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relationships were quite different than
back in the States. When we picked up

fresh troops who had just arrived from
stateside, one of the things I remember

is the fear on their faces, knowing they
were going into combat. They were ter-

rified. We were able to calm them down.
They didn’t care what color we were.

They were thankful for us.”
on a Monday morning in early De-

cember 1944, harvey sat on a bed in a
Belgian home, south of Bastogne, near

the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge.
he stared at a cable sent via the Ameri-
Dr. Harvey, once a football player
and member of the red ball can Red Cross from his father back home
in Sumrall. The news was “devastating,”
express, still stays active more
as harvey recalls: his beloved mother,
than 70 years later.
Alma, had died suddenly the previous

friday in the aftermath of giving birth to
her 10th child.

“The Red Cross said they could
ville College in 1940. he had enlisted in As the germans retreated eastward, get me to the funeral,” he says, “but I

the u.S. Army Reserves, but rather than they destroyed many rail lines, making thought I might not get to Paris in time
await a call he opted to volunteer after u.S. truck transport especially vital. for to catch the flight. I thought: If your

his junior year, in 1943.
several pivotal months, the Red Ball was mother wanted you to become a doctor,
he went for basic training at Camp a service that had right-of-way through the thing for you to do is to focus on

Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina. towns and other places in order to move getting that done, first by doing your job
“We didn’t like the drill sergeants,” re- quickly. harvey’s tasks included trans- here, not by trying to get there.”

calls harvey. “Their idea was that they porting the newspaper Stars & Stripes Mustering the courage to continue de-
had to be hard on you. But I would say to troops in france, along with ammo, spite his deep sadness, harvey set about

they knew what they were doing. They supplies, food, and more.
surviving a long winter of fighting. “It
were getting you ready for combat.”
his unit served with the 11th Armored was very cold,” he recalls. “We did a lot of

With the military segregated, harvey Division of general george Patton’s our sleeping in our sleeping bags on the
was assigned to an all-black unit. Third u.S. Army. “general Patton moved ground. It was well below zero. But we

“Segregation is not a pleasant thing to very fast,” says harvey. “he would were comfortable in our woolen outfits.”
remember. It’s hard to believe that that capture these landing strips, and we harvey’s most indelible war memory is

could have happened in this country. would bring in supplies, ammo, and food. of picking up concentration camp survi-
But we’ve come a long way.”
Sometimes we had a light tank escort us vors after the german surrender in May

After basic, harvey moved on to to take care of the enemy while we were 1945. he was tasked with transporting
louisiana for further training. Before moving this stuff back and forth.”
the liberated prisoners from a camp near

shipping out to England, he got special While he dodged sniper fire, drove Munich to u.S. Army camps.
permission to take care of a vital past piles of dead soldiers and horses, “It was very traumatic to see people

personal matter: on June 4, 1944, he and watched u.S. pilots eject from planes in that condition,” he reflects. “They
wed fellow Knoxville College student shot down by german guns, harvey says were malnourished, they suffered from

Edwina Powell. Sans honeymoon, the he enjoyed the largely colorblind camara- diarrhea. To see what human beings
newlyweds parted for what turned out derie among fellow troops.
could do to other human beings was very

to be 13 months. Two days later, the “There was discrimination in the disturbing.
course of the war and history changed sense that we could not serve except in “Some of them spoke English, but

with the D-Day invasion.
our all-black outfit,” he says, “and there they didn’t talk much. It was a matter
was discrimination back home. We were of survival. They had been starved.
iNTO THE FRAY
fighting a war for freedom and coming They were embarrassed and apologetic
“I took the Queen Elizabeth over to back to the united States where there about their condition. We had to haul

England and went to work with the wasn’t freedom yet.”
them on the beds of trucks, packed in
Red Ball Express,” says harvey of his Yet in the war itself, soldiers tended like sardines. That is the most graphic

first foray into the war.
to see past (or ignore) differences. “The
experience I had.”

68 cityviewmag.com may june 2014