Tom McCrea built the house he lives in. He raised crops, cattle and hogs on land his ancestors first tilled generations before him. Over the years, he worked many long days supporting a family that includes two daughters and a wife he married in 1948.

But, before carving out an existence as a husband, father and grandfather, the Cass County native endured the hardships of war.

For three years starting in 1943, he did what the U.S. Army that drafted him told him to do. He refers to the experience as “My journey.”

“It was rather long and rather arduous,” he said.

Courthouse steps

On his 18th birthday, McCrea registered for the draft. Not long after, he received a notice from President Franklin D. Roosevelt that began, “Greetings.”

“Everybody kidded about getting greetings,” McCrea said.

The U.S. government ordered him and about 20 others to assemble on the steps of the courthouse in Logansport. An Indiana Motor Bus carried the group of teenagers to the induction center at Fort Harrison in Indianapolis.

McCrea, at the encouragement of his principal at Lucerne High School had taken two semesters at Purdue University before graduating, tested into the Army Specialized Training Program, or ASTP. The program meant that after completing basic training selected soldiers would go to college.

McCrea and some 800 other young men from all over the country traveled to Fort Benning, Ga. In the midst of 15 weeks of training, McCrea learned that he would be sent to college in California.

The men completed basic in the spring of 1944. Just before heading to the West Coast, disappointment struck.

“Then, out of the blue, came the announcement that the whole ASTP program had been scrapped,” McCrea said.

The fledgling soldiers did not know it at the time but preparations for D-Day resulted in the cancellation. Many wondered what would happen next.

“The answer soon became clear,” McCrea said.

The 94th Division

McCrea wound up at Camp McCain, Miss., where he was assigned to 1st Platoon, 2nd Squad, Co. C, 376th Regiment, 94th Infantry Division.

During the advanced infantry training, McCrea met a gutsy guy from New Jersey named Paul Hart. The two hit it off and were picked as scouts for their squad. At times, McCrea thought that his new friend might be too fearless for his own good.

The landing of troops on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, changed everything, McCrea said. Rumblings began that the 15,000 troops of the 94th Infantry Division would be going to Europe.

Soon after, the soldiers of the 94th traveled by train to Camp Shanks, New York. The Army outfitted the men with equipment needed for battle before transporting them to the RMS Queen Elizabeth, a British-built cruise ship that held the entire division.

On July 4, 1944, the crowded vessel left to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The soldiers slept in bunks stacked five high. McCrea recalled eating two meals a day standing up. The menu almost always included hard-boiled eggs, something he has never eaten since.

Six days later, the Queen Elizabeth arrived safely at Glasgow, Scotland.

From there, the troops took a train to a place southwest of London.

They stayed there about six weeks while the battle raged on at the Normandy beaches.

In September, the division received orders to cross the English Channel to contain some 60,000 German soldiers trapped in the French cities of St. Nazaire and Lorient.

From September to January, the 94th Division guarded the Germans, who attempted escapes. To prevent them from doing so, the Army set up a perimeter of guard posts manned around the clock and conducted roving patrols.

McCrea called the situation “nerve-racking.” The Americans and Germans each set up booby traps to ensure neither side would encroach on the other’s territory. They would also exchange rifle fire.

On one such occasion, a group of U.S. soldiers on patrol encountered some Germans. During the ensuing fight, an American was shoot in the chest. By himself, Hart stayed with the wounded man until medics arrived. The soldier survived. Years later, McCrea spoke with him at a reunion of the 94th Division. Hart got a Bronze Star for his efforts.

Five men from the division lost their lives before the next assignment.

Battle of the Bulge

On Dec. 16, 1944, the Battle of the Bulge began. It was the Germans last attempt to chase the Allied forces off the continent.

In January, the 94th Division loaded up in box cars known as 40 and 8s on its way to relieve pressure from the troops already fighting in the battle. For three nights and four days they traveled by train to Thionville, France, before boarding trucks headed for Germany.

The first objective for the 376th Regiment was to take the German towns of Butzdorf and Tettingen.

“That was January and it was cold as all get out,” McCrea said.

The temperature ranged from 0 to 10 degrees and deep snow covered the ground.

At about 6:30 a.m., the attack on Tettingen began with an artillery barrage “to soften it up,” McCrea said.

The infantry penetrated the town after the bombardment. The 20 or so Germans had been caught off guard. They did not have adequate numbers to defend Tettingen.

“So, after some rifle fire and a few grenades being thrown, the Germans came out with their hands behind their heads,” McCrea recalled.

One American died by rifle fire. The others braced for a counterattack. They occupied about 10 buildings.

At around 3 a.m. the next morning, some 400 Germans advanced toward Tettingen. McCrea and another soldier had just come off two-hour guard duty when they heard a grenade explode.

“Man did we hit the floor and grab our rifles,” he said.

The Americans got to openings and began firing at the Germans crossing the orchard toward the town. Despite the darkness and white camouflage, McCrea and the others could see the Germans crawling toward them. He said they kept the enemy at bay with cross fire from multiple buildings and 105-mm artillery fire. The attack continued until about 6 a.m. None of the German soldiers breached the buildings. The wounded surrendered.

“It was a slaughter in that orchard,” he said. “They had been thoroughly mauled.”

That was the first intense fighting the 19-year-old McCrea experienced but not the last.

While McCrea and an officer were dealing with the prisoners of war, a German artillery shell landed nearby. Shrapnel struck the officer in the belly. McCrea escaped unharmed. To this day, he wonders how he avoided serious injury when so many around him were not so lucky.

McCrea recalled always being watched by the Germans. They would seek the high ground to monitor troop movements. To eliminate that advantage, McCrea’s squad was ordered to take out a bunker on a hillside about a half mile from Tettingen.

About 50 yards from the bunker, Hart was chosen to lead the way.

“That was my lucky day, perhaps,” said McCrea. Erosion had created high banks on a dirt road up the hill. Hart went up on the high bank.

“Paul wasn’t cautious enough,” McCrea said. “We heard rifle shots, and he dropped to the ground.”

McCrea’s friend died along that dirt road.

The squad took cover and eventually retreated. Hart’s body lay in the field two weeks before it could be recovered. He was buried in the Luxembourg Military Cemetery until his family had him brought back to the U.S. in 1952.

In wartime, the soldiers got little time to grieve.

“You had to go on, try to survive another day,” McCrea said.

Over the next week, Germans kept attacking Tettingen with tanks and infantrymen. McCrea teamed up with a guy from Alabama, who had acquired a tank-wrecking bazooka.

The tanks could be heard rumbling and screeching along. As one came rolling down the street, the soldier from Alabama took aim at the tank’s tracks and fired.

“By golly he got it in the track,” McCrea said.

Both men later received medals for disabling the tank.

About a week later, McCrea left Tettingen for the attack on Sinz. He had made sergeant by then. As they moved toward the city, soldiers ahead of McCrea got into a minefield. At the sound of the explosions, he took cover in a trench. The Germans began launching heavy artillery. One hit nearby and killed five guys. McCrea carried one soldier back.

“It was terrible,” he said.

The troops continued toward Sinz. On the second night they reached a place called Untersiebusch. Germans zeroed in on them and pinned them down in an area with little protection. The enemy lobbed mortars and fired rifles as McCrea took cover behind a small bush. The platoon sergeant got shot and killed. McCrea’s friend took a bullet in the hip that he carried around until he died many years later.

Tank support came and cleared the way for advancement. By the third night, the troops had made it to a wooded area. It was just 10 degrees. McCrea, who had gotten separated from his squad during the fighting, could not button his coat because his hands would not work properly in the cold. The Germans started shooting artillery shells that caused tree bursts, which were red-hot shrapnel that showered down on the soldiers after exploding.

“That’s when I got nicked some, nothing serious,” said McCrea, who still has the scars on his thumb and forearm.

Finally, relief came. McCrea sought medical attention for his injuries and frostbitten feet. He says he lost about 24 hours he cannot remember. He had not slept for three days.

The 94th Division lost about 1,000 men during the Battle of the Bulge.

On his way home

After three weeks in a hospital, McCrea was cleared to return to duty.

He rejoined the 94th at Wuppertal, Germany. The mission was to help persons displaced by the war due to Nazi forced labor return to their native country. In August 1945, McCrea got transferred to Czechoslovakia, which he considered a vacation. The war was over, the weather was nice and everyone was glad to be alive.

McCrea took charge of rations that came into the company each week. He quit smoking when he realized how much the Russians were paying for a carton of cigarettes – $100.

The Army began sending people home based on a point system that credited soldiers with time in service and medals earned.

McCrea, who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, went to Bavaria, where he did next to nothing.

“You wasn’t guarding anything but a yard full of grass. Nobody argued with that,” McCrea said.

From there, he made it to a Victory ship docked on the coast of France. He left for the states and made it to New York 11 days later.

The Atlantic was rough and the ship “bobbed around like a cork,” he said.

Once back inAmerica, McCrea went to New Jersey then traveled by train to Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh. He got an honorable discharge and went home.

Home again

“I was glad to alive. I was glad to be back home. I was glad to see this young lady here,” McCrea said as he pointed to Lois Jean, his wife of 62 years.

When asked if the pain he experienced during the war influenced him to lead a certain life when he returned home, he said it probably did. He liked to work hard and wanted to do so for his future spouse and the life they wanted to share.

McCrea used the GI bill to attend electrical school in Chicago. He built buildings for neighbors using carpentry skills his father taught him. He managed a farm north of Logansport for 60 years. At the age of 85, he still discs fields in the spring.

After the war, McCrea said he did not want to talk about it. Later in life, he began attending annual reunions. He also returned to Europe multiple times to share his experiences with his family.

“I hadn’t done any more than hundreds of thousands of others, but I was proud of what I had done and I was proud of my country,”

McCrea said. “We had whipped the world.”

• Kevin Lilly is news editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at 574-732-5117 or kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com