Sketch of 28th Div Soldier at Omaha Beach

[WWGeezer]

Just sharing most recent sketch

[WWSandMan]

That's an awesome sketch. The soldier's face tells the tale... even with weapon slung (so a later-wave arrival), he's not happy with what he's seeing on that beach.

The 28th Inf Div is (was) a Keystone State (Pennsylvania) National Guard division. For a short time I wore that patch, too (though I was Army Reserve at the time, based in Chambersburg, Pa.) 

 

Edit:

Gotta tell the story... After my active duty time was up, I still had Reserve or National Guard time to do to fulfill my contract. I had just moved to Pennsylvania to be with my fiance' who still had to do an active duty stateside tour. She was based at Ft. Ritchie, Maryland. We shared an apartment in Blue Ridge Summit, Pa, and we were married in Waynesboro, Pa in January of 1987. My Reserve component was in Chambersburg, as part of the National Guard element there. Spring of 87 we were getting ready for our two week summer camp and live-fire exercises in Virginia. I was the most senior and most recent active duty 11C (mortar) squad leader. My time in Germany had been mostly spent on "four deuce" (4.2" or 107mm) heavy mortars (the Army was still a solid decade from fielding it's first 120mm mortars, which have replaced all the 107mm), and my reserve unit was using 81mm mortars. Since I hadn't seen those in almost two years, I figured a little refresher crew drills for the mortar platoon would be good, especially before we went to summer camp in Virginia to shoot these weapons on the range. 

I went to the arms room to draw and sign for the four 81mm gun tubes... and was told they were stored in a locked Conex container outside. Not in a temperature and humidity controlled arms room. Warning bells were ringing in my head. 

After chasing around for nearly three hours to find out who held the keys to the rusty padlocks on the container, I finally got the company commander to sign off on using the church-key (bolt cutter) to open the container with the 81mm mortar tubes. By now, Saturday is almost gone... So I held off on cutting locks till Sunday, and made arrangements to do 81mm mortar crew drills on Sunday. Crew drills on Sunday was UNHEARD OF in the reserve component at the time, lol. I got a LOT of flak over that decision from the senior NCO's and junior officers within the company. Meant they had to work on Sunday, too!

Sunday comes, we open the Conex, find the mortar tubes leaning against the wall with a canvas tarp over them. Nothing else. The 81mm mortar is a smooth-bore weapon. Bear this in mind. 

As I carry the first tube out of the Conex into the bright sunshine of a splendid spring day in southern Pa., I set it down in line with the other components of the gun system, just as the manual says to for crew drills. There is still a canvas muzzle cover of the business end of the tube. First run-through in slow motion, we take the covers off the tubes, so they can be slid into their yokes. That's when one of the crew guys looks into the tube out of curiosity, and lets loose with a noticeable expletive. I look over at him, and see him reach his hand inside the muzzle, swish it around a little, and bring his hand back out. It was a really cool shade of orange.

Oh crap.

Cease fire, FREEZE! Everyone stops in their tracks. Immediate inspection of all four mortar tubes revealed that all of them were thoroughly rusted on the inside. All the way down the tube. No way any sort of munition was going to work in that tube other than a demolition charge. Our "training aid" inert 81mm shell wouldn't even drop in, and it didn't have the rubber ring around it that normally creates the seal so the propellant gases wouldn't just bypass the round. So our training aid was roughly 79mm in diameter, and wouldn't slide down any of the tubes. 

Much discussion and phone calls made to higher HQ, and *somebody* up the chain decides that a simple engine cylinder hone would clear up the rust zippy quick, we just needed a lot of extensions on a drill to get the hone-stones all the way to the bottom of the tube. At this point I made an exit. I wanted no part of that operation, and I damn sure wasn't going to use a weapon cleaned with a cylinder hone on a live-fire range. Others disagreed with me, but none of them were armorers. After much arguing over this issue over the next couple weeks, I put in my request for immediate transfer to the inactive reserves and stepped away from this dangerous cluster-fuck. Three others followed me.

The rest went ahead and used the hones without armorer supervision, and cleaned up the tubes. They went to Virginia, and on the first day of live-fire exercises, they had several hung rounds. These rounds did not seal, and when fired did not leave the tubes. One did, and only because the fuses had a safety delay that round did not kill the entire platoon. It plopped out of the muzzle and landed about 20 feet in front of the gun. A live, high explosive 81mm mortar round. 

Saner minds took over the unit on the range, immediately determined all the 81mm mortar tubes were unserviceable, and kicked the unit off the range. That nobody was hurt or killed was simply luck.

I heard all this from the company First Sergeant, who was begging me to reactivate and promised me promotion and position within the unit. I declined, and never put the uniform on again. 

[WWGeezer]

Wow….hate to tempt fate over stupidity.
PS…. You called it correct on the 28th’s arrival, hit landed at Omaha Beach in late July.

[WWPlague]

Lots of good people leave the military because of shiit like that. Hard to get recruits who have the right reason to sign up. Tatoos if not KKK, are ok now, and the age limit raised to mid 40's. At least, some volunteers later in life have some life experiences of some kind, as long as the long history of making a carpenter a clerk isnt as bad as it used to be, some skills and brains might get transfered in the military with the older guys. Problem, it seems to me, is the old one of "I know better, but the officer says 'clean it up and use it'".