By Charles Teter
Since I have been writing a few articles about veterans in the past wars, it has been brought to my attention there are a couple of men of World War II that I have missed. After reading of their exploits and deeds of bravery, I thought it would be nice to let the public know these two men.
These two men were brothers, Curtis Simmons and William A. Simmons. Curtis served in the United States Army and was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. William served in the United States Navy and spent his time in the South Pacific. Both men were awarded several medals and were buried in the Harper/Simmons Cemetery located on the North Fork.
I would like to tell a story from Bill Simmons’ experience during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sleeping in a fox hole with seven other men. During the night his company moved out and the other men in his fox hole went with them. They didn’t wake Bill up. When Bill woke up because he was cold, no one was in the fox hole with him. He crawled out of that hole scared to death. As he crawled through the snow, he fell into another fox hole, found a warm boy, curled up beside of it and went to sleep. Bill said he never found out who the other soldier was. He also said his friend was killed, and he was never the same since.
Bill was in the same Glider Infantry Division as Clinton Hedrick. All the men are heroes and should be recognized.
These little cemeteries are
located throughout Pendleton County. Why don’t organizations make it a project to clean up these cemetery lots? The main reason this should be done is for what these men gave us—Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.
