INTERVIEWER:   Mr. Weaver, good afternoon and how are you?

WEAVER:   Fine, thank you.

INTERVIEWER:   Mr. Weaver, as I said off camera the first question I’m going to ask and then ask you to tell me a story, but the first questions are where did you get into the military, when did you get into the military and why did you get into the military?

WEAVER:   A friend of mine from high school from Goshen High School in Indiana, we went to South Bend Community College and while we were there, right after we graduated as a matter of fact, we knew that the war was going to start and we both went down to Indianapolis to volunteer for the Marine Corps.  Jack Kelly got in somehow or another and they did not take me.

INTERVIEWER:   The year is what?

WEAVER:   1942.  So I waited for my draft notice.  I went back to South Bend and then went back to Goshen and my mother and I went to a movie on a Saturday night and there was a short.  It was on airborne training, parachute training and in that they stated they paid $50 extra a month.  So walking home from downtown, we lived right down close to town, a small town, I told mother I was going to volunteer for parachute duty for the $50.

So I waited, I went back to South Bend, picked up my stuff and came back home and waited for my draft notice.  My draft notice came in.  I was sent to Toledo, Ohio.

INTERVIEWER:   And how old were you at that time?

WEAVER:   I was 20 or 19, you’re asking me…I was 20.  I was born in ’22 and I was drafted in ’42.  I was inducted in Toledo and I went through a line after serving in the line several days and they asked me what I wanted to do.  I said I want to volunteer for parachute duty.  They sent me to Fort Bragg, North Carolina  and assigned me to the 101st Airborne Division.

I ended up taking training with the 401st glider infantry.  Right across the parade ground, the 502nd parachute regiment had just come back from Fort Benning from their parachute training and I kept after the warrant officer in the office to send me across, cut orders and send me over to the 502nd.  He asked me why I wanted to do that and I said, “Well I won’t leave the office, but I will get $50 more a month”.

So after a couple of weeks of talking with him, he finally had orders cut and I was sent right across the parade ground to the 502nd parachute regiment.  I went by myself down to Fort Benning and spent a month in training.  Came back to the 502nd parachute regiment and I already head my basic training which helped me through parachute school actually because that was kind of tough.

INTERVIEWER:   What do you mean it was kind of tough?

WEAVER:   Well the first week is physical training and I was in pretty good shape because I’d already taken physical training with the 401st glider infantry.

INTERVIEWER:   Was it physical training or physical torture?

WEAVER:   (Laughter) Well I guess we kind of thought of it as torture then, but right now I know that it had to be done and so did you.  But anyway, the first week was physical.  The second week was…let me go from the fourth week.  The fourth week we made five jumps to qualify out of airplanes.  The third week was jumping out of training setups and learning how to pack a parachute.

The second week I guess was physical training also.  You caught me there.  But anyway getting back to the fifth week, we had to jump five times in order to qualify and we packed our own chute all the time.  The rigors had nothing to do with it.  They were watching us, but that was supposed to give us the feeling that they’re going to open.  We knew there’s no way that it cannot open.

So after I finished parachute duty, I went back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and joined the 502nd parachute regiment.  We went from there, the division went to Tennessee for field training and maneuvers and what have you.  Do you want me to go on or do you want to ask questions?

INTERVIEWER:   You’re doing great.

WEAVER:   I’ll put in right now, I made 13 jumps in all the three years and six days I was in service.  I went in on November 14 in ’42 and came out, was discharged November 20, in ’45.  I participated in all the maneuvers because each time they would have a maneuver, I didn't have to jump, but I had to be in the field with the troops because I was trained to take care of morning reports of A battalion and get them back for reports.

INTERVIEWER:   Now future generations may not know what a morning report is.  You and I know, but for the sake of the future, what’s a morning report?

WEAVER:   A morning report, after we get overseas, a morning report is most important because it gives the battalion and the regiment and the division and the Army the number killed in action, missing in action and injured.

INTERVIEWER:   It’s really a daily census, isn’t it?

WEAVER:   Yes it is.  After we got overseas and got in combat, it was the training that I had on the maneuvers in the States and in England, I could see where it came in handy for me when I got to the field, when I started doing this thing under not fire, enemy fire because I usually was under enemy fire, but I was looking for people that were on the line, trying to get up with lieutenants that were in charge of the troops, trying to get up with captains who were in charge of groups of soldiers.

Sometimes I got up with 1st sergeants, sometimes I got up with sergeants, trying to get the names of the people that were killed or missing in action.  This was when I was in Europe.  I remember being in England and I participated in that one for Churchill before the invasion of Normandy.  I had mixed feelings.  I wanted to stay in the office because I was one of the few that could read and write so I kidded people. 

But I also wanted to stay in the line because at that time in the training and maneuvers, it was important, but it wasn’t dangerous unless you broke a leg when you jumped.  But I made five parachute jumps in jump school.  I made two combat jumps, that’s seven, so I must have six jumps in maneuvers and training.  I had 13 jumps.

The 13th jump was the one I had to make before I came home to stay on jump status in November of ’45.  It was most interesting, the job that I had.

INTERVIEWER:   Let me take you back a little bit.  How did you get from the United States to the British Isles?

WEAVER:   We went to New York and we got on a troop ship, I guess the whole division.  We got out in the ocean and all of a sudden we find out we’re in Newfoundland at the port.  We’re on a British ship.  We were trying to figure out what it was that put us in Newfoundland and we found out that it was a German submarine scare and they wanted the troop ship put aside.

So we went up to, I can’t think of the name of the camp in Newfoundland, but we were up there for some days.  The next ship that we got on when the coast was clear I guess, the next ship was an American troop ship and we went to Liverpool, England on that.  All together, it took our division 44 days to get over to England.  We were all kind of on edge trying to get there because we wanted to get there.

We unloaded and then went to our base area that was about an hour and a half east of London.  I think it was east, but we were about an hour and a half from London.

INTERVIEWER:   Many of those troop ships or at least the one I was on, you got fed twice a day.  Was that the way it was on your ship?

WEAVER:   Yes and if you were on an American ship only, you know the food was fairly decent.  When we were on the British ship, the food was not quite up to our standards.  We were happy that it was an American ship waiting for us at the dock when we left Newfoundland because the food from there to England was much better.

INTERVIEWER:   But it was twice a day as much as you wanted, is that right?

WEAVER:   Yes, we could have as much as we wanted.  As a matter of fact, I have, as I told you, I have my meal ticket.  They’d punch you whenever you went through the line.  We even could take some stuff back to our barracks or our hammock, wherever in the heck we were staying.  I slept on deck most of the time.  The weather wasn’t too bad.

INTERVIEWER:   What time of the year was this?

WEAVER:   This was in November; I have it on my meal ticket when I left.  We left New York on September 5, 1943, and we put it in Newfoundland on September 11, 1943.  We left Newfoundland on the 4th of October arriving in Halifax, Canada the 6th of October, and then we left Halifax.  I forgot about that.  On the 8th of October and we joined another convoy.  We finally got to England, Liverpool, on the 18th of October, 44 days to get from New York to England.  We were about an hour and a half from London as I mentioned.  So it was cool, but it wasn’t cold.

INTERVIEWER:   What happened after you got to England?  Was there more training?

WEAVER:   Yes, we had…I didn't participate in too many jumps over there, but we had training.  We had a night jump for Winston Churchill; I remember that.  As I mentioned before, I only made 13 jumps, five in jump school, two in combat and one before I came home, so that would leave five jumps that I made in maneuvers and training what have you that I went with the line.

Each time that they would go out, not each time, but times when they wanted to indoctrinate the three of us that took care of morning reports, we went with the troops on training jumps and we did practically all of our jumps in England at night because the invasion was going to be…I guess they knew at that time, it was going to be at night.

INTERVIEWER:   Tell me, how and where were you told you were going to get on an airplane and fly into occupied France?  Where were you and who told you and how did they tell you?

WEAVER:   I was in Hungerford, England, right outside, the 502nd, the division was spread around, but the 502nd parachute regiment, which I was a part of, we were right outside of Hungerford, England.  I’m trying to think of the name of the commons that we were bivouacked in.  But we knew something was coming up because there was a lot of different activity going around especially in headquarters where I was.

I guess probably to answer your question, I was right outside of Hungerford, England.  You know, a funny thing, I couldn’t remember Hungerford, England until I read in our local newspaper here in Wilmington where someone opened fire in a fast food like Hardees in Hungerford, England and I picked it up right quick and I said, “Honey, that’s where I was stationed in!”  She said she knew that just by the letters I wrote.

By the way, something that I don’t want to forget, after I came back from parachute training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I asked somebody in the office where I could go and have a nice evening and not spend much money, a nice weekend.  One of the older fellows said, “Why don’t you go to Lumberton, North Carolina?  They have a nice hotel, they have a USO dance on Saturday night and it’s very nice and it’s not expensive”. 

I did that and met my wife at the USO dance on Saturday night.  She asked me if I wanted to go to church with her Sunday morning and I said yes I would.  After church, she commandeered one of her friend’s cars and we went out to the farm near Rowland, North Carolina, which is right close to the South Carolina line, but not in Rowland.  It was on a farm, and her mother had I guess maybe 10 or 12 people there for dinner that Sunday.

It was my future mother-in-law and father-in-law and their son who was getting ready to go into the Air Force and their doctor’s son who didn't go to service, but he did a lot of work in the States.  He was an ophthalmologist and some neighbors.  The big thing that I wanted to put in here is that her mother had made a coconut cake and I loved coconut.  She sprinkled coconut on top of the cake.  I went out in the kitchen and asked her if I could have another piece of cake.  My joke now is always and my wife says it’s not true, but I said, “Your mother made you marry me because she thought I was a great man”.

But anyway we left there and I went back to camp.  Betty and I, my wife, whenever there was a dance up at Fort Bragg, I would let her know.  In those days, they would have busloads of girls from different towns to go to the different dances on the camp at Fort Bragg anyway.  Whenever she was coming up, if she wasn’t coming to our regiment, she’d tell me where they were going to be and I would sneak in somehow or another and we’d meet one another.

She didn't meet my parents.  Now I knew her parents and I visited them while I was at Fort Bragg.  She didn't meet my parents in Goshen, Indiana, until June 6th, the invasion when I jumped in Normandy.  She arrived by bus in Goshen, Indiana, the day after the evening I jumped in Normandy.

INTERVIEWER:   Were you married at that time?

WEAVER:   No, we kept in touch by mail and after she spent…I don’t know how long, I don’t remember now, but she spent a week in Goshen, Indiana with mother and dad.  Of course I had sent a few dollars home every month and by mail we found out, or I found out that mother and dad liked her and she liked mother and dad and I told mother to take some money out of the bank and buy her a ring and send it to her.  I got engaged through the mail.

So when I came home, I did not go right down to Fort Bragg or to North Carolina, I was discharged in Indiana and I went back to school and started at Indiana University.  We were married in 1947.  I guess we’ve been married 55 years.  But it was during the summer I took off.  I graduated from college in ’49 and we were married a couple of years…well I was still in school, but I got engaged through the mail while I was in Europe and then I got married after I got back while I was in college.

INTERVIEWER:   Well let me take you back to a less hazardous event.  It’s June 5th and what were you told, get on board and get ready to jump out?

WEAVER:   Yes.

INTERVIEWER:   Who told you that?

WEAVER:   Well I guess, I can’t remember that really.  I guess we just knew that…I had already been assigned to 3rd battalion and I had already been assigned to the G Company.  I was on detached service from headquarters to jump with the 3rd battalion and I was with G Company and they had already made out their manifest for the plane.  I can’t remember; that had to be like the 4th or the 5th when I went down.

We were in marshalling areas and the planes were there and the gliders were there.  We just thought we were going right away.  Well weather put it off a day I guess as I remember.  Finally I think famous last words that Eisenhower said was “Let’s get ready and go”.  I guess that was because of the weather forecast.

INTERVIEWER:   Is this a picture of Eisenhower with the paratroopers?

WEAVER:   Yes.

INTERVIEWER:   And are you in the picture?

WEAVER:   Yes I am.  I’m right over the shoulder…and no one can dispute it, I’m right over the shoulder, between Eisenhower and that lieutenant that’s standing there.

INTERVIEWER:   That’s a very famous picture.

WEAVER:   Yes it is.  It’s the second most recognizable picture that came out of World War II.  The first is the flag raising at Iwo Jima and that picture has been on many, many articles.  I saw the picture in the museum.  I’ve gone to Europe a couple of times and gone to all the areas we fought in and traveled in and that picture is on the wall of most all of the American museums.

INTERVIEWER:   Do you remember anything that General Eisenhower said?  Was it kind of a pep talk?

WEAVER:   Well I could hardly hear it.  If I did hear it, I probably wouldn’t remember, I would be so excited because he was not talking to our plane.  He stopped and the only person I think that’s recognizable in that picture is Lieutenant Stafford and he’s with F Company.  When we heard that Eisenhower was coming up the flight line, we all kind of crowded over and we were pushing each other around.  We wanted to see General Eisenhower, that’s for sure.

I was not bashful and I got in there.  I just happened to be in the picture.  Several people have asked me about it.  They said, “which one are you?  Can you be sure?”  I said, “No, I can’t be sure which one I am.  I can tell you where I think I am”.  I was between I think…I’ve seen several different angles of that particular encounter and I can pick myself out in there. 

But the only person that you or I can or the headquarters can definitely say is in that picture is Lieutenant Stafford with F Company which I was assigned to to go overseas, and the plane was right next door to F Company. 

INTERVIEWER:   Well what time did your aircraft leave?

WEAVER:   After dark, after it got dark, of course we were laying around.  I never have smoked cigarettes, but the guys were laying around and some were playing cards and what have you.  It was late in the afternoon, getting dark and finally somebody gave the order to get your chutes on and get your ammunition and all that stuff.  I had an M1 that had three parts.  It was strapped underneath my chute.

Some of the guys had other heavier equipment, bazookas and what have you.  They were told to get organized and be ready to board the plane.  It was dark when we boarded the plane.  We left England and I don’t know whether our plane was pulling a glider or not, but we left England close to midnight.  The pathfinders had already gone into Normandy to set up signals for the aircraft to come over.

I don’t know whether it did any good or not because I understand from all the books I’ve read and from my experience, the reason that it was successful, it was so jumbled up.  The Germans were all messed up, and we were all messed up.  We didn't know where we were most of the time and they didn't know where we were most of the time, but fortunately everything turned out great.

Our objective was to jump behind the lines at Utah Beach and work towards the beach for the people coming in right behind us by boat and what have you.  The idea was there were causeways going down to the beach.  We were to be sure those causeways were free so the soldiers coming onto the beach could come across the causeways and come up.  Utah Beach was probably the least fortified of all the beaches of Normandy.  I understand one of the reasons also that the Germans were a little outflanked by the invasion was that they thought they were coming in from Cherbourg or coming in into Cherbourg.

They had dummies up there; the Americans and the allies had dummies up there, and we came into Normandy, France.

INTERVIEWER:   Flying over from England to France in the middle of the night, heavily armed with a bunch of other soldiers in what?  The DC3?

WEAVER:   Yes.

INTERVIEWER:   Okay.

WEAVER:   No, no, a 47.

INTERVIEWER:   Were you scared?

WEAVER:   Yes.

INTERVIEWER:   What did you do when you were scared and what did the rest of the men do?

WEAVER:   Well I said I was scared, but I don’t know whether I was scared or I was just excited.  As I told you, I was assigned to G Company, I was assigned and I was on the manifest and I was the last man in the plane, which was right up by the pilot, by the bulk head.  There was a sergeant there with the Air Force, and he had a .45 and he asked me if I wanted to take the .45, and I said I didn't know where I was going to put it.

I told him I had enough on, I had ammunition and everything, some grenades and what have you, plus the fact that I wasn’t authorized to carry a 45.  He started laughing.  I said I had never jumped last out of a plane and I said, “When the light turns green, will you be sure I get out of this airplane?”  I don’t think he had to push me.  I think I went out because it was a jumbled night.

INTERVIEWER:   Well you landed in France.

WEAVER:   I landed in France and I got back to my unit about a day and a half after.  Colonel Rosenfeld is the one that helped me get back to where the 101st airborne had finally assembled.  I was with the units really that had just taken over and liberated the Ste. Mere-Eglise, the first village or town that was de-Germanized.  In fact, there was a paratrooper hanging on the steeple in Ste. Mere-Eglise and he’s still there, not him.  But I’ve been to Ste. Mere-Eglise twice and they have a dummy hanging up on that steeple, an American paratrooper.

WEAVER:   After we got done, we were told we were only going to be in France a short time because we thought it was going to be quick.  We were over there and I can’t tell you how many days, but it was about 20 days longer than we were supposed to be there.  Now the base camp is still in England.  So we were shipped back to England to our base camp and that’s where (laughter) the orders were cut.

Before I got back to the office behind my so-called typewriter, I had my sergeant stripes on cause I had been promoted while I was in France.  I don’t know whether that was on tape or not.  But our job while we were in France, I was responsible to get the morning reports in the 3rd battalion and back to regimental headquarters. 

Morning reports the only way that the Army division or the Army could keep track of killed in action, missing in action, injured and what have you.  My job was to get up with someone in GHI Company and 3rd battalion as often as I could to get the reports and get them back to regimental headquarters. 

INTERVIEWER:   But you were promoted in France, is that correct?

WEAVER:   Yes, because the work that we did in the invasion, in doing that work, we reported.  We didn't have anybody to report to except a captain by the name of Captain Littleman.  He was a little wiry son of a gun.  He was in charge; he came in a lot earlier than…he was with the Pathfinders.  We reported to him.  We were in his tent one day before going back to England and he said, “You gentleman have done a good job and I’d like to do something for you”. 

Moore, one of the fellows I went in with, he was taking care of the 1st or 2nd battalion, I don’t know which, he said, “why don’t you promote us?”  So he was asked what he’d like to be and Moore said, “why don’t you promote us to sergeant?”  Captain Littleman said, “Fine, I’ll have the orders cut”.  Moore left and I was going out the flap of a tent and I turned around and I said, “Captain Littleman, can you make us buck sergeants?” which meant that the little T under the three stripes would not be there.

INTERVIEWER:   That was called a T4, wasn’t it?

WEAVER:   I guess that is now. 

INTERVIEWER:   T5 was a corporal and T4 was a buck sergeant and T3 was a staff sergeant.

WEAVER:   Well, evidently a T4 then.  But anyway, by all rights, we should have been technical sergeants.  We were on the line.  Captain Littleman said he thought it was a good idea because we had been on the line just as much as a lot of the other guys and you’re getting points and what have you.  They’re going to raise hell when we get back to England, but he said that’s what we’d do, “That’s what I’ll do for you”.  I remember that.  Moore had already gone.

So we’re back to England and we were there for a while and then Market Garden came up.  Don’t ask me dates because I can’t remember, but the colonel called Moore and myself in.  Pitson had gotten hit and was evacuated back to the States.  He got wounded on the jump so there was just Moore and myself that had battlefield experience.  We had other jumpers that had come over to the States in the office, and the colonel wanted either Moore or myself to go with the other two new people in the Market Garden, which is the jumping ____.

He called Moore and myself in.  We were sergeants at the time naturally and he said, “I want one of you gentleman to go with two new people that I haven’t picked out yet, but I’d like for you to go in because I want experience in the field.  Which one of you wants to go?”  Of course, neither one of us held our hand up, and he said, “Well I guess what we’ll do is flip a coin”.  I don’t know whether I won or lost, but I went in with the troops again with G Company in Holland.

After that experience was over, I happened to see Moore and he was a 2nd lieutenant.  After we went in, got into Holland, the base camp then moved over from England and Moore had gone to officer’s training school.  They had them all over the place because they were losing officers and they had to promote him.  He was a 2nd lieutenant when I saw him over in Holland.

I called him sergeant and he said, “Weaver, Sergeant Weaver, look on my shoulder.  There’s a bar up there and you call me lieutenant”.  Of course we had a lot of fun.  I don’t know what ever happened to Lieutenant Moore.  In Holland, I had the same responsibility with the 3rd battalion getting all the morning reports as often as I could.  Everybody probably is familiar with the Bridge Too Far.  The 101st Airborne Division jumped about, I guess, 30 kilometers south of the bridge too far.

Our responsibilities were to keep the supply lines open for the British and the Polish, and I think some of the 82nd airborne that were jumping up near the bridge.  They wanted to take over the bridge to get into Germany.  We jumped on a pretty day.  It was a daytime jump and some of the Hollanders were down with cookies and cakes and what have you when we jumped.  It didn't last very long.

After about three hours after we landed, we had all hell break loose.  The Germans, evidently we caught them by surprise because it wasn’t much.  We had no flack, nothing in our jump, and it was during the day, and I guess our people knew that it was going to be a surprise.  Within about four or five hours, we were shelled like nobody’s business. 

We were in charge, the 101st was in charge of keeping several small bridges open so that the…Montgomery would be coming up with his army with supplies to get on up to the bridge too far up.  It wasn’t as confusing as it was in Normandy, but it was…we lost a number of men.  It wasn’t that bad, and we were pulled off the line.  I can’t remember. Then we went back to a rest area. 

We were going to be out of harm’s way for a while when the Germans made a big push.  I can’t remember what they called it, but anyway they were breaking the line.  We were the closest unit available or the most mobile unit available I guess, the 101st Airborne to go up to Bastogne. 

INTERVIEWER:   It’s now winter.

WEAVER:   Yes, it’s now winter and it’s cold as hell.  We got the orders; we got pulled off the line.  We were going to be issued ammunition and anything we had lost during the Holland field.  Some of the guys went up to the Bastogne.  We didn't jump in.  We went up in what we called cattle trucks -- great big vans that we had to get on.  Some of the guys got on without ammunition.  Some of the fellows didn't have helmets.

At any rate, we had to get up Bastogne.  That was a travel center.  Some highways came in and some roads came in and we had already, the allies had already captured the Bastogne and the Germans had been pushed out.  When the Germans started the Bulge, the way I read and what I’ve heard, is that Hitler said that had to be taken.  Bastogne had to be taken at all costs. 

We got up to Bastogne before the Germans quite got there.  The 101st Airborne division and the units that were attached to it were sent out by General McAuliffe at that time.  General Taylor had gone back after he got pulled off the line in Holland.  After the Holland jump, he was in Washington to get new orders and what have you.  General McAuliffe, his aide was in charge of the division and he set up headquarters in Bastogne proper and all the divisions were set out all around Bastogne to hold it at all costs.

The Germans were to take Bastogne at all costs.  After a few days and a lot of fighting, we were about out of ammunition.  We were about out of supplies of all kinds.  The Germans had captured one of our medical outfits so we were in lack of medical supplies of some kind.  It was snowing and it was cold.  We didn't have any air cover because the weather was bad.  This was like the 20th or 21st of December. 

My job was a little bit harder this time also because it was harder for me to get around, and to get around all the companies to get the morning reports, and get them back to battalion headquarters.  Then I was to see that they got back to division headquarters, which was set up right close to downtown Bastogne.  I happened to be, I don’t know why it was, but I happened to see or heard the Germans come in.  They wanted the 101st Airborne Division to either surrender or be annihilated. 

General McAuliffe received the message, and I claim that I saw the white flag the Germans were carrying.  I don’t know whether I really did or not, but I was close to division headquarters near Bastogne.  The way the story goes and it has been documented, I guess, General McAuliffe got the message from the Germans either surrender or be annihilated.  It was more than that, and McAuliffe looked at it so I understand. 

He turned around to his aides and said, “What am I going to tell this officer, this German officer?”  One of his aides said, “You’ve already told him”.  “What did I say?”  He said, “Aw nuts”.  That’s how that story got out, and all he wrote on the note back, I guess it was “Plain nuts” and the officer said, the German officer said, “What’s this nuts?”  It says, “go to hell.”  So the Germans then…and they could have defeated us, but because they tried to punch the circle in one spot all the time, we could maneuver, the division maneuvered their heavy equipment around and we were able to hold them off until General Patton’s army came up and relieved us on December 26th, I guess it was.

I have a copy of the note in my things there of the message that McAuliffe sent around to all of the men, December 25th, that we haven’t surrendered, and, although Christmas is going to be a little chilly, he said we still have Bastogne.  I have a copy of the receipt that he gave to Patton or who about the city of Bastogne being disinfected, but in still workable condition.  It was quite an experience.  And then we were relieved from the line.

We moved up through Belgium after being in a rest area and on up into Germany and what have you. 

INTERVIEWER:   But the heavy fighting was…

WEAVER:   At Bastogne.  It’s known as the hole in the donut. 

INTERVIEWER:   When did you get back to the States?

WEAVER:   I got back to the States in November of ’45.  Somebody came by my desk and asked me if I wanted to go home, and I said I had never thought about it really.  Well, I had thought about going home naturally, but I didn't think it would come about the way it did.  He said, “Do you want to go home?”  I said yes, and he said I had enough points.  I had 85 points.  I really just found out as I told you.  I had all the points even though my M.O. was clerk typist.

I was in line with all the fellows whenever they were in combat.  As a matter of fact, I didn't tell you, but I was with the 3rd battalion when Colonel Cole was trying to take Caratan.  Caratan is a community, a town that was up towards Cherbourg, and Colonel Cole wanted his battalion to get up, well that was his assignment to take Caratan, and I happened to be in that area naturally picking up reports and what have you.

The 3rd battalion was having trouble getting across the fields of ditches and waterlogged areas.  Colonel Cole finally said we were going to fix bayonets and go.  There was a farmhouse between the 3rd battalion and Caratan that was giving them all the trouble.  They couldn’t knock it out for some reason or other, and I happened to be in the area.  I started back to headquarters and some sergeant got a hold of me and asked where I was going.  He said, “fix your bayonets, you’re going with us.”  So I went in with the 3rd battalion.

I was not in the forward echelon.  They took over that little farmhouse and went on up to Caratan, and I went into Caratan.  The only time I remember shooting my rifle in combat was in Caratan.  I got to a corner and just as I got to the corner, there was a German soldier that got to the same corner and evidently…well I know I caught my senses.  We both froze. 

I got my senses a little sooner than he did, and I shot him.  Now whether I hit him and killed him, I don’t know.  I got the hell out of there because I was not supposed to be in the front line shooting.  I was just supposed to be available to take the records back to where they were supposed to be taken to keep track of killed and wounded and missing in action. 

That’s the only time I can remember.  I don’t think I ever shot my rifle again in combat.  Now I had an expert rating and I’ve got the records to show it each time I went to the range with the M1, only the M1.

INTERVIEWER:   We were chatting a little bit before we turned on the videotape. One of the things I ask and everybody knows the answer, what was your serial number?

INTERVIEWER:   We never forget, do we?

WEAVER:   I never have.  I can always remember that.  Isn’t it funny, I can remember a number, but I couldn’t remember Hungerford, England where I spent a lot of time just outside of Hungerford, England, until I saw it -- the bad thing that happened.  It was only about three years ago.  It was in our local paper, a little article.  Why I looked, I have no idea, but I looked at that article.  Right away, I dropped the paper and tried to find my wife.  I said, “Honey, Hungerford, England”.  She said, “Why didn't you ask me? I knew where you were”.

INTERVIEWER:   Mr. Weaver, I’m going to ask you the same question I said I was going to ask you at the end of this videotape.  Look right into the camera and assume…do you have grandchildren?

WEAVER:   Yes, I have two.

INTERVIEWER:   Assume you’re talking to your grandchildren and I’m going to ask you, what would you tell your grandchildren you learned from being in a war and in a combat zone?

WEAVER:   I guess probably responsibility is one of the things, and doing what you’re told is another thing and being honest with yourself.  I’ve often thought if I wouldn’t have done a few things that I did do, I felt honored with the things I had done and more so now since I’m having this interview.  I just think that they should, and many of them are, and I’m fortunate enough to have grandchildren that are quite responsible.  One’s 19 and the other one is 22 I think and they’re both responsible kids. 

I would recommend them to never forget what their family has done for them with their education and so on.  I remember what my folks did for me and what the service did for me.  I grew up in service. 

INTERVIEWER:   Mr. Weaver, does anyone ever win a war?

WEAVER:   I don’t think so.  I think there will always be people that will disagree with other folks.  With what’s going on right now in Afghanistan and over in the Middle East will kind of prove it.

INTERVIEWER:   Mr. Weaver, thank you for your time.

WEAVER:   It was a pleasure.

INTERVIEWER:   Well done sir.