Re: thanks vets / Dr. Tourville

["Brien Tourville" <hh7x@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: <eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "AMC List" <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: thanks vets
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:27:30 -0600

In case no one has mentioned it yet, thank you Veterans, past, 
present
and future. Eddie Stakes' Planet Houston AMX 713.464.8825
eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.planethoustonamx.com


-------------------


Having been advised to secure a job with the local
paper box factory in Leominster Mass. upon graduation
from High School, Dad enrolled in the Army Air Corp. 
when WW II began.

He went thru basic Flight & transferred to Army Ground Forces
what with the  US Army Aircraft at the time >
mostly paper Bi-Planes with a few PT Trainers - very few,
he figured he'd live longer.

My Dad trained troops in Tyler Texas for the European Theatre
during the WWII conflagration.

He was a Light Weight Boxing Champion while in the Army.

Starting @ 5AM > he ran platoons on full pack runs,
2 miles out > 2 miles in, 
pick up the next platoons & run them out. 
 
This went on Daily - in Texas Style Heat.

After some steep losses against crack German Divisions,
the US Army changed their training to create a soldier that
could respond individually to circumstances - taking command
should leadership be lost.  

His favourite were the Sniper Trainees, mostly made up of
'tall lanky Southern kids who could shoot the eyes out of Crows'.

Basic Training also went to using live ammunition.

Dad took grenade fragments one day to the right side - partially
blinding him for a term, when one of his charge d'ropped the ball'.

Later during a turn as an MP - while in a Tyler Texas Bar attempting
an extraction of an AWOL party, he took a Black Jack to the same spot 
- landing him again  in a hospital.   

Those Party members were  found dead in the ally next
to the Bar later that week.  

Dad was informed while still in the Infirmary by an Adjunct 
delivering the Printed News.

While laid up, his Division shipped out & were decimated
crossing a marsh over railroad tracks by SS Parachute .

He and twenty seven others of his Division survived the War.

'Doc' went on to life as a 1st. Lt. at a large POW camp in Texas
with my Mom in tow.  She wanted to return to New York once
his Tour was up > so I was born in Boston.

Dad, who taught himself Multiplication Tables & worked
at Simon Sonn Steel in Fitchburgh Mass. before the War, got
a break from the G.I. Bill, enrolled in University of Connecticut,
later transferred to Tufts for his B.A. and M.A. in Education.
He received his Phd. Ed. from Harvard University - which
I still remember, keeping his Crimson Robe & Chapeau'
in protective cover - memories being what they are.

Both High Schools he Principal'd at were upgraded extensively
during his Tenure.  

He won National Awards and Honours for both Lincoln-Sudbury
Regional High School and Newburgh Free Academy.

'Doc' T. marched out to meet the makers 2004, March 20,
@ 12:30AM from Room 427 in Middletown New York,
just off Interstate Rte. 84.   Dad is 84.
+



             Brien.
         NEW YORK
   eagle registry #501
eagle kammback registry