Tales from the Johnson City/Washington County Veterans Memorial
Homer Pease
At the start of WW II Homer decided to do his part. The only problem was he was 13 years old. He paid a transient man to go to the recruiter and swear he was 18. He volunteered for the paratroopers and joined the 101st Airbourne Division. If you saw Band of Brothers, he did all that training at 13 years of age. He jumped into Normandy on D Day and fought until he was wounded. Because of that he missed the jump into Arnhem (A Bridge Too Far) but did get back to the 101st Airbourne in time to be in the Battle of the Bulge. Soon after that it was discovered he is 15 and he was sent home with his two Purple Hearts and Bronze Star, much to the surprise of his mother who thought he had run away. They put him back in school, but I guess they thought the better of putting him in Junior High and put him in Science Hill High School. He got on the football team and was good at it but his reflexes were all wrong and after cold cocking an opponent his football days ended. When he joined the Army he was still eligible to be in the Cub Scouts.
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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." John Adams
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