The Class That Never Was!

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

I was in a room with an interesting man.  He was a patient in our hospice.  I didn't stay very long since he had family in the room.  I had popped into the room for a minute to see if I could do anything for them.



We had all visited for a few minutes, when it was mentioned that the patient was a member of the "class that never was!"  Now, you are probably saying to you're self, "what was that?"  I know, because I said the same thing!

Let's have a history lesson together.  With World War Two raging on two fronts, the US Army was in critical need of junior officers and Second Lieutenants.  The Federal Government called The Citadel's entire Junior class into service!  The Citadel is a military college in Charleston, South Carolina.



The college's president, General Charles P. Summerall, protested.  He thought that the young men would make better soldiers after they finished their military education.  But to no avail.   They were sent to Europe almost immediately!

They had a terrible tough times because they were all the youngest grade of officer and they had the roughest duty.  They had the highest fatality rate than every other class from The Citadel!



More than six-thousand young men served during World War Two and suffered two-hundred and nine fatalities!  Thirteen of them died on D-Day or the weeks afterwards!  Are patient was sent to school to learn about poisons.  He became a toxicologist for the Army.

Comments

Popular Posts