(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)


The medals and badges Pfc. Jack Sherman earned (Belgium decorations in lower display)
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

This biography is built up from several interviews over the time with Jack Sherman. It is tried to describe Jack Sherman's life with cutting as less as possible in the answers given by him to questions and presenting them to the reader as accurate as possible by also showing the intervals in the talking, showing that it isn't always easy to find the right words to describe something or that it isn't always easy to talk about things. Special thanks for making this story possible goes first of all to my friend Jack Sherman for answering my questions and providing me with an interview Jack did on September 22, 2003 with Larry Powell and an interview he did with a magazine called Vanishing Heroes, Stories from the generation that fought for freedom, Veterans Day 2003, The Bulletin. Further, special thanks goes to Jack's Belgium friend Xavier van Daele (webmaster of the following 2 websites regarding WWII: http://usairborne.be/ and http://us.army.39.45.xooit.com/index.php ) for allowing me to use parts of Jack Sherman's biography from his website. This biography is published with the approval of Jack Sherman.

John ‘Jack' Sherman was one of five brothers who served in the military during World War II. All survived the war. “One never got overseas, but three of us were in combat in Europe and one was in the Pacific,” Jack Sherman said proudly. “Between us there are 14 Campaign Stars and 2 Arrowheads (an Arrowhead signifies the recipient was in the initial assault in a particular campaign). “I was a member of the famous 101st Airborne Division, namely the 327th Glider Infantry, a Regiment within the 101st Airborne. I joined them as a replacement after the Normandy Campaign and went with them all way from Holland, Bastogne, all the way thru to the end of the war.

John ‘Jack' Sherman, was born on November 14, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan. His parents, John Francis Sherman and Olive are both originally from Cornwall, England. In 1905, Jack's father immigrated to the United States to work in a copper mine in Butte, Montana. In 1915 he returned to England after becoming a US citizen and moved back permanently to the United States with his family in 1920. They settled in Detroit and his father worked for the "Detroit Transportation Dept.". At that time, the family already had 3 children, born in England; Ronald, Marjorie and William. When settled in the US, the family expended with three more children: Kenneth, John (‘Jack') and Howard. “My childhood was varied some good and much not so good. We lived in a small house in Detroit and my dad worked during the depression but at a very low wage. Mostly we had enough food but the clothing for the younger children was all "Hand me downs". There were no luxury items. My Dad died in 1936, I was 12 years old. My mother and oldest brother Ronald moved to Butte, Montana leaving the rest abandoned. Our sister kept us together but had to release the youngest (Howard, about 11 years old) to our mother in Butte, Montana. Eventually my sister married and one by one we all went into the Army.”


Jack Sherman (right) with his brother Kenneth 'Butch' (left) and sister Margorie (middle) in Detroit, Michigan, 1942 (Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

Jack was chosen to attend Henry Ford Trade School, from which he graduated at age 17, and started working for the Naval Ordnance in military production for the duration of 18 months before joining the army. “That was a vocational school set up by Henry Ford within the Ford complex. It was for underprivileged boys. We were paid a small amount for attending the school and learned the skills to become Tool & Die Makers. I graduated in June of 1941 and was recruited to work for the Naval Ordnance. The training at Fords served me well after I got out of the service. I attended night school under the GI bill and eventually became a Manufacturing Engineer. That was my profession until I retired.”

When asked “How old were you when you received your draft notice or did you just go enlist?”, Jack replied “Well, what happened was, I as a younger man, I had the fortune, the good fortune of going to a train school, vocational school run by Henry Ford, and I took kind of good…how do you call it…train, knowledge, before I went in. And…when I was 18, which was the draft age, I was asked to go to work for the Naval, US Navy, Naval Ordnance Company, they needed machiners and so on, which was my specialty. And so I went to work for the Navy, I…think we were making torpedo heads. I was quite knowledgeable, because of my education in machinery and there weren't too many good machiners left, most of them were in the service. So I worked for the Navy, and they denied me going into the service. I went to volunteer and they said “No, you are required for the war effort to be working in the factory”. And at that time, at least for me and I think most of my friends, it was kind of a…you were sure doing your duty,…if you weren't in the military you weren't thinking about the supplies that had to be go there, and so you were, we were constantly…ourselves all of us had worked for the Navy, that were denied being able to go in…kept getting what you called “6 months deferment”, you would get a notice from the government “The Navy has requested you”, “The Navy needs you” and so on, so you can't go to the service. So it got to be…when I just was not quite 19, I just…on my own I went to the military and just before my new “deferment” came through, I volunteered for induction. You could not volunteer for head out, because they were losing track of the people that they wanted to draft, so all induct into the service. So you had to volunteer for induction and I volunteered for induction and was excepted. And so I was just short of 19 when I went in, I went in shortly after I did volunteer for induction.”

During this period of time, Jack met his future wife Phyllis Jarchow. “Because of fuel rationing we "shared the ride" (took alternate turns driving to and from work with other people that live in the same area). Phyl's sister and her husband worked at the same plant and we took turns driving to and from work. Phyllis (my wife) was 15 years old and was baby sitting (taking care of) her sister's small child and the house. One day when I went to their house I met her. She was very pretty and easy to talk to that was nice because I was shy with girls. I owned a car and a 1937 Harley Davidson motorcycle. I took her to the movies and other places just to have a companion. I do not look at her as a "girlfriend" just a nice person to be with. Most of my friends were in the Army or Navy.”

“Phyllis was the second youngest of a family of 7 children she had three brothers and three sisters. She was a very pretty girl, tall, well built and with dark hair. She was very quiet and shy. She was and is very talented and smart. She played the Hawaiian (steel) Guitar and had beautiful voice. It was nice to be with her. In recent years in thinking about when I first met her I said that "She was the first girl I had ever met that I didn't try to impress or "Show off". She tells me now that when she met me she told her mother she met the man she would marry, she didn't tell me.”

“She was 16 when I went into the Army, she said she would wait for me and she wrote me a letter  every day  while I was gone. I did not receive all the letters. We were married 3 months after I came home. Her Mother and Dad treated me like I was their favorite son. They were wonderful to me. Phyl had plenty of experience with children because she was busy babysitting her older brothers and sisters children. She is loved by all the nieces and nephews and she is the "Favorite" aunt.”

Jack Sherman enlisted in the Army in October 1943, and after 17 weeks of Infantry training and 17 weeks as an instructor, he was sent out as a replacement. In August 1944, Sherman was sent to Europe, and ended up in Redding, England. He was issued an M-1 Garand rifle and informed he was joining an elite combat unit. “An officer got up in front and said: ‘Welcome! You have just volunteered for the Airborne, and you are Glider troops,” Sherman said. “I was horrified and terrified. While jumpers had to volunteer and graduate from jump school, Glider infantry could be “volunteered”.” The troops rode into battle in unpowered gliders towed by cargo planes, and were dropped behind enemy lines. If all went well, and everyone was very lucky, the glider landed safely.

“On Sept. 23, 1943 I volunteered to be inducted into the U.S. Army after being deferred for 18 months by the Hudson Naval Ordnance Plant in Warren, Mich. My position was labeled "Crucial to the War effort". On Oct. 14, 1943 I reported to Ft. Custer, Mich. for duty. It was one month before my 20th birthday. Within one week I was on a troop train heading for Infantry Basic Training in Camp Wolters, Texas. Camp Wolters was designated as IRTC (Infantry Replacement Training Center). Camp Wolters was located near Mineral Wells, Texas. It was there I started 17 week basic Infantry Training.

In an interview with Jack, answering the question “What brought me to the 101st Airborne?”, he said It started off when I was a young men, seventeen or so, the war broke out and I just really thought that I would never go…to the service, it never really entered my mind, because I thought I was much too young. I was the second youngest of five boys and all the boys above me were in the service and so eventually in 1943, they had shut down the ability to volunteer, because they were losing so many accounces, so many fellows that supposed to be draftees. So, at that time we had to ‘volunteer' for induction, which I did in November 1943, and I went into the service…I went to Camp Wolters, TX, I didn't realize what I was getting into, but at that time they needed infantry replacements.”

“I was in an infantry replacement training center, they called it IRTC, and basically what they were doing is training replacements for the areas or units that they knew that they would have the most casualties in. And there is something that I always have to bring up being an infantryman that the infantry was comprised of….they were 6% of the total military force and they sustained 82% of the casualties, so the turnover-rate in the infantry was very high. So obviously they had replacements for the casualties they were getting and they expected. So I went into Camp Wolters, TX, there was a 17 weeks basic training course, I finished that, and was asked to stay over to be cadre and train the next bunch for 17 weeks, and after that I got what they called “Delay in Route” and that was a stopover on your way overseas.”

“My earliest recollection was being called into formation by a mean looking and acting sergeant named Sgt. MacArthur. He informed us that he was Regular Army and had been subject to a lot of abuse by civilians (probably our parents) and was going to show us and everyone that he was someone to be reckoned with. I had struck up a friendship with a college ROTC student from Madison, Wisconsin and he stood next to me in formation. Sgt. MacArthur asked if anyone knew how to handle a rifle. Having heard from my brothers never to admit or volunteer for anything I was reluctant to admit that as a young boy I had been taught the "Manual of Arms" by an old Army man that stayed at our home during the Depression, the rifle was a BB gun. My friend from Wisconsin raised his hand so I raised mine; I think we were the only two. He gave us each a rifle and began shouting out commands, boy the rifle seemed awful heavy but we were able to follow his commands. It wound up being a good move on our parts because it gave us a "Stamp of Approval". From then on we were kind of in a leadership roll. One thing I remember about Sgt. MacArthur was that he was determined to have his men in the best possible physical shape and me being a skinny 125 pound kid it was rough for me at times but I could out walk almost anyone in the unit.”

“After 17 weeks Basic Training the group was shipped out. I was promoted to Pfc. and assigned to stay on as cadre. I was assigned to a newly formed battalion as instructor with the duties of "Acting Sgt.". The next 17 weeks was a very interesting and busy time, I discovered that in many cases the teacher learns more than the student, I liked it. Often there would be men that could not make it without help and some times I would help them by carrying their backpack. In later years and in combat I often times wonder if I had really done them a favor. The training course ended about the time of "D" Day, the Normandy Invasion. Infantry replacements were a high priority. I was issued 10 day "Delay in Route" and ordered to report to Camp Kilmer for overseas duty. I spent most of my time in Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan with my girlfriend Phyllis Jarchow. Then off to Camp Kilmer, point of debarkation.”


Jack Sherman and Phyllis Jarchow in Toledo, Ohio, 1944
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

“On July 18, 1944 after an aborted sailing on a British Merchant ship the week before, we boarded a U.S. Navy destroyer to join a convoy headed for the UK. The food aboard the Navy ship was much better but rather skimpy so we soon found out that our own Navy was not above making an extra buck off their fellow service man, you could get a extra pork chop for $ 2.50, so much for "Brothers in Arms".”

After 11 days they landed in Cardiff, South Wales and then went by train to somewhere around Southampton, England to a "Repple Depple" (Replacement Depot). “On the way overseas with 10 days “Delay in Route” I went overseas as an infantry replacement and when I got to England went to what they called a “Replacement Depot”, it was commonly known by the GIs as a repple-depple. We went into the repple-depple and the camp was just filled, they just filled the camp up. They gave us new rifles with cosmoline, which is a real heavy preservative substance like an oil on them. So we cleaned our rifles, didn't even have the chance to zero ‘m in. Normandy had just taken place, so they were taking a lot of casualties in all units, because of the Invasion of Normandy and the fight across France. So the camp, there were put Bulletin Boards up and given lists of fellows who had to ship out, where you were going to go, and my name didn't show up on the roster. I couldn't believe it but we stayed over in camp and there were a few of us, and this kept repeating itself, a new bunch of guys would come into camp, they were be issued new rifles, we'd have to clean them and then they would be shipped out and leave a few of us back and the camp got more and more of the fellows that were staying behind. And eventually we had rumors going around of course that because of we weren't 21 years of age that they were gonna sent us home and wouldn't go to combat, and…..this turned out to be a farce of course, but they loaded us on a train to destine Redding, England and we were met by officers of the 101st Airborne Division, they were very obvious because there's an eagle patch that was worn on their shoulder with a banner over it, its Airborne. And when we unloaded the train we were greeted with “WELCOME TO THE AIRBORNE” and almost unanimously we said “baloney, you have to volunteer for the Airborne”, and he said “you just did”. So I got assigned to Company G, 327th Glider Infantry. We were in training camp for….I don't know how long, it was probably a month. On several occasions we got called to go make an Airborne Invasion at different places in France and so on, and they were all dry runs and were called off.”

When asked “So you became an Airborne troop without making that decision?”, Jack replied “Oh, that is exactly right, it was made for me, and you know, they say well we've got the best trained army and so on, I never rode in a glider until…my first glider ride was into combat, from England, across the Channel and dropped in Holland. I never even see the inside of a glider until then. So…but once you get on the ground, you know, your fighting is pretty much…your action they'll say, are pretty much the same as almost any infantryman..that's run, shoot, and kill the enemy if you can and not be killed.”

Jack Sherman became a runner in Company G, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. “I joined the 327th after Normandy as a replacement and was assigned to Capt. Evans as a company "Runner" and never did get to know many of the guys assigned to squads. I got to know some of them near the end of the war but then only a few. I had limited contact with Capt. Evans the company CO but dealt more with 1st Sgt. Hayden. We were all issued Jump boots, green tie string jackets with four pockets and green matching pants with large tie pocket on each leg. Later, I learned that to be in a paratroop unit it was strictly volunteer, $50.00 a month Jump pay was included. As for the glider units they did not require that you volunteer but there was no extra pay either. It soon followed.”


Jack in his Dress Uniform (1945)
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

As a replacement in a combat unit, Sherman said, he was “treated like a leper”. “You were replacing somebody's friend,” he said, “and somebody who may have been a better man than you were.” “I was with the outfit several weeks, maybe a month. I was in my bunk at the far end of a Quonset hut filled with company Hq. personnel, several guys yelled out "Anybody here by the name of Sherman?" I was reluctant to answer but did. Several voices yelled "He's back there" I heard foot steps heading my way, the gate was uneven, I strained to see who it was. When the person approached I recognized it was one of my buddies from back in Detroit, Mich. he was limping badly. I couldn't believe my eyes. There was Bob Battice a full blooded Chippewa American Indian friend from my old neighborhood. Bob was dressed in a Ranger uniform, he informed me that someone had told him what unit I was in and he hunted me down. Bob got a pass from the hospital nearby where he was recuperating from wounds that he had received fighting at Point de Hoc on "D" Day. They had put a steel plate in his head to try and repair his wounds, it affected his ability to walk. It broke my heart to see that great physical specimen in that condition. It also made me think a lot about what might be in store for me.”

In September 1944, the Allies began planning Operation Market-Garden in Holland. The operation called for three-plus airborne divisions to be dropped behind the Siegfried Line, a line of fortifications that stretched from Switzerland to the border where the Rhine enters Holland. The Allies planned to outflank the line by dropping paratroopers behind it. The Airborne troops were supposed to open a gap so that ground troops and armor could break through. On September 17, the attack started. On September 18, Pfc. Jack Sherman landed at Son, The Netherlands.

You came in to The Market Garden? Correct. In a glider? Correct. Which was almost a suicide mission? That's right… And did you know that at the time, were you aware of that? Yes, I was. The way the Airborne works, it was mentioned before, is a fact that…you..we had told the people who greeted us into the 101st, that we had to volunteer, and the response was and actually the rule at the time was, to be…the Airborne was comprised of paratroopers and glidertroopers, to be a paratrooper you had to volunteer and go through what they called a jumpschool, and…but the glidertrooper, they were both infantry, you…it was not required that you volunteered, they could volunteer you, they could assign you…and you had to serve in the glidertroops. Before…before I ever joined the glidertroops I knew enough from reading in newspapers and hearing talk around with the guys that gliders was an one way trip. It was a suicide mission that very few… of them come back and it wasn't quite that bad, but the casualties were by comparison to most fighting units…were very high, the casualty ratings were always higher in the Airborne, because you were always surrounded, you…put out with…the Airborne..you only could go into combat, well in a sense of what you could carry and…so that included food and ammunition, you had very few means of taking much heavy stuff with you. They could take a Jeep in a glider, but that's all that glider could take, maybe with a couple men, the driver and..a mechanic…or 2 soldiers with a Jeep..they can carry a small artillery piece, but they couldn't drop him with a parachute, they had to go in by glider. So consequently you went into combat light…different than a lot of mechanized units that had when that they went in on the ground they drove them, so they had trucks, Jeeps, many vehicles, and heavy guns that they could tow, we didn't have that in the Airborne. But…in the Airborne as they always say as kind of a joke, they say “well, you're surrounded, well that's what Airborne troops do”, they go in behind enemy lines and you're surrounded and there you'll be at. So it was supposed to be something well listen.. something you used to, but believe me you don't get used to that, you really don't. And so Airborne troops…are kind of pretty good of their own, I think.”

 
Pfc. Jack Sherman's Glider diorama presented to him by a friend Steve West who is an active member of the Northwest Historical Society and active re-enacter for WWII and Civil War
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

The operation was Sherman's first ride in a glider and his first time in combat. As the new guy, Sherman had to sit next to the door. During the nearly four-hour flight, every member of the 15-man crew, except for Sherman, got airsick. “The guys took off the steel shell of their helmets, threw up in them, and passed them to me,” Sherman said. “I emptied them out the door. I guess I was too scared to get sick.” “And finally on September 17th, 1944, the hidden operation that called Market-Garden, which is the Airborne Invasion of Holland. And we were assigned to go in on the first wave, which was on a Sunday. My first ride in a glider was across the Channel, across enemy lines, winding up behind enemy lines. The flight-over was something I'll never forget, it was my first ride on a glider, and the newest man in the group, scared stiff, I began to realize what my training was all about and that I might very well be killed or might have to kill people, and it was a bit upsetting to me, but that was all tramp and set aside when I was assigned to be first scout, which means you go out in front of a group and if the enemy is there he shoots at you first. And on the way over because of that I was set next to the door. There were 13 men in the glider facing, 7 on one side, 6 on the other with the door taking the place of the 7th man. So I was right at the door and at the other side of that door from me was a canvas bag and I didn't know what it was for until we got in flight. And several guys got airsick going over the Channel and took their steel helmets off. We used to wear a steel helmet with a plastic helmet liner underneath and they pulled off the steel helmet and vomit in it and then they would pass it to me so I had to dump it in the canvas bag alongside of me. Everybody on the glider I think got sick but me, and I don't know why, but it kind of took up the time and my thinking, rather than thinking were I was going into.”

The gliders attracted heavy anti-aircraft fire as soon as they got into enemy air space, and German fighter planes took a heavy toll on the clumsy aircraft. At one point, a row of machine gun bullets stitched a line right down the middle of the aisle between the soldiers' feet. “Nobody was hit, but after that, everyone sat on their rifle butts”.

“What aircraft was used to pull your glider to make it airborne? DC-3s, they called them Dakotas, and some people called them…they were a twin-engine, cargo plane, and they could either carry 28…I think 24 load of paratrooper, or they could town a glider, they couldn't do both, they didn't have the power for it, so they either pulled in a glider or took in paratroopers. And the normal procedure was..the paratroopers went in first because they could land more of them faster and secure what they called a Drop Zone for additional paratroopers to come in and when they say secure the Drop Zone, is that clear the enemy out of an area, so you wouldn't be landing right in the middle of the enemy, and clear out a Drop Zone for additional paratroopers as well as gliders. And the glider could take..13 infantrymen, a pilot, and co-pilot. They were basically…be in the glider, to crawl in the glider, is almost not true because they didn't glide, they didn't have a motor, but once they were cut loose, their weight and everything was so heavy and that they immediately headed for the ground. There was something like a maximum speed of a 145 mph, that's about the fastest they could be going without falling apart, they were nothing more than canvas, metal tubing and plywood. They were like a giant paper club at the time, fabric, just fabric over these…metal tubing, and the plywood for just in the front section where..the troops or guns or whatever the cargo was. And when they were cut loose they would be hold by a..about 250 foot long tow-rope, which was hooked to the back of the airplane and the nose of the glider. And it amazed me, when we lined up ready to take off from England to Holland, the tow-plane took off and you could just…they had the rope like a snake laid out on the ground, and the glider was quite close to the tow-plane, the DC-3, and as the tow-plane take off you could see the coils straightening out, and then when it got to attend…the aircraft, the tow-plane had enough airspeed to pull the glider of the ground, and almost immediately the glider took off and was above the plane…that amazed me. But we rode above…you were looking down at the tow-plane all the time. And once they cut you lose, it was merely reaching up, getting the held, and unhooking, and then you just headed for the ground. You didn't just glide around and look for a place to land, you had the place to land before you cut loose, because you were gonna go down right then and there. And when entered the ground, and there was wheels, but they were very small and they were inset in the skids, so the glider went in skidding us like big skies. And we went in on a newly plowed field, which was normally the ideal landing field, because it stopped you in a hurry because you didn't want to be a target and so on, but the plane was very flimsy, very flimsy, and..like I say..once you were cut loose you were going down, I mean you weren't gonna go..saw around and find a place to land, it was just “here we come”, it was…what a lot of people say a controlled crash.”


A glider in action

So a lot of the casualties were from crashes? Oh, yes. A lot of casualties from the crashes, gliders going in and maybe two of them heading for the same spot or something like that, and…also 145 mph as the maximum speed. I went in on the first wave, and that was on the 17th of September [1944], it was about a 3 hour flight across the Channel, and we took off at about noon, so we landed something like...between 3.00-4.00 o'clock in the afternoon, on a Sunday afternoon. And we went in and we had as a nice clear day,..and we had fighter escort, and so we…the only thing we got hit with was some ground fire, because we travelled about…pff..30 miles or so over enemy territory before we cut loose. And the next day it got a little bit cloudy, of course we were…they can why us, on the first day, on the first wave, which usually catches it, and we went in with some casualties, but nothing like the second day. The second lift they called, the second day, the weather was not good and German fighters were out. And I think it was just terrifying for me to sit there on the ground and the German fighters were cutting the gliders out of the air like a turkey shoot. And we didn't have fighters that could get out in that kind of weather to fly cover for them. So the first wave then, to be in that, was a blessing, in disguise maybe, but from all gliders…it was actually the weather got so bad it was like 23 days before the last people...gliders were coming in, bringing in artillery pieces and things, equipment that they could bring in later on.”

When Sherman's glider was about 30 miles into enemy territory, it was cut loose. “We landed in a plowed flied, going 95 mph,” Sherman said. “We ended up against a wire fence. We were already taking some small arms fire, so I busted the door open and headed to the nearby woods to give cover fire.” Sherman started firing his M-1 at the enemy. “I felt something touch me,” he said. “I turned around and there was a Dutch woman with a pitcher of fresh milk, trying to serve the Americans. I was too scared to take any.” “We finally landed in Holland after going through some enemy fire, ack-ack and small arms, and so on. We went into Holland, landed in a plowed field and my first movement was to have to get out of the glider and run for cover and protect my buddies as they were getting out. There was some resistance, but not an awful lot. And I got to say I was absolutely terrified, I… couldn't even begin to describe how, you know, frightening it is, but you have a job to do, and you either do it, or you don't come back.”

On September 17, 1944, the Division seized and held part of the Eindhoven-Arnhem corridor for 10 days against heavy odds. After gathering all the combat-ready soldiers, Sherman's unit was double-timed seven miles from the Landing Zone to Veghel, a trouble spot in the operation. “We dug in around a church and then a heavy mortar barrage started,” Sherman said. “It was a walking barrage, and I could figure out when and where the shells would land.” The soldiers were told to get out if they could, so Jack Sherman timed the shells and got away unscathed. A “good portion” of the Battalion was lost in that action, Sherman said. Later that day [September 17, 1944] or next we attack woods, clear out Krauts and take prisoners. They told us in the briefing before we took off that the Germans in Holland were sub standard troops. All very old or very young soldiers that were sick. Many of them did not have weapons or ammunition. The lying Bastards!!! We had a Dutchman from the resistance with us for a while. I did not talk with him. After the TERRIBLE shelling in the churchyard at Veghel I heard two Dutch resistance men say that they had killed the collaborators that gave the Germans our position in the churchyard. We lost about 80 men I think it was Friday, Sept. 22nd. Don Rich was one of the guys that had to return to the churchyard the next morning to help ID the dead. It was a terrible thing for him. In Holland there were MANY very bad experiences. It seemed that every time we would go into an orchard to bivouac the Krauts would put artillery in on us. The worst single shelling was in the churchyard at Veghel. The fights we had in Ophuesden were very bad.”


Pfc. Jack Sherman
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

Sherman's group ended up in Zettin. The roads were all on the tops of the dikes, so they could only move at night. The soldiers were taken to the rear once, for hot showers, and a few times for hot meals. “We fought in Holland for 70 days, through all sorts of weather, mostly it was dark and wet and as an infantryman you sleep on the ground. In Holland was a unique experience, because… in the only way you can travel in Holland is on the dikes, which is where the roads are, most of the land is under sea level, and as you walk on the dikes you completely exposed [yourself] to the enemy, the German. So we would only be able to move around at night. The main things I remember about Holland was that the nights were so very dark, cold and damp. I was there for over 70 days and during that time I only remember having two hot meals (from the British mess) and was able to take one shower.”

“Now this was September and October 1944? It's a…what we tried to do..the Market-Garden Campaign was an Airborne Campaign, and supported by British infantry…I mean British..mechanized units. And we landed 30 miles inland from the Belgium border, the British tanks and so on were waiting at the Belgium border and as soon as we landed they broke through to us, and the objective was being at Holland is so much…the roads, the only roads you can travel on are the dikes, which are the high…the dikes that they built up to keep the seawater out..and keep their fields dry or the amount of mush they need for the farming, so as it so happened, being that the dikes were at high land and you were controlled, like grids…roads ran on top of the dikes. Well, the men of the British…sergeant..with the mechanized units down the roads, the Germans set up just ambush, they know they couldn't go cross-country and things like that….and there were bridges to go across channels that fed all of their farmland and so on. So it was our job to capture the bridges, and hold them so that the armor would have a way of getting across these channels, and make a fast attack to the north, but as that happened they got held up because they were on top of the dikes, they…they were sitting ducks I guess you call it, and so they were constantly being held up. The Germans were heavily..more heavily equipped than we were, the Airborne, so if they didn't want us to hold a bridge they poured in on you and sometimes blow it up on you, or whatever. So it was a real difficult task maintaining..trying to hold a bridge…….till British got through.”

“Who was the British commander in charge? Montgomery was the basic British commander. The Americans have always…the Americans that were in the Airborne always were of the opinion that if it had been American armored units, Patton or wild others, they had made the run. And..it was kind of a butt-stop campaign to be honest with you and from more I've read and so on, and…I know we did our part, and the Dutch people in that area, we've..I've gone back a couple of times, you talk about…I mean..you get the feeling…that you're something special, because they refer to you as “mijn liberator” and there is much more…much more appreciation by the Dutch people than any other people in the world including the Americans, the Americans could take a lesson from them, really, they really could and so uhh…but we liberated a section of Holland on September the 17th, 1944, and other than that… “Hell's Highway” as we called it, Corregidor, that we liberated, the rest of Holland [except for the south part of The Netherlands] was not liberated until 5 months later, May the 5th of the following year, so the people we liberated are kind..feel a little kind of special, and we were kind of special for liberating them. It's..rewarding to talk to them.”

“So was it a successful Campaign or not? No, it was not, it was never considered a success, for many reasons. The way the operation worked was..there were 2 American Airborne Divisions, the 101st and the 82nd , and 1st British Airborne Division, the 1st British Airborne, along with a…some Polish paratroopers. And what happened was the British were the deepest in to the invasion, and they suffered real bad casualties, and the Germans…held them off, I think it was 8000 men went in and 2000 came out. And…we did not…sorry to say, we did not obtain the objective we started for, but we did keep the Germans…we caused a lot of casualties, we…kept several German divisions busy that would have been hitting our troops down in France.”

In November 1944, the 101st Airborne Division returned to France for a rest and the unit was supposed to be refitted and get replacements. But in December, the Germans launched a surprise winter offensive in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and started the Battle of the Bulge. “They loaded us in trucks and took us off,” Sherman said. “We didn't have winter uniforms, few men had overshoes and there were almost no overcoats.” After riding all night, the Division found itself at the crucial transportation hub of Bastogne, Belgium. German and Allied leaders saw it as an extremely important junction. Whoever held the town controlled access to the key supply port to Antwerp, Belgium. “Well, after 70 days there we were relocated to a camp in Mourmelon, France, which is in the champagne country of France, and figured we were gonna be there to get some rest and relaxation. I did not get a pass to Paris or England. We just pretty much rested. Went into Rheims for a little champagne. Did not seem like we had much time for anything. And as it happened… the Battle of the Bulge took place.”

“So from Market-Garden, then you moved on to Bastogne? Well, what happened was we were relieved by the British in Market-Garden,….we fought..in Holland for about 70, 75 days, something like that, and of course we were pretty well beat up, we were probably down less than half strength, through casualties. So they were gonna take us to a rear area and here comes the infantry replacements and so we were supposed to get many…we were supposed to get our strength built back up, what we called a “fighting strength”. And as this so happened we went back to a place they called Mourmelon Le Grand France, which is in the Champagne country. And I may have mentioned this before, but instead of going..being refreshed with equipment and replacements. Two weeks went by and we didn't get them or a very few of them if we did get any, and..The Bulge..the breakthrough as they called it, by the Germans on December 15th …happened. So we had to wind up going in, filling in, Bastogne. So that was…we had about a 2 weeks lay-over from the end of Holland till the beginning of The Bulge for us.”

Jack and his son John (Jack or Jackie) Sherman in the Ardennes in September 1992
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

On December 19, 1944, Jack was sent to Bastogne. The roads were jammed with fleeing Americans trying to escape the German advance. “At first it looked like a big staging area,” Jack Sherman said. “We headed down the road toward the fighting, and saw loads of troops going the other way. They looked horrified and terrified. They were retreating, so we scrounged whatever we could from them.” Within a few hours, Bastogne was surrounded by the advancing Germans. Sherman was stationed at one of the outlying positions in the town of Marvie, Belgium. “I remember the trip in a LARGE stake truck, don't think there was room to sit down, slow cold long time between pee calls. Some guys hurt from overhanging tree limbs. It was dark, cold, and we were miserable. We unloaded at Mande-Saint Etienne at about 1 AM. It was dark & cold. We were trying to get warm by building fires. I had no idea where the Krauts were. I saw some stragglers along the roads, looked sad and beaten we tried to get ammo from them, they had no weapons. Many were in a dazed condition very little talk, only that the Krauts were coming and killing everyone. A few hours later we were heading to Marvie. Think we started getting into position at about 10 -11 PM when we got hit hard. We were digging in and it looked like the whole German Army was coming right at us, they got halfway down the hill and all hell broke out. We moved back to some farmhouses.”

The acting 101st Airborne Division Commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, made history with his classic reply “NUTS”! when the Germans demanded surrender on December 22, 1944. “On rare occasions when I would see Chuck Fisher, Oscar Schachter, or Jim Shaw it was like seeing a long lost friend. I got to know a few of the old timers mostly by sight and not by names. They were a great bunch of guys that I always knew I could depend on but could never get close to. The surrender party came into "F" company sector a couple hundred yards south. I did not see them but was aware of something happening. Things got quiet. I don't remember when or how I heard of the Nuts reply. The cold was almost unbearable when we had time to think about it and not how to stay alive. My feet were frostbite so I had to be out of action for maybe a day I don't know for certain. Today, I still had foot problems. I try to enjoy the life I have more now because of Bastogne. I think many times, it could not be true and that no one could survive that. It is amazing what humans can endure.”

For the next two days , Jack Sherman was involved in heavy fighting as the Germans tried to crush the resistance. “It was a melee,” he said. “The road was blocked by a knocked-out German tank, and we dug in and stayed there and took a pounding for several days.” At one point, the Germans got within 100 yards of Sherman, but the Americans held their positions. “If we would have moved back, the Germans would have counterattacked, we were outnumbered about 15 to 1. We knew we were in trouble, but we never heard we were surrounded.”  

“At Christmas, we were told to get rid of anything that could tie us to back home.” Pfc. Jack Sherman tossed his personal effects except for his New Testament and a picture of his girlfriend, Phyllis Ann Jarchow, which he hid in a British “Players Please” cigarette tin. Pfc. Sherman was disobeying orders, but he considered those two items indispensable. “Phyllis had written: ‘All my love, Phyllis', on the picture. She wrote to me every night, and I got a stack of letters at every mail call. Thoughts of her, my Bible and the mail from home kept me alive. I still have that Bible.”

“Now, you are surrounded by the Germans, it's cold, you're hungry, your commander comes to you and he says “get off your identification off your person that if you get captured….”, but you didn't do that, you kept one piece close to your heart, what was that? Yes, yes, it was a picture of my girlfriend. I had met a girl prior to going into the service and that she was something really special, and I've said many many times, and for you grandkids that's grandma, the kids might be looking at this haha, but I've always said that what..some of the main things that kept me alive was getting mail from home or..anybody and thinking how great it would be back..to get back to Phyl, my wife. So, when they came around and they said looks like we might be in trouble and at that time there was word out, how sure it was I don't know, that the Germans were getting information about your families back home and contacting the families..in some sort of a blackmail scheme, I don't know what it was..but contacting the families of prisoners that they would take, and using it for propaganda, I don't really know, I never did really understand, so they come around and they said anything that could identify you or….yes, identify any place back in the States or any person back in the States you were to get rid of..burn, whatever. I had one little pack, it was a British cigarette tin for “Players Please” cigarettes, and the British they always had a habit of liking the American cigarettes and they would pill for all our cigarettes and leave us with theirs, and if you...I was a smoker at the time, and smoking a British cigarette is like puffing on a pencil, it is so hard and everything, but they packed them in tins, and I saved one of these tins and I had all of my stuff in there, my personal stuff, I even had my little copy of the New Testament, Bible, which was issued to us, and so what I did was I took the Bible out, and I don't know if I burned but I destroyed my driver's license, which is a big thing for me you know and whatever other identification I had that would tie me to any evidence at home, but I just couldn't part of the picture of Phyl…it was trim to fit in the bottom of that cigarette case and..I can remember, she…“all my love, Phyl”……

“And she is here with you today, tonight? Always with me, for 75 years and……she has been real worth fighting for..and a good broad. So I just couldn't let that I have, I had some misgivings about it, but then I said well you know there's no address on it, it all it was what Phyl wrote “All my love”, and…so I kept it. And as it happened…we wouldn't had to burn everything anyway, because we held off and I was not taken prisoner, obviously…

“Did you expect to survive that night? I guess….pfff…you know I don't, I was always afraid of getting….My biggest fear was, and I think is true for almost every infantryman, is artillery. The artillery shells come in and they have what they called tree-bursts, air-bursts, they have..all sorts of bursts, and what comes in..you feel so helpless, you…there is nothing to see to fight back at and the artillery..it comes in and bursts and tares bodies up and just does horrible, horrible..things to the human body..and mind. And……..that always, always, terrified me. The bullets, they seem like if a guy got hit by a bullet, unless he got hit in the head or you know a real vital spot, you get hit a lot of places and not die from it, and not even you know be seriously wounded. The bullets were kind of clean, the bullet wounds you, but kind of clean compared to the artillery, shrapnel that would get you. So yes,…….I was..I was feared for my life, but mostly, mostly during the artillery barrages, other than that I don't think I feared them, I was always afraid, always afraid,……but I think if you talk to any infantryman, they were mostly…mostly afraid of artillery.”

Inside Bastogne, conditions were grim. Cloudy skies and blizzards prevented resupply and grounded support. Food, medical supplies and ammunition were scarce. “How we survived, I'll never know. It was horribly cold – your body heat made the sides of the foxhole icy. I was afraid to take my boots off.”

The siege was ended on December 26, 1944, when elements of General George Patton's 3rd Army broke through the German lines. Patton was prepared for a German offensive, and within 48 hours of getting the order to attack, had moved lead elements of his force of 250,000 men and their equipment to Bastogne. Shortly after the siege ended, Sherman was sent behind the lines to bring up some new replacements. By then, Pfc. Jack Sherman understood why veterans shied away from the new people, and he didn't relish his chance to get away from the front lines. “The replacements would bunch up and do things like lighting cigarettes after dark,” he said. “It was dangerous to be around them.” That night, the Germans attacked, and American casualties were heavy. “During a lull in the firefight, one of the men distributed ammo,” Pfc. Sherman said. “He looked for the glowing ends of hot rifle barrels and that's how he identified where the foxholes were. The next morning about half of the new replacements were gone. We didn't even know their names.”

“I can remember I had to go pick up a bunch of replacements and it was though, really though being a replacement, because you..never..you were almost never accepted by the old-timers. I was always amazed at the treatment that the replacements got and in the infantry, I think the infantry basically turned over 150%, in other words the original guys if you went that way were killed, there were 3 different organizations, in other words 1 total group would be killed, and another group would come in and they would be killed or casualties if they couldn't fight anymore, and then the 3rd group would come in, so it was like a 150 or more percent casualties. And so you constantly had new people coming in and as the war progressed they were getting so that they had less and less infantry training. And the thing was that a replacement would go into a unit, and he was exactly what the word implies, a replacement, he was a replacement for someone who got killed or injured so bad that they couldn't function anymore, and they kind of had a special……effect, or treatment maybe…by the old-timers, because you can imagine a bunch of guys train together and they get to know each other, they know a lot of each other personally, they know who they can trust, who they can count on to be at the…side when they need him and so on. And then he gets..a person gets wounded or killed, and they bring in the newcomer, well with the old guys that survived…nobody is gonna be so good as their old buddy, and so..and they don't know if they can trust him or not, so…and then too there is something in there is that they don't want to get too close to a guy, because he might not be around tomorrow and…So, the replacements almost are like lepers, stay away from them in a lot of cases, so..as a replacement…I was a replacement as I mentioned before, and all through my time in the 101st , which is 18 months in combat, I only got close to a new..a hand full of guys, and….because you knew them, you knew they were there, and maybe they wouldn't be there the next day, or whatever, so..and you were too busy kind of taking care of your own skin. When you got into a fire fight or whatever, there was always certain guys you'd like to have..you wish on your back,..to cover your back..and..when you got replacements then, they were…they didn't take the war seriously, and they would bunch up which is a bad thing to do in combat, they would maybe smoke cigarettes which is a bad thing to do in combat, and they didn't realize just how…how..how dangerous it was. And I can remember one case, I was a company-runner, and it was part of my job to carry messages when you couldn't get through on radio and things like that, take message from one group to another, and also fight as an infantryman, but also to bring up replacements, and the replacements…the people who would deliver the replacements, usually in trucks, they wouldn't get anything near the fighting, they would drop the replacements off..you know 3 miles back. And I can remember one time I…the Company Commander said..that I was to go back to a certain location and pick up recruits that were coming in, and it was in…it was after Bastogne, so it must have been down in somewhere in France and we were still engaged with the enemy, and I went back through woods and whatever, it was about a 3 mile trip and I picked up, I swear to God…the kids never had a razor to their face, they looked so..so young, in reality they were maybe a year or two of that younger than me, and…all brand new clothes, all helmets..a lot of them had still the numbers chalked on them, the helmets to identify them and so on, and get..half a dozen of them or a dozen of them, and say “okay follow me back to the front lines”, and you know that they didn't realize what they were getting into, so you had..alright, they'd be talking, bunching up, smoking a cigarette, and I'd said that doesn't go, that doesn't go in combat, you can't do that, you got to keep separate, because…a group of guys is just a..real good target. And..so you got to stay separate at some..and I can remember walking the guys back through the woods, and looking at them, and almost feeling sorry for them. And...I told them you know “follow me, do as I do, if I hit the ground you hit the ground, if I run you run, no..I'll shoot the first guy that smokes..lights up a cigarette, and I shoot any of you that..bunch up, because I don't want you drawing firing on me, and I lived this long and I want to stay alive”. And..they just didn't know and there must have been a certain amount of fright, there to the uncertainty, so it seemed a little bit comfortable to bunch up, but I had a hack of a time getting them back, and when I got them back to the unit, I took them to the Captain, the Company Commander, and here are the recruits..the replacements, “okay, take so many over to this squad, and take so many over to this squad” and so on and so on. So I would take them over, wouldn't even know their names, next morning maybe half of them wouldn't be around, due to some stupid thing, not be in the hole under..get in the hole under cover when the shelling started and so on, and it wasn't uncommon. You had guys, I still think to this day, the 101st got a reputation…that no other outfit in history has ever got and..they did a great job and they had some real good soldiers in it, but I often think of the families of some of those guys, they served and died for the 101st , nobody ever knew them…never knew who they were, never got their names down on a roster or anything else like that, so there're a lot of guys over there that were entitled to wear the patch of the 101st , but never got it, and…to see a young guy..often younger than myself..but to see a young guy who didn't even get a chance to defend himself…no longer with us, so..its..something I think about quite often….and as a lot of families who grieved over their sons, and never know what they really did…..and I don't know why I am here and they are not…I don't know that….I can guess…..but something that I just…what ain't to think of anybody..anybody having to go through, and I just wished to the devil, I just wished more than anything, that the people who were…in positions to make big decisions would have to go through what some of these guys, even in Iraq, are doing, I don't think their decisions would be the same if..the burden of doing the fighting, doing the killing and being killed was..on them, if they..they thought they had to be part of it, rather than sent in these guys, it's a shame. And the thing is, too, that a lot of people maybe gonna think about, but I do, this is a great country, best..there is a lot of false..but it's the best in the world, but can you..would you ever stop to think..how great we would be..if some of our very best weren't laying in the ground, in foreign countries, those are the guys you know..that you know there's a lot of them that..that did their share and more, and didn't make it back, and if they would..could have been productive people and models for our society, I think this country would be..a lot different, I really do….to bad…….but……”

“And I always had people asked me “what is the Battle of the Bulge?”, simply put it was a bulge in the line, our defensive line, the Germans attacked and our line gave way and created a bulge in the line, instead of it being in a straight line, and the Germans overran our troops on the 15th or 16th of December 1944. And I guess the Command was afraid that too many of our important objectives…seaports and that would be overrun, so they put the 101st Airborne in Bastogne, which later became known as “the hole in the donut” and we were told to hold. And we went into Bastogne by trucks about on an overnight ride from France where we were at, and it came on so fast that we didn't have time to get the right amount of ammunition, the right clothing,… all supplies in general. We went in by trucks and when we hit Bastogne, as almost as soon as we got off the trucks, we were surrounded. They knew that the area was…that the town was gonna be surrounded and they merely wanted to make us stop them, slow the Germans down. And there were a lot of things that happened, that had real bad consequences on us, our medical unit got whipped out by an ambush, they were half… killed… half or more killed, and the other half were pretty much taken prisoner and used as medics for the German casualties. We were encircled with odds of 15 to 1, with heavy…real real heavy…German equipment…they outgunned us. We had to hold…we held, for about 10 days…we…we were as I say surrounded, and a lot of us thought we'd never get back, but… I…we made it. That is one of the battles that the 101st is going for down through history…I guess they…they…will be knowing for their stand at Bastogne. While we were in Bastogne, it was very very difficult, it was… no medics, our wounded were just being set aside and treated with sulfa powder or whatever they happened to have there. We hung on, the weather was bitter cold, the Germans were getting edgier almost all the time, we did not have that mentioned proper clothing and… a lot of us suffered from frostbite and other things like that from the cold, but many of us survived. And…I just…I guess I am learning more about it every day, from books and also from talking with a few buddies that I have left. It wasn't a fun time, scared, most of the time…and I had some…some pleasant experiences. I came across my brother, who was in the combat, surely after we left Bastogne. We went on to fight down and…France.”  

“So at 19, a few months later, you find yourself at Bastogne? Well, it wasn't a few months later, I went to…as I mentioned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center, so I think that in…let's see..I actually went into service in November 1943…that was close to my 19 th birthday…and in September the following year, which would be what..about 10 months, in 10 months I was in a glider…on my way to the Invasion of Holland. So, its 10 months from the time I actually was sworn in until the time I saw my first combat. I was in combat for roughly 18 months, I was in Bastogne could be about a year or 13 months…that's the time I found myself in Bastogne, almost to the day.”


Kenneth 'Butch' Sherman (left) and Jack Sherman (right) at Hitler's Hideout, Bavaria, July 14, 1945
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

Fighting continued in the Ardennes Forest area until January 18, 1945. From there, the 101st Airborne Division moved through the Alsace (Hagenau area) and the Ruhr Valleys. Pfc. Jack Sherman was on guard duty in Alsace when he saw his brother and called out: “Hey, Butch!” It was his brother Ken, who was serving with the 103rd Infantry Division. “Ken heard I might be in the area, so he stole the chaplain's Jeep to come look for me. Ken figured the chaplain probably wouldn't prosecute him if he got caught”, Jack said. “My brother Ken (a.k.a Butch) who was 18 months older than me was a rifleman in the 103rd Div. and had come up thru Southern France late in the invasion. We had just arrived in the area and I was assigned guard duty at the company CP. While on duty, it was turning dusk, I observed a jeep drive by to my front. Jeeps were a bit rare in our outfit so I thought it might be a high ranking officer and kept an eye on it. For some reason that I can not explain I thought "That looks like my brother and yelled out "Hey Butch". The jeep came to a abrupt halt and backed up a bit. As soon as the drivers feet hit the ground I knew it was my brother Ken. Unbelievable!!! I ran up to him and threw my arms around him, my big brother was there with me. WOW!!!! Ken's first words were "Damn it Jack, when are you going to shave"? We talked and he confessed that when he heard my outfit was next to his he "borrowed" the Chaplain's jeep to find me. Knowing a little about Army rules & justice I was concerned for him. He told me not to worry because he figured that if he got caught the Chaplain would not prosecute. That's my big brother. Our paths crossed a couple more times before we came home but nothing matched that meeting while I was on guard duty.”

The Christmas period is for Jack always a special period of the year. “This time of the year has a very special meaning for me, I remember the cold and my buddies that suffered along with me with little or no complaints. It is truly an honor to have served with so many Great men. I am here to enjoy the holidays because of the sacrifices of Harold Baker and others like him. I am forever grateful.”

At Mourmelon Le Grand France, Jack received permission to visit his brother in London, England. “Brother Bill (William) was the second oldest and was a T-5 Sherman tank driver with Hq. & Hq. Co. 3rd BN 67th Armored Regt., 2nd Armored Div. Was with the unit in the States and from North Africa, thru to Berlin except for the time he was wounded (Jan. 3, 1945) in the battle to retake Houffalize. I think he was the only survivor of the tank crew. We never talked about the circumstances of when & how he got hit (He died in 1968 at age 47). I did get a pass to visit him in the hospital in England but I do not remember when. In fact it is one of the things that concerns me. I don't remember how I got to England. The first night in England I stayed with my Dad's youngest sister in Wimbledon and I think that was the night the last V-2 hit London. I remember and have picture of the time with my brother but the time.. Trip and many other things are a Black-out for me. It may have been when we were in Mourmelon.”


William 'Bill' and Jack Sherman
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

“We just kind of rolled across Germany, in trucks and Ducks. Mostly I remember the hordes of German soldiers on the roads surrendering en-masse. They clogged the roads. The stupid bastards. I had very little contact with them, I couldn't be decent to the bastards after what I saw what they had done to other humans. We had orders not to fraternize and I had no desire to do so. In most cases we passed up souvenirs because we were more concerned about carrying food and ammo. I saw some of the labor camps but was more aware of the inmates wandering around in a daze and begging food and any comfort that they could find (makes me cry even as I write this, the dirty bastard Krauts).”

In March 1945, the 101st Airborne Division captured Hitler's retreat, the Eagle's Nest, at Berchtesgaden. Sherman was at the Eagle's Nest when the war was over, and he helped guard looted art treasures that were being kept in caves. “I went into Germany and as known, well as known to me, and as known to many now that the 101st took the Grand Prize of Hitler's hideout. Hitler wasn't there when we went in, in fact it was almost undefended. But we took Hitler's hideout, and…it seemed like…there were times we almost delighted in breaking up anything that was still in one piece, just to take it out on…make it up for what we'd gone through and so on. But…we had to do such things as, such as guarding Hermann Goring's art treasure. They were gathered up and put on display in a large building in Koningsee near Berchtesgaden. The 327th or at least part of it was assigned to guard the treasures while they were on display for visiting dignitaries. I had little to no education about art and to me the items on display, mostly on large temporary tables looked more like a "Swap Meet" to me rather than art treasures.”


Pfc. Jack Sherman, Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, July 1945
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

The 101st Airborne was preparing for an airborne assault on Japan, however Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. “I do not remember where I was when the war ended and it didn't matter much because I thought we would go directly to the Pacific. I found out some time later [July 1945] that we were relocated at the request of Gen. George Patton to ward off a threat by the Russians to make a land grab in the Linz, Austria sector. Duty in Goldegg was light and consisted more a time of recreation at the local lake and surrounding area. While there we were taken in groups to Salzburg, about 40 miles for our qualifying glider flights to maintain out flight pay status. As luck would have it my older brother Ken was stationed in Salzburg, he had been transferred from the 103rd Inf. Div. to a 4.2 Chemical Mortar outfit that was there to dispose of any poison gas that was stored by the Germans in that area. On a few occasions I managed to hitch a ride to Salzburg to visit my brother while parts of our unit were taking their required flights. My best buddy Don Rich usually went along with me. Passes were not being issued to leave Goldegg and I wanted to spend some time with my brother, so I asked the CO for permission to go to Salzburg. He told me of the restrictions but added that he probably wouldn't' miss me if I was to go. He warned me that it would be an unauthorized leave and would be bad for the whole outfit if I got caught. I decided to take the chance. Don Rich would go along with me. We hitched a ride in a passing GI two & half ton truck for the 40 mile trip. During the trip I experienced terrific pain in my lower stomach. When the driver dropped us off at my brothers barracks I was doubled over with severe pain. Ken was worried and got the unit medic to look at me. The medic said he did not know what the problem was and said I should report to the Army hospital in Salzburg. I refused telling them that it would screw up the situation for everyone if I was reported there without proper authorization. Once again my brother "borrowed" the Chaplain's Jeep and drove me & Don back to Goldegg. He drove me right to our Aid Station, I was still in terrific pain, they examined me and put me in a ambulance and rushed me right back to Salzburg to the Army hospital. Brother Ken followed behind in the "borrowed" Jeep. Once in the hospital they suspected that it was a gall bladder attack and scheduled me for an operation the next morning, I was scared stiff. The next morning two orderlies came into the room and said they were there to prepare me for the operation. The pain was gone and I was really scared and strongly objected. The commotion got the attention of a Army doctor that reluctantly listened to my claims and of my steadfast objection to undergoing an operation. He reexamined me and determined that the operation would not be necessary. I felt that I had been saved.”


Jack Sherman at the General Hospital in Salzburg, Austria in August 1945
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

Jack Sherman soon again found himself in an ambulance. “In the ambulance was four stretchers, upper and lower two on each side, I was in the lower side and across and above me was a beautiful American girl. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was almost like a dream after such a long time to see and be near a pretty girl that spoke like the girls that I had dreamed about. She leaned over and looked at me and asked me something about the 101st and the action that I had seen, the two officers didn't approve and tried to cut into the conversation. She politely shut them up by saying that I reminded her of her brother and she was interested in what I had to say. It was awkward the whole 90 mile trip. After we were admitted to the general hospital in Munchen for processing and release, the girl looked me up and we talked quite a bit, "what a thrill". As luck would have it her troop was in Munchen doing a show and she was able to rejoin them there. It was a musical variety type show. I was not confined to a bed and spent my time talking with and helping some of the guys that were confined to beds. She stopped at the hospital to invite me to come to the stage door of the theater and ask for her so that I could see the show. That night I showed up at the stage door and she escorted me in to a front row center seat. She proved to me that American girls are the world's greatest. She was a real moral booster for me.”

“After the war was over and we left Goldegg, Austria (on occupation duty) we went to Sens, France (some of the division was in Auxerres) it was from that camp that they started to send the "High Pointers" home in whatever units that were going home.” Pfc. Sherman joined his outfit in Sens, France, after he left the hospital in Munchen. During this period, he received permission for a one-week visit to Switzerland. After the war, we had to stay over for a while, for an Army of Occupation, and we were…non-combatants at the time, but…today as I am talking about this, we have troops in Iraq, troops in Afghanistan, they have troops around the earth…and supposedly the war is over, but it's not, they're an Army of Occupation and…we are hearing every day in our newspaper…this is just for your information this the 22nd of September 2003, and…I read about these soldiers that are killed by ambush and so on, by enemy…by enemies of the United States. We went through the same thing in Europe, a lot of people died after the war by ambushes and fanatics who…and a count I don't believe was ever made of those so…wars are pretty much the same, whether they are fought today, or 50, 60 years ago, and we lost some men through…what do you call it..terrorists..it wasn't called terrorists at the time, but we lost people through them, and…so it's not too odd, it's a similar.”

“What feelings did you have towards the German population in common and in the zone you occupied? And, when Germany surrendered and the soldiers which were your enemies before suddenly weren't your enemies anymore, what feeling did you have towards your former enemies after their surrender? “I don't really remember what my thoughts were about the German soldiers before going into combat. I do remember that they were the enemy and we had to defeat them. As for my feeling after the war and know I could write a book and it would all be bad. I have had a lot of contact with Krauts since the war and I do not like what I know and have seen. Far too many of them and many Limeys along with them view the war as a soccer match. Now that it is over you pat the other guy on the back and say "Good Show". Well I don't feel that way I hate the stupid bastards that have that attitude. One of the very best and realistic scenes in the "Band of Brothers" series is when Pvt. Webster is riding in the truck and yelling at all the Krauts that are marching by in surrender. He berates them and tells them how stupid they are. I can really relate to that. That's what I did. When the Krauts were surrendering en mass as we went thru Germany all that could would Buddy up to us and say how they would now join with us to beat the Russians, I wanted to kill every one of the Bastards. After the war I worked for a Swiss company that sold industrial equipment, some of it was German. I had contact with many Krauts. A very few I liked. Of all the thousands that I have met only one or two ever acknowledged that they or their families were aware of what was going on with the labor and concentration camps and EVERYONE hated HITLER. "BULLSHIT"!!!! From where I sit the Kraut mentality has not changed, the bastards still think they are the super race. They don't accept the fact that they are not and think that they will somehow prevail. I like the old saying "Don't get mad, get even”."

Jack Sherman is still in contact with a person who was a slave laborer for the Germans. “I am in contact with a man who worked for our unit, he was a DP (displaced person and slave labor for the Krauts) and he did tailoring for the unit while we were in France in 1945 waiting to come home. He returned to Yugoslavia and is now retired and lives on the island of Rab in Croatia.”


Pfc. Al Borzymowski (left), Pfc. John 'Jack' Sherman (middle) and Pfc. James Oswald (right)
Company G, 327th GIR, 101st Airborne Division
Sens, France, September 1945

(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

The 101st Airborne Division was disbanded and Pfc. Jack Sherman was transferred to Company G, 325th GIR, 82nd Airborne Division in November 1945 and sent home in December of that same year. Jack Sherman rode back to the United States on the Queen Mary and arrived in New York City. The troops took part in a ticker tape parade in downtown Manhattan on January 12, 1946. “The guys looked sharp,” Jack Sherman remembers proudly. “Twelve days later I was a civilian. I was glad to be out and I didn't want anything to do with the military.” As many of you know I served in combat with the 101st Airborne Div. There was always a bit of rivalry between the two Divisions [101st and 82nd Airborne]. In Sept. 1945 the 101st was disbanded in Sens, France all those with enough "points" to be discharged from both the 82nd and 101st were sent home leaving "low" pointers behind. The 82nd Airborne was designated to be the unit to make the Victory Parade in NYC to celebrate the end of the War. The top brass wanted all participants in the parade to be "Airborne" so they transferred me along with others into the 82nd to fill the ranks. I have heard it explained why they needed men from the 101st and I am not sure which of the following reasons was the real one:
1) Some say that guys in the 82nd couldn't tell their left foot from their right.
2) Others say that the 82nd guys could not count cadence.
3) Others say that they didn't think they could find NYC without help from the 101st.
4) Others say that they would not be able to follow the parade route and wind up in New Jersey.”

Jack received several decorations for his time in the military. “The Bronze Star was awarded to  all  that  earned  the Combat Infantry Badge or Combat Medical Badge by Executive Order 11046 in 1947 supported by Gen. Marshall. Those that already had the Bronze Star were awarded a Oak Leaf Cluster. Since that time when someone is awarded a Bronze Star for heroic action they are awarded it with a "V" device. Gen. Marshall said that the Infantry deserved special recognition because they paid the biggest price and endured the most hardship. Some thing I point out to students "The Infantry was only 6% of the total number in the military and they sustained 82% of the casualties. Note: I am most proud of my Combat Infantry Badge and the Presidential Citation. The CIB because it is the least contaminated award and the Presidential Citation because I was with the unit when they earned it.”

“Where was your proudest moment while you were there? Was there a moment like that? Was there joy? Joy? Something that made you feel good? Some reward? Getting home, getting home………..one of the things was I was damn proud to be…a soldier, I was damn proud that I got to do..you know something….and…I guess, maybe a little egotistical..a bit in there, but I was with..I fought with the 101st, there were 2 real active Airborne Divisions in the military, there was 13th Airborne that never got into combat, there was 11th Airborne that was somewhat active in the pacific, but the real Airborne…the guys who…fought and were successful as Airborne troops was the 101st and the 82nd, there was the 17th Airborne that never really had the chance to show themselves but I am sure they would have done a great job, but as a member of the 101st …you know you were kind of looked up to and there was a certain amount of pride in that. And I had many occasions, just in recent times, to recognize that how..you know what a reputation was, but one of the things was that at the end of the war, after the war was over I should say, they..they started sending the men home, they had a point system to see who got out first, and you got points for being married, you got points for being overseas, you got points for certain decorations that you earned, wounded, being wounded and so on, points for children if you had them and dependents and so on, and there was a point system whereby you had a point level..you were first to be discharged and then they would work down till the lower points. But as this so happened, they were..had intended to sent the 101st home as a unit to make the Victory Parade, which was…you know this was to say the war is over and we have won, so there was a big Victory Parade planned for New York City, 5th Avenue, and it was to be the 101st and the plans changed, and...thus then the 82nd was gonna be the..eye lured unit to make the parade. And..so..the 101st was broken up, I didn't have enough points to go home, yet, and..so they transferred me to the 82nd Airborne, so…I trained with the 82nd Airborne merely to get in good physical shape to make the Victory Parade on 5th Avenue in..on the 12th of January, 1946. So we trained as a unit, went home on the Queen Mary, which is a big..passengers..luxury ship that was converted. And come home on the Queen Mary, and landed at New York on January 3rd, 1946. And on January 12, I was part of the 82nd Airborne, that made the Victory Parade in New York City…..And we were sharp, and they…it was a Parade I've seen once or twice on the newsreels, I wish I would get a copy of it, but look at that and I think of it there was ever a precision…good looking..military unit, and it was part..the 82nd Airborne that I was part of at the time, and..the PR that went along with it and how we were greeted in..by the people of New York, I think it was one of my proudest moments, because I felt like..boy…what we did, and me as part of it, was really appreciated. And it's surprising how much…just even nowadays more than ever..the recognition….and maybe it sounds like I'm a glory-hunter or something like that..but it's just after all these years you finally getting people say “wauw…you guys…maybe if you didn't save the world, you saved us”. And I think we made a big difference, I think that all..all the people served, and some of them were lucky or whatever you want to call it, it was all..different levels of participation but everyone of them did their job, and every one of them..take..sure did..rightfully take..take a certain amount of pleasure in the glory, in the victory, they earned, and….I sometimes wish I was one of the guys that you know sitting back in the truck with the dearths someplace, and I really..sometimes I wish…yo, hey, they served just like anybody else and..but..it…it was quite an accomplishment, I think.”


Jack Sherman with the 101st and 82nd Airborne Division patches on his sleeves
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

When Jack Sherman went back to the US he took several souvenirs with him. “I have a German Luger that I took from a dead Kraut. I almost threw it away because it was too bulky to carry. My brother Ken had a shoulder holster made for me and I carried it that way and brought it home with me. I have several other souvenirs (dress dagger and 6'x 9' Swastika flag that Ken brought home).”


Phyl at Jack's WWII display
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

Three months after his return, April 13, 1946, Jack married with the young woman whose letters kept him going, Phyllis Jarchow, in Toledo, Ohio. Sherman went to work as a tool and die maker, and then went back to college and became a manufacturing engineer. The Shermans retired to Bend (Oregon) in 1988. They had two sons: John Francis (Jack or Jackie) and Kenneth James. Unfortunately, Sherman's son John died following an illness on June 24, 1993. Further, Sherman has three grandchildren. Jack Sherman and his son, John, had attended the 48th anniversary [1992] of the airborne drop at Operation Market-Garden in Holland. This was important. The event was much more than a tourist trip. For John, 42, the reunion was a reason to stay alive. John had had quadruple heart bypass surgery in November, 1988, and then his kidneys failed. He was kept alive through his lengthy illness by dialyses and the hope of living long enough to visit Holland with his dad. “We'd talked about attending the reunion for years, and it became a reason for him to stay alive,” Jack Sherman said. “But when I started figuring expenses, I couldn't see how I'd be able to afford it.” John's normal medical costs were staggering. In addition to round trip plane fare to Holland and lodging, John would need constant care and daily dialyses. “I told John we'd get there somehow,” Jack Sherman said. “I got a job driving a limousine to raise money, and my wife and I were ready to mortgage the house.” Sherman called Holland to inquire about medical arrangements, and somehow, somebody in the Dutch Air Force heard about the situation. “I got this foreign-sounding voice over the phone and he offered to set everything up,” Sherman said. After landing in Holland, the Shermans were met at the plane by a special van with medical attendants who could perform John's dialyses. They were lodged in comfortable quarters at a nearby Dutch Air Force training base. “When the Dutch find out you're an American who fought in Holland, they can't do enough for you. They escorted us all around, and took very good care of my son.” But such intensive care costs lots of money. “How much do I owe you?” Jack asked the base administrator at the end of their stay. “Nothing,” the administrator replied. “You paid in 1944.” In 1992 I visited Holland with our son to show him the places that I was during the war. He was ill at the time and our Dutch friends helped us a lot. He passed away 8 months after our trip. My wife and I returned in 94 for the 50th Ann. Recently we have been adopted by the "Pacific Northwest Historical Group", that is a group of young people that re-enact WWII battles and keep history alive. Their uniforms and equipment is all original and their "Mock battles" are good.”


Phyllis Jarchow and Jack Sherman
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)


Jack and Phyllis at a 101st Airborne picnic in 2010
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

For years, Sherman didn't talk about his military service. He still doesn't think he did anything unique. “When you get into a position where you're absolutely terrified, you think, if my buddy is holding out, I can too, you get strength and courage from not wanting to let your buddy down. I don't think my war experience was that unusual, I'm nothing special and I didn't do anything special. But I feel real proud to have been part of it. As a rule, I tell people, I've been asked by people, “you don't speak about the war”, and I didn't for 50 years…I wouldn't talk about any of my service time or what I did, except with fellows who where there with me and that was very rare. And…I had occasioned recently to run across people like Larry and my son, and a few other people that have…the desire to go about this to pass it on for history and I have begun like many…veterans of World War 2 to tell their story, because it has got to be told, and I think for history people should know about it…it's not pleasant, and I guess…I try to evaluate why, why we..nobody did talk, and I guess it's because we don't want to sound mostful and make war a good thing,…and I think that the major reason is that…because what you've been through… is hard to describe and you are quite certain that other people just will not understand the full meaning…just your feelings and so on. And believe me, the emotions are just…the full spectrum from horror, and…most of the time it's frightening. And I think that's probably why we don't like to remember a lot of the stuff, but..I also feel that…I have adapt, and like many guys they have adapt to record this kind of stuff, for my children, my grandchildren, my friends and for future generations…war is a terrible thing…”


Don Malarkey ("E" 506) & Jack Sherman ("G" 327) in July, 2010
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

“I…Something I just happened to think of it, that…a lot of times I am asked about my feelings about being in the military, and I guess…the variations in people that you served with, I've served with some just fantastic phenomenal guys, who just did things that were unbelievable, but what sticks out of my mind more than anything else is you find out in the military how small some people can be. I was always very irritated with the people in the service, there were always a certain amount of them, that because they were in the military…one day longer than you were they had seen you ordinal on you and they could make you to crawl, and that was mostly you know in the base camps and things like that, in the trainings. That always stuck with me. You get fellows who, I wouldn't say couldn't make it in civilian life or any other kind of life, but they lorded over you because they had one stripe more than you or they'd been in the service one day longer than you, and they would try to be right you and so on. I never could tolerate that, and that was one of the parts of the service that…that I just deploy. I don't know why it came to mind now, but it does.”

“But my service was about 18 months overseas, and I have been asked by many people about the different things that affected me, and I think that…what affected…affected me and I have the most, are vivid memories about…is about…the death camps and the way that the Germans treated people. They were…I hear a lot that “your death camps are made up, they are preticious”, believe me they are not! And they…to go into a death camp and have the people just hang on you, and you give them your food because you know they're hungry, they're like skin and bone……couldn't you feed them, they died, just of…their bodies couldn't take the rich food...you're trying to help them…you kill other people to trying to help people like that, and then we were trying to help these people, whoever didn't have a decent meal and they're like skeletons, and the food is so rich for them, they almost die in front of you, and you think what make you….when you think about….who did this to them, who…who made them work till they were death, things like that, it was a race that shouldn't have been around…and the suffering that they caused is just unbelievable, and how any person could treat another human being like that, I'll never ever ever be able to understand, which is terrible….and so it kind…kind of made you think after a while well, “this is why we are here”, because it couldn't be done happened with our people wait here at home, and you wished that God it never did, but it did happen. And…to see people as you, throw your garbage away, maybe you had some food left over in your mess kit or something like that, and you couldn't dump it away into a big garbage can where everything was mixed, your potatoes, your meat, whatever it was that left over thrown in the garbage can, you see these people going and just dig it out of the garbage cans, stuff it into their face, like it was a gourmet meal and just gulped down everything they could, just…just can't believe human beings to do that, but I guess…deprivation or the denying of food and things like that for so long, a person…will eat just about anything, and I always thought that…how horribly that must be, and I guess it pointed out the fact why…why we were 3000 or 4000 miles away from home, fighting, I still believe to this day that…in some cases if it wasn't for that generation, that fought the war, and won the war, that we might be all speaking German here, and we entered the room because you weren't their kind, so I…I just don't…understand how people can do things like that.”

“I heard you earlier say tonight that the real heroes are still over there? “Oow yeah, without a doubt.” And I've had some other veterans sitting in front of my cameras as well and tell me that as well, and another one was at the Battle of the Bulge has told me that, a veteran who was at Iwo Jima who guarded the flag the first time it was up told me that, and I can understand that. But what I say to all of them is you are all heroes, you are all heroes, and I would like for you to accept that from the rest of us as a grateful nation, and yes you're all heroes, and anyone….even the wives, the mothers, the people who stayed here in the United States and supported the war effort are also heroes. “Absolutely, absolutely,….it's not just you see..you can't say well this group won the war or something like that, and there's another I wanna say….I was asked not too long ago, and it really caught me off guard, I think I mentioned it earlier, I saw the current favorite series out about World War Two, it was “Band of Brothers”, and of course this..I mentioned before that was..that really was a composite. It was a story about a particular Company, in a particular Regiment, in the 101st Airborne, but having been there…it could have been shot of my outfit, it could have been shot of anyone…and probably many different outfits, didn't have to be the 101st, because an infantryman, most of them…they call them the tip of the spear, infantry is often been known as the tip of the spear, they are the guys that are out there, that you know inflict the wounds and get wounds inflicted, and it takes..always takes a certain amount of supply…I think it was like 10 men behind the lines to support the guy that was actually doing the fighting…And in this “Band of Brothers”, they asked the character that was…kind of the center of attraction, whether or not..his grandson did ask him whether or not he thought he was a hero, and he said “No, but he served amongst heroes”. And that was a very true statement and that's something that probably I can say too, but it was asked to me whether I thought, just recently, whether I thought I was a hero, and I knew the quote that..the answer that this guy had given, and I…I didn't think it was appropriate for…I just didn't think it was appropriate for me, and...for several reasons. But the guy pressed a little bit, he…do you consider yourself a hero?..and I had to think on it, and I had to think on it, and I must say..repeat what I said then, “that if he or most any person, even walking along the streets, had been...or not in the service even, had been put in the same situations that I was put in, they would have done just as well, just as good as I did, maybe some of them better”, but there are a lot of guys that…you see it, whether or not they know what they are doing, or they just have a……that they don't wanna let a buddy down, they have to fought, and that's true, you know, the most few heroes and that, that you have are just…they won't let a buddy down. And the Airborne is even more that way than the others…let them say we leave nobody behind and this and that, that was not so..you can't because there're so many guys are blown to bits you can't find the pieces of them or so and that be left behind so to say. But no, the guys..there's a lot of guys, who just seem to almost ignore or didn't...maybe they didn't understand the situation they were in, or just how dangerous it was, and when they hit and done things that were heroic..in many ways and..didn't make it back, you know, so there is not a lot of different circumstances I am sure for why these guys getting killed, but a lot of them were just downright doing their duty, doing the best they could, and trying to protect their buddies and so on. So…….I think most people put in the same situation would done as well, at least………But it's an experience that….you couldn't pay me enough to go through it again, but by the same talking I wouldn't take a million dollars for my experiences…..I feel honestly that….I did what was asked to me..somebody had to do it….”


Jack Sherman with his Honors and Medals
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

“Well, you told me about your proudest moment, but you haven't talked about one that I know you're real proud of, you stood in formation as a 101st and Dwight D. Eisenhower read the proclamation, the first one ever, to a whole fighting group. You want to tell me about that? It's something that..I kind of took for granted, I was, he did it I think in Mourmelon, France, as best as I can recall, and to be completely honest with you I can remember having to…to be in formation, and the whole unit..you know...stand..stand formation and inspection and so on. And Dwight D. Eisenhower then…what you call him…Commander and Chief of all the armed forces in Europe, the campaigns and so on. He presented the 101st Airborne with the Presidential Citation and that was the first…..it's the first unit that ever..a full division..was awarded that…usually it was squad-size, company-size, and something like that, I don't know what the largest unit prior to that was, but we were the first in military history to receive the Presidential Citation, and he gave a speech that I wouldn't..I wouldn't know at the time what he said, because I probably couldn't hear or understand it, but we were all awarded the Presidential Citation, and from that day on, anybody that belongs to the 101st is eligible to wear the Presidential Citation, but only the men who were with the unit when it earned the Presidential Citation are authorized to wear the decoration, really. And I had the opportunity to..to get a copy of it while back and I wish I could think of all the words, but basically what I got out of it was that he said..that of course…he named the accomplishment why we were getting that Citation and..but toward the end of it he said that we had set a standard..that all..that all future members of the 101st would have to bear in mind and try to life up to. And then by the same token, the men who were there and had earned it, had kind of an obligation that their life would be changed forever, and from that day on..there would be..they would have to walk with a certain pride in their step and so on, and I never…never really took that to mind, but after I read that, I've had a couple of occasions where I…I tell about one. I was sitting in the Veterans Hospital and a man came in that had an artificial limp and we got to talking and he asked…I asked him, you know, where and how he got hit and what so happened that he got..he lost his leg on his first day of combat in The Bulge, he…had lost a leg there. And in talking he asked me what outfit I was in, and I told him the 101st Airborne, and he just kind of quietly said “Oww, you are one of the tough ones”. And we never thought of ourselves...I at least never thought I was one of the tough ones, but then when you looked back at it and you look at that Citation, you think well..you know..there's never been, never been a unit in military history who withstood 15 to 1 odds, outgunned with heavier equipment and everything else, and beat the enemy down, and they went on the attack when they..when they were finally relieved. So it was quite a bunch of guys..quite a bunch of guys, and I happened to be part of it, on faith, but again I say most anybody put in the same situation, in the same circumstances, I believe would have performed as well, and I guess that's about…I've had a few other things that brought back memories, that people look at you and say “wauw, 101st”…I don't think it was that special, I really don't…”


Jack Sherman nowadays
(Picture Courtesy of Jack Sherman)

“Well, you know, somehow I really don't quite believe what you tell me about it not being special. I know what's very special to you. Well, it's special that I…I..I feel very proud that..that I happened to be there and happened to be the one to..one of the ones to..to earn this..Citation and, but..it's just faith, it's just what happened in life, you..you know, you kind of take what you dealt, and do the best you can with it..I would like to add that just kind of, maybe in closing, that I was one Sherman boy, there were 5 brothers, and we were all served our country at the same time in World War Two. We were all in uniform, we all came back alive, and that's about it. Four of you at once? Five of us, five brothers, I had four brothers of them, with me there was five Sherman boys all served..our country at the same time.”

For more G Company stories:
Pfc. Harold A. Baker

Sources:
John ‘Jack' Sherman, Pfc., Company-Runner, Company G, 327 th GIR, 101st Airborne Division
Xavier van Daele, webmaster of http://usairborne.be/
Xavier van Daele, webmaster of http://us.army.39.45.xooit.com/index.php
Interview Jack Sherman from September 22, 2003 with Larry Powell
Interview Jack Sherman from 2003 with a magazine called Vanishing Heroes, Stories from the generation that fought for freedom, Veterans Day 2003, The Bulletin.