Charles G. Shepherd ’48 BBA, responded to our appeal for World War II stories. He is a member of UGA’s Greatest Generation and wrote:
On December 28, 1943, at the age of 20, I graduated from the Infantry School’s Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning. This Class was made up primarily of former College ROTC students.
There were several men in this class from UGA, Willis Johnson, who recently died, Henry Neal and “Chief” Walter Rourke, an outstanding UGA football player on the 1942 team, who was later killed in action.
I served in the 121st Infantry which is a Georgia National Guard Regiment. Several years ago the Guard asked me to be a part of a display in Little Rock AR. They prepared a listing of the awards I received during WWII.
Later, in 2001, I was inducted into the United States Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame, at Fort Benning GA after being recommended by the above mentioned Willis Johnson.
This is not a resume of my WWII experiences as that would take more time than I have at the moment and be more than you would really want to know.
I hope that you have a good response to your project. As you know, us WWII guys are dying off rather rapidly now and although several organizations are attempting to collect war stories, some of our memories are failing.
I recently read an interview concerning the pre-D Day invasion with a man who said that while in England he watched, through binoculars, the Germans building the beach fortifications on the French beaches. A remarkable feat, as it is about 130 miles from England to the Omaha Beach.
Charles G. Shepherd, Jr., ‘48
