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Harold Ford

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The building was big and old and cold. The coal ration for the week lasted about thirty minutes and POW Harold Ford spent a lot of time in his bunk under a blanket. When the front approached the camp, he joined a long column of prisoners marching southward. (4:22)

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It was April of 1945 and thousands of American POW's were on the march as their German captors made them move in advance of the approaching front. The guards began deserting and Harold Ford was free on the road, but he went into the camp in Munich because there was food in there. Then, one day, came the sound of American machine guns. (5:12)

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When Patton's army liberated the prison camp in Munich, the feeling for Harold Ford was indescribable. He had only been a prisoner for a few months, but he had dwindled to about a hundred pounds. He began to make up for this on the trip home. (4:48)

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He had been a POW in Germany, but after returning home, Harold Ford was still on active duty. After an interesting interlude as an MP, he got orders to prepare to go to the Pacific. Apparently, the Japanese heard that he was coming and promptly surrendered. (5:47)

James Richardson

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He didn't hear or see the source, but a piece of shrapnel hit James Richardson in the shoulder. He begged a reluctant buddy to dig it out with a knife, then got it dressed by a medic. He was told he could be evacuated, but that wasn't the way the way men thought in this particular unit. (4:35)

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When the city of Myitkyina and it's air strip was captured by Merrill's Marauders, it was the end of the mission for the famed unit. James Richardson had been in the field so long surviving on meager rations that he could hardly eat his victory dinner when he got back to India. (6:38)

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As soon as James Richardson was drafted in 1942, he was being singled out and given tests for various things. They must have seen something special in him because he would go on to be a member of Merrill's Marauders, famed for their brave actions in Burma. (5:40)

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After his basic training, James Richardson was sent to Trinidad, where there was concern about a possible German refueling station in the Caribbean. That didn't pan out but the word went through his unit that volunteers were being sought for an unspecified "rugged mission." Single men only. (7:22)

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Why volunteer for an unknown "rugged mission" in an unknown location? James Richardson thought he might get an overdue furlough. That didn't happen and he wound up in India, where the people and the wildlife were unlike anything he'd ever seen. As he marched toward the Himalayas, he was told to drop something he'd carried every day in the Army. (5:33)

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When James Richardson got to the jungles of Burma, he was tapped to be a messenger. He got a little nervous about approaching the lines in the dark, but the communication was good and he was OK on his own in the dark with his Thompson ready to go. The shadowy unit finally found themselves cut off by the Japanese and trapped in the village of Napumga. (6:53)