CHAPTER 1
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The Fifth Ranger Infantry Battalion was activated at Camp Forest, Tennessee, on 1 September 1943 with 34 officers and 563 enlisted men. Training commenced on 14 September 1943 with physical training, speed marches, and weapons qualification. During the last week of October, a rumor got around that the battalion was going to Florida. Six of us from A Company decided that we would go into the Village of Tullahoma and have a few beers and see the sights.

We did and we were attempting to get a taxi driver to take all six of us back to camp. He only wanted to take five of us and while we were trying to convince him, a couple of military policemen came up to us. One of our men named McGuire had a button on his blouse unbuttoned. The MP shoved McGuire and said, "Button your blouse." You could get McGuire to do anything, but don't shove him. I stepped in in order to prevent McGuire from belting the MP. I had my back to the other MP and couldn't see what he was doing. He was going to hit me over the head with his club. Suddenly McGuire's fist flew by my face and he decked the MP. I don't know where all of the military policemen came from, but we were surrounded by them and taken to their police station, which was in a tent adjacent to the Tullahoma Police Station.

We were detained and made to stand in a line and questioned by a Military Police Lieutenant. He finally said, "We are taking all of you back to your outfit, except McGuire.

He's going to jail." One of our guys named Wittles said, "Sir, if McGuire goes to jail, we all go to jail." The lieutenant didn't like that a bit, and he was all over Wittles, but then all of us insisted that if McGuire went to jail, we would all have to go to jail with him. We explained that it was a court-martial offense to come back without your buddy. He finally let all of us go. He put two of us, each, in a command car with two military policemen, and a driver and took us back to camp. It was then after two o'clock in the morning.

One of the military policemen went into First Sergeant Bugnacki's room and woke him up. That MP came flying out of Bugnacki's room with the first sergeant right on his back, uttering some very choice words. The first sergeant then yelled at us and said, "Get into bed."

The next morning after we returned from our morning run and had breakfast, the Charge of Quarters came out on the barracks's floor, called out our names, and said, "Get into your class A uniforms. The battalion commander is coming here to see all of you." We got dressed in our class A's and were sitting on our foot lockers when our Company Commander, Captain Eichner, came in, gave us a dirty look, and went into the orderly room. Bugnacki came out of his room and entered the orderly room. Shortly thereafter, the Battalion Commander, Major Owen Carter, came in and gave us a stern glance. Shortly thereafter the Charge of Quarters came out and briefed us as to where everyone was. Major Carter was seated at the only desk in the room.

Eichner was seated on a foot locker with Bugnacki standing behind him. He said, "I'll lead you in, but I'll move in behind Eichner. Hathaway, you lead the group in and make a right turn and all of you will end up in front of the desk. On your command everyone will make a sharp left face and salute and hold it until the major returns it." We did. He returned our salute and looking at us over his glasses, finally rested his gaze on me and said, "Ah! Hathaway's gang, eh? All right, Hathaway, you start off and tell me what happened/'

I started off and Carter stopped me and told the man next to me to continue. He did this through every man and didn't bat on eye at what we said. When we finished, he said, "Okay, tell me again." He started at the other end, and he had it timed perfectly. This time he had Wittles telling the story about what he said to the MP Lieutenant. Wittles said, " 'Sir,' I said to the Lieutenant, 'Sir, if McGuire goes to jail, we all go to jail.' " The Major interrupted and yelling said, "Do you mean to tell me that you had the audacity to tell an officer of the United States Army, a first lieutenant of the military police while in the performance of his duties, that you refused to obey his orders?"

Poor Wittles, the major really shook him up. Him? Hell, he shook us all up. Wittles, stammering, said, "Without McGuire you'd have court-martialed all of us!" The major reached into his briefcase, took out a stack of papers, and shaking them at us, said, "These are your charge sheets, listen." He started with me. I was up on six counts, as were all of the others except McGuire. He was up on seven counts. The additional one being striking a military policeman while in the performance of his duties. All of us admitted afterwards that we could see the bars of Leavenworth in front of us. But he let us off the hook when, as he tore up the charge sheets, he said, "You're damned right I would have court-martialed every one of you. Get out of here and into your fatigues and report for duty." Pheeewwww!

On 5 November, the battalion moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, for training in amphibious operations. During this training we conducted an exercise to isolate North and South Islands, Fort Pierce, including the Coast Guard Security Tower and the Coast Guard Channel Boat. No other unit had ever accomplished this. The channel was swift flowing and filled with barracuda, and the only safe way up the fifty-foot tower was the outside ladder. During this exercise one Ranger swam the channel and captured it while another Ranger climbed the braces on the rear of the tower and captured it and three Coast Guard personnel on duty. According to the rules of the maneuver, they were out of the play and couldn't answer or make any calls.

Meanwhile, I and a team of ten Rangers were to secure a crossing site across North Island, for the battalion. There were Coast Guard enlisted men on patrol with sentry dogs. If we got close enough to a sentry and challenged him, he was to hold his dog.

This was a night exercise, which required us to use our night vision. We made the assault in two rubber boats. When we hit the breaker line, we went over the side and immersed ourselves completely in salt water, in order to mask our odor from the dogs. We then dragged our boats up onto the sand and positioned ourselves near the road. Shortly thereafter, a sentry and his dog came walking north on the road. We let him get very close and challenged him. He held his dog and two of my men took him to the other side of the road into the palmetto jungle. I sent two more of my men to the other side of the road to fully secure the crossing site for the other companies that were crossing there.

As we were waiting for those companies, I noticed a vehicle approaching with its black-out lights lit (Cats Eyes). We let them drive into our crossing area and then, surrounding it, we challenged the passengers. I ordered them to dismount and had the driver move his vehicle out of sight, into the palmetto. We had captured the Naval Commander of North and South Islands and three of his Naval Staff Officers. At this time the companies started through our crossing site

Our Battalion Commander, Major Owen H. Carter, met and spoke with the Naval Commander and then came over to me and ordered me to release the entourage, the vehicle, and the sentry with his dog. The Naval Commander came up to me, congratulated me, and said that this was the first time that anyone had ever captured him and one of his sentries.

B Company had a three-part mission. The entire company would cross through our crossing site, carrying their assault boats and capture both ends of the bridge, into Fort Pierce and then push on to capture the telephone exchange. In order to capture the bridge, they put weapons and equipment into their boats and pushed them through the mud and across Indian River. The rest of the battalion came through the crossing site and, moving on foot, crossed the bridge over the inlet that had been captured by B Company. They then moved on to capture the airport, railroad station, broadcasting station, police station, and fire station. Still covered with stinking mud from the swamp, with charcoal on their faces and carrying Thompson sub-machine guns, Captain George P. Whittington, Jr. and his First Sergeant Grant E. Constable climbed the outside of the telephone exchange, entered through a second floor open window, and yelled, "Don't anybody move," scaring all of the women operating the switchboards.

One woman with both hands on her telephone plugs pulled them out of her board, uprooting the entire alert and security warning system along the East Coast to the Washington, D.C. overlap. It was chaotic because no one knew just what had happened. It took some time to straighten it out. The Fifth Ranger Battalion was the only unit that had ever captured all of the installations around Fort Pierce, the various administrative departments of the city, the air, road, sea, railroad, the telephone communications system, and disrupted the federal government's alert and warning net. No other unit ever did that again.

On 20 November, the battalion moved to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for further training and field exercises. On one of these exercises, the battalion was divided in half—A, C, and E were on one team and B, D, and F on the other. The Headquarters Detachment was with the Command Group. We were given one-third of a "C" ration and allowed to carry one blanket and our shelter half. We were expected to live off of the country, if we could find any food. The weather was very cold. The temperature registered in the low thirties. The exercise started at night, and our team drove the other team out of a village around midnight. The villagers were shocked, for they had no warning that this was going to happen. The action was swift and didn't last more than twenty minutes. We chased the other team and near daylight pulled into a wooded area. I was assigned to an area that was full of briars. I bedded my men down and, taking Rooney, said I was going out to see if we could find some food. We found a house, and I was able to buy chicken from the lady of the house. We were also able to pick some frozen red and green peppers from her garden. We took the chicken back, cleaned it, and stuck the cut up peppers in slits that we made in the chicken. This was for seasoning and it worked fine. We broiled the chicken over a low hot fire. We laid up all day and at night moved into a defensive position at another village. I was on the perimeter and had to establish two road blocks. Where the two roads came together was a bar and grill. I set up my command post at the rear of the grill near the rear door and made arrangements with the owner/bartender for my men to come up to the rear door and buy two drinks and a hot dog. It worked out fine and I had several drinks myself. After all, it was darned cold.

It all ended too soon and this time the other team drove us out at a dead run at 0100 hours (1:00 A.M.) After several miles we bedded down in a farm pasture, and Rooney and I doubled up with our two shelter halves and our blankets and tried to get some sleep.

That night we were signed to another village, and this time my section got a "Y" intersection in the village to defend. As usual I started to look for someplace where I could find some food and drinks. Nearby was a private home, and checking the windows, I saw a group of ladies having some kind of a meeting in the living room. I went to the rear, climbed up onto a porch, and I noticed a man sitting at a kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee. There were lots of little sandwiches, cakes and pies on a counter, and several coffee pots on the stove. I knocked on the door and startled this gentleman. I was dirty and hadn't shaved in three days. He opened the door and invited me in. I told him about my section, what we were doing, and how we had to live off of the land. He suggested that I make my command post right there in his kitchen and send my men in for coffee and a snack. I thanked him for the coffee but said that I thought the snacks were for the ladies. He told me not to worry and said he was going to get his wife, which he did. She was thrilled when I told her what was happening. She said, "By all means, have your men come in and have some sandwiches, dessert, and coffee. There's plenty." I also told her and the ladies that there would be plenty of shooting around there very soon. Well, suffice to say, I stayed in a warm kitchen talking to the gentleman while my men came in by twos and had coffee and a snack.

Now the story gets interesting. Remember, this is wartime and at times every city and village had, without warning, unannounced air raid alerts. It was 2145 hours (9:45 P.M.). Suddenly all of the lights in the village went out and the air raids went off. With that the attack started and I dashed for my post. There was a lot of shooting and grenade simulators exploding. Captain Whittington and his B Company overran us and captured me and my section. This was a very realistic situation, and the gentleman and the ladies had a grandstand seat on the front porch. They were not at all scared because I had warned them about the exercise. It was an accident that the air raid alert went off simultaneously with the exercise. There was no collusion between the military and the civil defense.

We returned to camp and had a shakedown. We had our damaged equipment and clothing replaced. The battalion was assigned to the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA). On 20 December, the battalion moved to Camp Kilmer, where all personnel were able to have six days of leave, which was rotated and limited to a distance of fifty miles.

On the night of 7 January, we departed Camp Kilmer by train for the New York Port of Embarkation (NYPOE) and were loaded onto HMS Mauretania. We departed New York Harbor on 8 January 1944 for a secret destination. While we were moving out of the harbor, our ship collided with a freighter. We were forced to return to our dock. By the time we docked, scaffolding had been up and floodlights were ready to illuminate the area that had to be repaired. Repairs were made and we were on our way the next morning.

We traveled alone, not in a convoy, since our speed and maneuvering would normally avoid all enemy submarines. We also had excellent air coverage, and the only scary moment was when we were held in the outer harbor of Liverpool, England, for twenty-four hours because the opening through the mine field was not wide enough to allow our ship to enter the inner harbor. The opening had to be widened by a mine sweeper. We docked in Liverpool on 18 January 1944 and saw for the first time the bomb damage. We loaded a train and moved to Leominster, normally pronounced as I/ minster, England, where we began extensive training in cliff scaling, rapelling, rope bridge crossings, and field exercises. On 22 January, the battalion was further assigned to VIII Corps within ETOUSA.

One night after all of the lights were out and we were all in bed, the First Sergeant, Jerome V. Bugnacki, came into our barracks, turned on the lights, and said, "Everybody up and in field gear. We're going out on a field exercise for a couple of days. You've got fifteen minutes to get ready and be outside." We were loaded into two and a half ton trucks, and the rear curtain was tied down, blacking us out. In this condition we drove for about an hour and then stopped. There Captain John T. Eichner, our Company Commander, came to the rear of the truck, untied the curtain, and said "Sergeant Hathaway, come out." He took me to the front of the truck and in the headlights, taking out a map, pointed to an area on the map, and said, "You are here." There were no names on the map, and I didn't get much of a look at it, but I thought that I recognized a hill on the far edge of the map as Oak Hill. There was a symbol of a church on the hill. His instructions to me were that we were in enemy territory and were to be at our barracks assembly by morning of the following day. "I can give you no further information," he said. "Do you understand?" "Yes, sir," I responded. He then said, "Get your section. You're on your own, and remember the natives are not friendly."

I got my section out of the truck, which then departed. At the side of the road, I briefed my men about what I had been told. Since it might be some time before we got a chance to eat, I took an inventory of what we had in the way of food. A couple of my men had some cookies and one of them, McGuire, had a package of tea. I told the men not to eat the cookies, as we might need them later.

I then asked them if they had heard anything distinctive as we were riding. We all had. The general consensus was that we must have gone over a bridge and then under one. I speculated that we had gone over a river and then under what was a railroad overpass. We had heard, for a short span, an echo, which may have been the sound of us going through a village.

"We'll find out since we have to go back that way," I said. It was after midnight and we started out.

We soon came to a village. While going down the main street, we came to a police station set slightly back from the street and surrounded by an iron picket fence. We were in luck. I told the men to hide while McGuire and I went up to the police station to see if we could learn anything. I knew that most police stations had a blackout curtain in place of a door, which was usually open, and right in back would be a room with a high desk and usually a map of the area on the wall above. The two of us entered the gate and were headed up the flagstone walk when the curtain parted. We dropped flat on either side of the walk, and two bobbies walked by us, unaware that we were there. Their eyes must not have been accustomed to the darkness since they had just come out of a lit room. When they were gone, we continued up the steps and carefully parted the curtain. Sure enough, there was a map. The police sergeant, behind the desk, had his head bent down over some papers and never noticed us. We saw the hill and noticed that the direction we had to go was generally north.

We returned to our men and moved out of the village. At the edge of the village, we went under the railroad trestle and over the river bridge we'd heard on our drive there. We continued about a mile farther and pulled into a thicket to grab a few hours sleep.

We awoke early. For breakfast everyone had a cookie and drink of water. We then surveyed the area as far as we could see, using my field glasses. Everyone took a look. There were fields on the left bordered by low hedges, and along the right side of the road was a wooded slope. The road bent in a rising curve to our left. We could see the road for a distance of about a mile. We were under way by about 0800 hours (8:00 A.M.).

We traveled along the road, but we saw no traffic. Soon we were in sight of the hill that I had seen on the map. There was a church and a parsonage at the top of the hill, right next to the road that ran by it. As we approached the church, we observed a man walking along a path to our right and headed in the direction of the church. When he saw us, he started to run. We ran, too, to cut him off and caught him. He turned out to be a minister and an older man. He heaved and gasped so much for breath that I was worried that he would have a heart attack. I suggested that he sit down and get his breath, and told him that we were American soldiers. He gasped that he thought we were Germans. I explained that we were on an exercise. We were supposed to be in enemy territory and under orders to make our way back to our barracks area near Leominister. I asked him what he would have done had he managed to get to his parsonage. "Would you have called the police or the Home Guard?" He answered, "Yes, I would have done that." "Had you done that," I told him, "they would have picked us up and reported us, which would have caused us to fail our training mission. Had we actually been in enemy territory, we would have had to kill you." I asked him to play as if we had actually killed him. He laughed and told us he would.

By now he appeared rested and asked us if we would please come up to the parsonage to meet his wife. She would be so pleased. I told him that we'd be glad to. When we arrived at the parsonage, he introduced me to his wife. I then introduced the other ten men of my section. She insisted that we stay for lunch and made sandwiches and tea. We hadn't wanted to impose, for we were aware of the wartime shortage of food. McGuire insisted that she at least take his package of tea, which she did.

We were a curious sight. All of us seated in the parlor in our combat gear and weapons, having sandwiches and tea. McGuire was seated on their piano stool at the piano with his Thompson sub-machine gun lying on the floor. An outstanding pianist, he could not help running his fingers over the keys, and as a result, he was invited to play. We were all treated to some wonderful classics. The minister and his wife were thrilled beyond belief.

All too soon, we had to leave. We said our good-byes and thanked them for a wonderful visit and luncheon. By the early morning hours, we were back at our barracks area in time for roll call.

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