Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:25 | For Brooklynite Roy Hector, basic training in the heat of Texas was a real jolt. After a cold, miserable Atlantic crossing, he joined the 79th Infantry Division in France, where one of the sergeants had some startling advice.
Keywords : Roy Hector Brooklyn New York North Sea submarine Phillipine Le Havre France 40 and 8's boxcar
When Roy Hector got to the Siegfried Line during the push into Germany, it rained 23 days straight. Once he crossed the Rhine further into Germany, his unit was pinned down by a German 88, and they had a surprise when they captured the gun crew. On another occasion, they found an empty machine gun nest and heard boisterous singing nearby.
After close encounters with a couple of artillery shells, Roy Hector encountered a new Lieutenant, who confronted German tanks waving a pearl handled revolver. The officer soon realized his error. For his own weapon, Hector preferred a rifle over automatic weapons.
At the end of the war, Roy Hector's first assignment was managing an Army laundry, which he didn't like at all. When the 79th Infantry Division was disbanded, he joined the Constabulary force and served at Nuremberg, where he built the translation infrastructure for the war crime trials.
