Originally Posted by Daryl Hallquist
The war, everywhere, was hell. My small hometown of Red Oak, Iowa, was home to Company M. They had the distinction, if that's what you call it, of losing more men, per capita , than any other town. The war in Africa is not as well known, but the young recruits got slaughtered there. Men in the neighboring county's Company F were saved by their commander telling them that when it got dark, they should lay down their arms and march out single file. The Germans would think they were Prisoners of War. 480 men made it out in that manner.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


Daryl, somewhere I missed that you're a fellow native Iowan. You're right: The kind of distinction Red Oak got during WWII is not exactly anything you hope for. I enlisted in the 34th my senior year in high school (1962). HHC, 1/133d Infantry. As the Pentagon sent more and more men to Vietnam, many of us figured our turn was going to come sooner or later. But for whatever reason, the National Guard mostly got left behind during Vietnam. Those of us who knew the 34th's record in WWII were surprised by that That has not been the case in our more recent conflicts. But we can be thankful that casualty figures have not been anything like D-Day, nor some of the battles in North Africa. FDR called up a lot of National Guard units long before Pearl Harbor. A National Guard tank battalion from Minnesota was in the Philippines a year before we declared war. They formed the rear guard for the retreat to Bataan.