Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:00 | Depression on the South side of Chicago meant that Jack Cassidy had to make his own toys growing up. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army and had his basic training in cold, snowy Kansas. On the voyage to Europe, he was seasick every day, but soon enough he was moving inland through France towards the front.
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Coming into combat late in the war, Jack Cassidy was in the Alsace-Lorraine area assigned to a Reconnaissance unit. Since they weren't finding many of the enemy, the weather and the bad food were what he had to deal with. That and the lack of parts for the vehicles.
The Reconnaissance unit went so fast and so far at one point that they went off their maps and had to roust the mayor of a small town to show them where they were. They were pushing further into Germany and Jack Cassidy describes that advance and the civilians in the towns who were shocked to see Americans. There were so many prisoners, they just disarmed them and pointed them toward the rear.
Jack Cassidy recalls they had one day of revelry when Germany surrendered, then it was back to work. He was transferred from camp to camp, ever closer to the channel. After bobbing like a cork aboard a Liberty Ship back across the Atlantic, he took his father out to a tavern. There were two things missing at home, jobs and consumer goods.
