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Maurice Etcheson told his WWII story

A few weeks ago, Ron and Sue Etcheson loaned me a scrapbook begun by Ron’s mother at the time her husband entered the service during World War II.

Along with news clippings cut from the local newspapers, Mrs. Etcheson, the former Jane Schilling, had pasted in military passes, letters home and even copies of commendations earned by her husband while serving with 63rd Division, 3rd Platoon, Co. D, 254th Infantry Division, best known as the “Blood & Fire Division.”
Maurice was not the only Etcheson brother to enter the service, but was joined by three brothers, Pvt. Roy, army transportation in England; Jesse L., air corps gunner wing; and Pvt. Edgar, air corps, all sons of Mr. and Mrs. William Edgar Etcheson.
Charles Mills used the same scrapbook in compiling the book, “Fayette County, Illinois War Stories.” He also talked with Maurice Etcheson, who prepared a brief sketch of his experiences during the war for the book.
Maurice wrote, “When I was inducted into the U.S. Army, I was asked if I wanted machine guns or mortars.
"Having no idea what a mortar was, but I didn’t fancy handling a machine gun, I chose mortars. I soon realized that 81mm mortars was a good choice when I saw the plight of riflemen and machine gunners.”
He trained at Camp Van Dorn, Centreville, Miss., a camp used only for World War II. Etcheson wrote that they were in tents for a week before they moved into tar paper-covered buildings that at first sight he thought were for POW’s. The tent he was billeted in had 77 patches.
In November 1944, after 13 weeks of basic training, the privates and privates-first class were shipped overseas as replacements. They sailed from New York on the MS Saturnia, an Italian passenger ship, landing at Marseilles, France, 10 days later.
Maurice wrote that his first day of combat was Jan. 1, 1945, near Kayersberg, Germany. The Battle of the Bulge had been launched two weeks earlier.
He found that he could sleep in a foxhole dug through deep snow with enemy fire all around. It was during this time he wore the same clothes for 40 days and nights, with the exception of an extra pair of socks that the soldiers carried in their shirts.
By March, they were fighting near Enshiem and encountered dragon-teeth pill boxes along the “Siegfried Line.” After penetrating the Siegfried line, he recalled a 40-acre field full of Germans waiting to be Allied POWs.
Maurice wrote that he was 27 years old when drafted, and the young soldiers referred to him as their “father figure.
“I told them I was just as scared as they were.”
When one mortar became damaged and the telephone line had been severed during a battle with the Germans, Tech. Sgt. Etcheson left the protected position of his platoon command post and crawled 50 yards to the nearest of three sections so he could give orders for directing fire.
On the route back to the command, he repaired the cut telephone wires, thus making it possible for him to communicate within the platoon and enable mortars to deliver accurate and effective fire on the enemy.
For his disregard for his own safety, Sgt. Etcheson was awarded a bronze star. His heroic achievement in action, which took place on March 21, 1945, is described in the citation he received from Headquarters 63rd Infantry Division.
Less than a month later, on April 11, he saw his first German fighter jet.
“I didn’t hear the plane coming until it was almost on top of us. I was driving a Jeep with passengers. When I did hear the jet headed our way, I yelled for everyone to jump out of the car. In our unit, one truck driver was killed, another thrown out of the truck.
"No one in the Jeep was hurt except me. I reinjured my left ankle, which had given me trouble since childhood. I spent 30 days in a Rheim, France, hospital.”
Not having enough points to accompany the 63rd Division as a unit to return home, he was put in charge of an ordnance outfit that serviced about 100 companies with all sorts of parts.
He recalled that there were “no bullets flying, but I knew nothing of ordnance and it was a very trying time.”
Finally in mid-January 1946, he sailed home on the Vassar USA, leaving from the port of Bremerhaven.
Following a two-week voyage over rough seas, the ship docked at New York and he made his way back to Rockford, where he was discharged on Feb. 12, 1946, as a tech sergeant with a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Presidential Citation, Infantry Combat Badge and numerous other ribbons.
The Etcheson family was not the only family in the county to send numerous sons and daughters off to war. The family of John F. and Alice Gelsinger Smail, of Loogootee, held the Fayette County title for the greatest number of family members in the military during WWII. They were, Lt. Donald; Chief Petty Officer Richard whose wife, Lenore, was a Navy WAVE; Chief Yeoman Leslie, Pvt. Dale; Pfc. Henry, Seaman John A. and Pvt. Delmar Smail.     
For more “Fayette County Illinois War Stories,” the book published by Charles Mills in 2001 is a great place to start.
 

Maurice Etcheson

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