm so glad that you found time to do something like this. And this will be shown to the public?

Kaycee Kemper: Yep you're going to be you're going to go viral, Jack Myers how about that?

Alicia Drumgoole: Yeah he'll be like a movie star by the time we're done with this.

Jack Myers: Yeah all these trips that we take back you know? The Best Foundation takes me on half of them the Greatest Generation Foundation took me on the other half, but both foundations have a great tour. And we, we were, we're in parades over there um I'm in a uniform in a half-track and in the parades and the people were out on, just crowding on the streets waving flags at us. And I remember one time in Kerry, France, we had this uh parade in military vehicles and I was on a half-track, we got down to the square and had a band down there and we stopped and when we stopped I sang "what the world needs now is love sweet love." You should hear that crowd when I did that because they know how important it is to be free.

Kaycee Kemper: Yeah.

Jack Myers: And love is the answer folks it really is!

Kaycee Kemper: And they still are celebrating you guys over there. 

Jack Myers: Oh yeah.

Kaycee Kemper: That's great.

Jack Myers: Yeah and a lot of times just like in Germany the tour guide had had a screen I think was four feet high and about eight feet long and it has pictures of that parade and many other trips that we took pictures of it he showed us and we all sang songs, and so the people, the guys that can sing, you know.  And I love it and we sang it uh Mary Jo and I uh we sing it at the assistant living out there where we live and the people love it we do yep. 

Kaycee Kemper: you keep yourself busy.

Jack Myers: yeah oh my yeah this this this day was filled with energy, and it's not over yet, we might go bowling from here, and then this evening if we feel up to it we've got karaoke!

Kaycee Kemper: He's still singing.

Jack Myers: I'm just singing and tennis at 98. How can you beat that?

Kaycee Kemper: That's right well we appreciate your time today Jack Myers thank you so much and uh we so appreciate your service and everything you've done for our country and um we celebrate you every day so thank you so very much thank you Jada Delauney.

Jada Delauney: you're welcome, it was nice meeting you.

Kaycee Kemper: Thank you so much.

Jada Delauney: You're welcome. 

Alicia Drumgoole: Thanks for letting me sit in with that for Dr. Kuehnert it was an honor to hear your story I've been listening the whole time and um again what a wonderful thing so thank you for sharing your story with us.

Jack Myers: Thank you so much I'm so glad to be a part of it it's been a perfect, very nice very nice. Thank you.

Kaycee Kemper: Thank you both.

Jada Delauney: You're welcome.