Interview With 818th Veteran Donald Buesing

We have added an interview with 818th, A Company, veteran, Donald A. Buesing, P.F.C. to our 818th website documents.

The interview was taped while Mr. Buesing sat casually at his dining room table with a cup of coffee after the evening meal. Occasionally he would drum his fingers on the table as he recalled many facts and details of his own experience serving our country in World War II.

The interview was conducted in 1982 by James A. Buesing, son of veteran Donald Buesing.

Click here to read the interview.

Marvin Rouhier - Recon Company - Killed In Action

Private Marvin Rouhier - Recon Company - Killed In Action - 18 August 1944

Private Marvin Rouhier was born at his family home in Ohio in 1924. He was the fourth of six children.

He graduated from high school in 1942.

Private Rouhier enlisted in the Army on 20 Mar 1943 and attended Basic Training at Camp Robinswon, AR with 3rd Platoon, C Company, 56th Battalion, 12th Army National Guard Regiment. Following Basic Training, Private Rouhier was processed through two replacement depots prior to being assigned to Recon Company of the 818th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

In May 1944, the 818 TD BN was moved from Northern Ireland to England. On 14 July 1944 the Battalion landed at Utah Beach and was subsequently attached to the 5th Infantry Division of Third Army.

Private Rouhier participated in the capture of Cherbourg and the Normandy Breakout. The Battalion continued south through St. Lo to Angers where they turned northeast towards Chartres.

On 18 August 1944 near Allenes, France Marvin and another Recon Company soldier, Private Lyman Andrews, were at at forward listening post protecting the right flank of the 818th. As the Battalion advanced on Chartres they were approached by a column of German armor. It is believed (from accounts given by members of the 818th and the Silver Star narrative) that the radio was configured incorrectly and their position given away to the Germans when they tried to use it. Marvin was hit early in the exchange of fire and elected to remain, destroy the radio and provide covering fire so Pvt Andrews could escape and report this critical information to the Battalion. Marvin was mortally wounded in the fight and died later from his wounds after being found by French Partisans.

Marvin was initially buried in the St. Corneille - Le Mans Cemetery, France. In 1948 Marvin's remains were returned home to Ohio. His family never knew of Marvin's heroic actions.

The details surrounding his death had fallen through the war time cracks. Then, in 2010 his name along with the issuing headquarters and General Order Number was found on an internet listing of recipients of the Silver Star.

The presentation of the Silver Star (posthumous) by members of Third Army to the surviving siblings of Private Marvin L. Rouhier took place 18 August 2012 at the high school from which he graduated in Ohio, sixty-eight years on the date after the action in which he earned it took place.

Donald Buesing Interview

WORLD WAR II

The following pages are an interview with 818th, A Company, World War II veteran, Donald A. Buesing, P.F.C.

The interview was taped while Mr. Buesing sat casually at his dining room table with a cup of coffee after the evening meal. Occasionally he would drum his fingers on the table as he recalled many facts and details of his own experience serving our country in World War II.

The interview was conducted in 1982 by James A. Buesing, son of veteran Donald Buesing. Thanks to James for providing us with this information.

Please select a page from the menu on the right.

EXCERPT from “My Life”

by Margaret Conner Reppond

 
I had dated G.W. (George William) Reppond during the time I stayed with Aunt May in Norman.  His parents lived across the street from my grandparents and that was in the next block from Aunt May.  G.W.’s sister, Jessie Lee, was my best friend, so I was at the Green’s a lot.  G.W.’s stepfather was E. C. Green.  G.W.’s own father, Jesse Reppond, was killed in 1920 when G. W. was only two years old.  Mr. Reppond was killed when he went into Colbert, Oklahoma to buy fresh fruit and nuts for the kid’s Christmas.  He was standing up in his wagon driving his team of horses and a car passing him honked startling the horses.  They jerked the wagon and Jesse fell out of the wagon.  The wagon ran over his head crushing it.  He died two days later on Christmas day.  G. W.’s mother, Mary, married Elzie Green about 2 or 3 years after G.W.’s father, Jesse Reppond, was killed.  G.W. was in CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) camp at Purcell, Oklahoma and could come home every weekend.

e asked me to marry him when I was a sophomore.  But I told him I wanted to finish school…which I did!  I graduated High School in 1939.  In 1940, on October 15^th, G.W. went into the Army at Ft. D.A. Russell at Marfa, Texas.  Marfa is the county seat of Presidio County located in the high desert of far West Texas, southeast of El Paso, Texas. 

We started dating again and writing several times a week.  Mary Lou, his sister, came with him from Whitesboro to visit a friend in Norman, Oklahoma where I was living.  At that time, he was stationed in North Carolina on maneuvers and came home to Whitesboro on a 5-day pass.  On October 18, 1941, we were married in the Baptist pastor’s home at Noble, Oklahoma in Cleveland County.  He went back to Leesville, Louisiana Army Base (known as Ft. Polk today) and on December 7, 1941, his unit went to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.  He phoned and his sister, Ola May, and I went to pick him up because he only had a 24-hour pass.  This was the day the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor.  We took him back to Ft. Sill where he stayed on alert until he got a 7-day pass for Christmas and he got a ride to Norman with his friend’s parents.  Ola May, Jessie, G. W. and I then went to Whitesboro in his Chevy Coupe.  When he left Whitesboro he went back to North Carolina and I rode the bus back to Norman. 

G.W. was sent to Brownwood.  I joined him in March and stayed until April, about one month.

This bunker at Camp Bowie was used in training exercises during the Second World War.  Less than 10 of the original structures from that era are still standing.  When these bunkers were encountered during archeo- logical surveys, they were documented as historic structures.  http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/bowie/indes/html

was pregnant and mother and daddy had moved to New Mexico.  On my way to New Mexico I stayed with G. W. in Brownwood (he had rented an apartment) for about three months, then went on to Silver City, New Mexico in May, 1942.   G. W. left Brownwood for maneuvers in Louisiana.  He came back to Brownwood and was there when Janet was born (in Silver City, N.M.) on August 26, 1942.  She had an enlarged thymus that was choking her so Dr. Watts, my doctor, sent her to a specialist in El Paso who was out of town.  Because of Jan’s condition, the Red Cross sent G. W. to El Paso and we took her to William Beaumont Hospital at Ft. Bliss in El Paso.  An Army physician, Dr. Ben Cooley performed the treatments on Janet.  Dr. Cooley was originally from Norman and was a personal friend of the McComb family.  He lived near the McComb family in Norman and I was so glad to see him!!  They did deep x-ray therapy on Janet’s thymus gland to shrink it.  Then GW, me and my mom, Viola, went to Silver City, NM by bus with medicine for pyloric spasms (chronic vomiting).  She vomited her milk with a strong gush.  We had to take her back to El Paso in 4 weeks for a 2^nd treatment on her thymus gland.

Dad Green sent money to me because he wanted Janet and me to come to Whitesboro for Christmas in 1942.  G.W. was in Whitesboro for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I went back to Silver City, New Mexico, where my parents were and got a job at JC Penney. The first U.S. 818^th Tank Destroyer Battalion was created while G. W. was at Brownwood.  In the spring of 1943, before he went to Ireland, the 818^th Tank Destroyer Battalion went to Killeen, Texas and raised the flag at Ft. Hood (originally known as Camp Hood).

fter that he went to Ft. Nix, New Jersey, for Port of Embarkation and shipped out to Ireland.  G.W. went from Dublin, Ireland, to the coast of England.  On June 6, 1943, he went in on the 42^nd wave to Omaha Beach in France.  He was with General George Patton’s 3^rd Army.  His outfit was 818^th Tank Destroyer Battalion and he was commander of a tank.  It looked like a tank except it was half-track and half-wheels.  He had a crew and they went from Omaha Beach through the hedgerows in France.  The cutters had to cut a path through the heavy underbrush that went up the trenches left by Americans in World War I.  They fought their way from France to Germany.  At places they went on the autobahn which was like our 4 to 6 lane highways.  G. W. was in western Germany when they received orders that his unit was going back to Paris, France, for some R&R but when they got to a certain place they turned back and were fighting Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.  After that they went back to Saarlautern and fought in that area. The 818^th Tank Destroyer Battalion participated in the race across Germany in March 1945. They continued to fight until they were in Austria.  They stopped overnight at Linz, Austria, an industrial city on the Danube River near Vienna, Austria.  That was June 1945 and the German WWII was over.  The Japanese war wasn’t over until August 14, 1945.  The reason I know that exact date is because I was working at Hardwick-Etter in Sherman, Texas, making mortar shells for the war and when it was over and the plant closed on that day.

 .W. went to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia to wait for a plane to bring him back to the U.S.  On his way to the U.S., he flew into Africa and then on to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. 

He bought a pair of boots in Brazil and kept them until he died.  He arrived at Camp Chaffee in Arkansas and was honorably discharged from the Army there.  

As commander of a tank destroyer, he came home on the point system.  He had enough points to bring 4 or 5 men home with him!  On July 31, 1945, he rode the train to Whitesboro, Texas.  He was home!

Thanks to The Daughters of World War II for making this article available.