LARRY , S RESEARCH CHAPTER 3

LARRY WAS BECOMING THE KEYSTONE TO THIS WHOLE INVESTIGATION AND LITTLE DID I KNOW, HOW FATE HAD INTERVENED TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

After that first Facebook message, Larry and I couldn’t stop talking to one another about the 2487th Quartermaster Truck Company (Aviation). He told me all about his father, Alton Dock Payne. He even showed me pictures of his medals and we compared them to my grandfather’s.

After weeks of constant communication, the information that Larry was providing to me was pretty unreal! Like I said earlier, once I started, I had a feeling I couldn’t stop and everything Larry was sharing with me just made me smile even more by the day. He was able to provide me with stories about his father, pictures handed down to him by his father, and notes from his own research that he conducted over the past twenty years.

Larry provided me with tons of pictures of his father’s assigned Platoon and what life was like while they were deployed in Europe. Larry even sent me information specific to my grandfather’s Platoon such as their individual station list and locations they were known to be at. According to Larry, after arriving in Europe, my grandfather’s Platoon was stationed in Middle Wallop, Le Molay, Toussus Le Noble, Charleroi, Vogelsang, Limburg, and Eschwege. Whatever Larry had, he shared and it really started to get this investigation rolling. Even though most of what Larry had in his research was on the 1st Platoon, it was vital in helping me to solve a lot of mysteries and to pursue additional leads regarding my grandfather’s Platoon.

Larry confirmed a lot of my initial information and also gave me some ideas on how to continue to find more about my grandfather’s particular Detachment A, which seemed to be like trying to find a needle in the haystack. The key words here: “military records”. As luck would have it, I live within a few miles of the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania who houses tons of online Army military records. With a small fee, I was able to find my grandfather’s Detachment A unit service records with dates, locations, and brief memos. Score! With those records, we started to validate and recreate a map of their adventures from start to finish, including my grandfather’s Detachment A. With those records, we were able to confirm and validate both Larry’s research and my own up to this point. Even though the Carlisle records confirmed dates, locations, and basics, they were just that, very basic. But thanks to Larry and his research we could add to those basics with details. Not only did Larry have information about his father’s adventures in Europe, he had information about his adventures from the very start!

I found out from Larry that the 2487th was originally designated as the 820th Quartermaster Platoon assigned to Duncan Airfield in Texas in March of 1942. They were there until October 1942 when they were moved to Stinson Airfield, Texas. On January 13, 1943 while at Stinson, they were redesignated as the 2487th Quartermaster Platoon. On August 9, 1943 they were shipped to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia and on September 5, 1943 they were loaded on the General John Pope and shipped to Greenock, Scotland.

They arrived in Scotland on September 13, 1943. They arrived as a 105 man Company in Membery and functioned as such for the first few months. There they were split and assigned to support different Air Groups. They were divided into two platoons with 1st Platoon (Larry’s father’s platoon) assigned to support the 366th Fighter Group and 2nd Platoon (my grandfather’s platoon) assigned to support the 67th Reconnaissance Group. The commanding officer, Captain Colina, remained with 1st Platoon and 2nd Platoon was under the leadership of Lieutenant Harry Weiner and later Lieutenant Irwin Zussman. However both platoons were still officially under the command of Captain Colina. They operated in close proximity of each other throughout the war. It is really confusing but my grandfather would have officially been in the 2487th QMTC (Quartermaster Truck Company), IX Army Air Corp, IX Air Service Command, 26th Air Service Group. So that explains my grandfather’s “propeller with wings” pin on his uniform!

Larry then filled in more gaps or made more depending how you look at it. He told me that after the break through at St. Lo (a small town in France that was one of the first to be liberated by the Allied forces right after the Normandy invasion), the two platoons of the 2487th were never more than five miles from the front lines. They were actually driving all the way back to the Normandy beaches for their supplies until the German surrender in May of 1945. The amount of materials, bombs, ammunition, airplane parts, fuel, clothing, food supplies, and other items that were consumed by the 67th Recon Group and the 366th Fighter Group was massive. The 2487th Quartermas- ter platoons were awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation for their relentless service. Larry was able to confirm my research on my grandfather’s awards and even provided copies of all the documentation straight from military records. The new information that was really puzzling me now was “never more than five miles from the front lines”. I thought my grandfather just drove truck during World War II. What do you mean he was always near the front lines? Now my head was really spinning. All I really wanted to know was about Normandy and now I am finding out that he was always near the front lines! But there is that particular elephant in the room. Larry, was my grandfather at Normandy? The answer could not come soon enough.

According to Larry’s dad, the 1st Platoon went ashore at Normandy at 3:00 a.m. on June 13th (D+7, a.k.a. seven days after the initial invasion day called “D-Day”) and they landed under fire at the beach because it was being strafed by German Migs. The 2nd Platoon (my grandfather’s) landed in early July about three weeks after the 1st Platoon. Booyah! There it is!

According to Larry’s dad, even though the Company was split, my grandfather’s platoon did in fact arrive at Normandy and was a part of the invasion! With that news, a wave of emotions came over me and it all of a sudden made sense why my grandfather made me watch those documentaries and why he told me to pay attention. He was there! We were not watching a documentary, we were watching memories of his Company, of his fellow soldiers, of his friends, and of my grandfather! I was completely blown away at this point. Let me tell you.