Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:14 | Jack Wold was stuck for a year in Europe with occupation duty. He couldn't wait to get home and go to college on the GI Bill. That came to pass but he had a problem. After he got a degree and a job, he found out that he hated it. Fortunately, he had joined ROTC while at school.
Keywords : Jack Wold occupation duty Dachau concentration camp Minneapolis MN pharmacist GI Bill Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)
Like nearly everyone who graduated high school in 1943, Jack Wold was ready to fight. He was sent to a college training program, but a bout of sickness made him fall behind so he was sent to the infantry.
It was the first convoy after the Battle of the Bulge. Jack Wold was one of the American GIs still swarming into Europe and he did get to see some action. In fact his anti-tank gun scored some kills on German tanks.
WWII veteran Jack Wold reentered the Army with a commission out of ROTC in 1951. He then served in Korea as an S3 managing the evacuations of wounded. He nearly got hit himself, but fate intervened on his side. At that point in the war, the Chinese were using huge human wave attacks.
He fought in WWII and Korea and rose to full colonel until getting out in 1975. Jack Wold had even asked to go to Vietnam but that didn't happen. He has some pointed observations on how war used to be fought and how it is being fought now.
