Below are members of our unit. Some have come up with back stories for their World War 2 impressions.
Pvt. Mike "Junior" Pumphrey - Traffic Section 12638790 Baltimore, Maryland Pre-war job: Baltimore City Police Sergeant
Mike Pumphrey originally hails from the farm country of Carroll County, Md. He worked at his father's hardware store in Westminster,Md. from the age of 10 until he uprooted his family and moved to Baltimore in 1934 to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. Mike joined the Baltimore City Police Department. He made the rank of sergeant in 1939, then enlisted in the army in 1940. Mike attended basic training at Ft. Custer, Michigan. He was assigned to the 4th ID MP Platoon in August of 1941.
SGT Eric "Old Man" Littlewood 14085638 Pre war job: Sgt. Baltimore City Police Training Acadamy
Sgt. Lilttlewood saw action in WW1 with the 2nd Div. After the war he joined the Baltimore City Police where he served undercover, closing down speakeasys in the 1930s. At the start of WW2, Littlewood was a training Sgt. at Baltimore Policy Acadany, where as it turned out, a young cadet by the name of Pumphrey came under his training. After seeing him and so many other cadets enlist or get drafted, Littlewood decided to reenlist as an MP in the Army. He has the honor of being one of the oldest Sgt. MP's seeing service in the ETO.
Note: Sgt Littlewood would later be killed while falling out Staff Sgt. Dicks' jeep while on leave in London. Staff Sgt Dicks survived
Sgt. Dicks hails from Lancaster County, Penna. After finishing high school in 1937 and kicking around doing odd jobs, Dicks settled in as a Fuller Brush man in 1939. With his brown suitcase in hand, and going to door to door in the county it took Rusty less than a year to became the top salesman at The Fuller Brush Company. Fuller Brush scaled back its operations at the outbreak of the war forcing Rusty to enlist in the army in 1942. He completed basic training at Camp Lee, Virginia; followed by driver and vehicle maintenance training. (Basic took longer than expected due to a 8 week stay in the infirmary after a weekend long furlough in Richmond, VA.) Rusty requested a posting to a military police unit, and was assigned to the 4th Motorised (now infantry) division's MP platoon in March 1943.
Born in 1910, Travis grew up in the farming community of Mt. Airy, MD. After school and work on a local farm, he joined his father and grandfather working for the B&O Railroad first as a laborer. Later he joined the B&O Railroad Police Department moving closer to Baltimore where he meet his future wife. In 1943, he heard the Army was looking for skilled law enforcement officers so he joined up and after basic training was assigned to the 4th Inf. MP Platoon.
Neal was born in Washington, DC and lived in Silver Spring, MD until the age of 12. The family then moved to Revere, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. In 1928, while studying accounting and weather at Boston College, Neal needed to terminate his studies due to the Depression. Neal joined the family business, the Pizzano Furniture Company in Chelsea, MA. In 1938, while working as a salesman for the company, Neal traveled to Chicago and Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, he met his wife, Mary. They married in October of 1940. In the fall of 1941 while in Chicago on a sales trip, Neal dined with Harold Florsheim, of the Florsheim Shoe Company and his wife Claire. Mr. Florsheim encouraged Neal to join the war effort. Later that year after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Neal enlisted. Neal’s Basic Training took place at Camp Lee, VA in 1942. Although he had received some college education, Neal failed to get the nod to join OCS. While at Camp Lee, Neal learned that Mr. Florsheim was a member of the Quartermaster Corp. Neal then contacted Major Florsheim and was assigned to EURUSA HQ in Paris as a file clerk. After the horrific losses in Malmedy, Neal was trained as a replacement and given papers to join the 4th ID MP Division.
T/5 Bob "Sparky" Buker - Driver/Radioman 20375817 Catonsville, Maryland Pre-war job: Rail Car Pricing Manager, B&O Railroad, Baltimore, MD
Originally from Dorchester County Maryland, Buker attended Mt. St. Joseph High School in Irvington, Maryland and graduated in 1919. Leading a lifestyle of debauchery during the height of the flapper age, Buker lost his family fortune in the crash of '29. Desperate and broke he pretended to be a WWI veteran and joined the Bonus March of 1932 in hopes of getting some money to pay off his bookie. The failure of the March and his life in general prompted Buker to plan to jump off the Bromo Seltzer Tower. However on his way across Eutaw Street he met a beautiful Japanese girl who was attending the College of Notre Dame. They met secretly over the next several months and decided to get married in "No Questions Asked" Ellicott City, Maryland. A baby girl was born in 1934 and another in 1941 . Buker attended the University of Baltimore part-time while working for the Baltimore & Ohio RR on Charles Street. He earned a Bachelors degree in 1937 and a short time later, bought a house in Catonsville, Maryland where he commuted daily on the No.8 trolley. To add adventure to a rather suburban life, Buker joined the National Guard in 1940 with the hopes of boozing it up with his friends and neighbors one weekend a month and two weeks a year. The Maryland National Guard was federalized in February of 1941 and put an end to that plan. The Louisiana Maneuvers showed Buker that the life of the foot-slogging infantry was not in the cards especially when Cpl. Buker got into a fight with his platoon sergeant, who is his office boy at the B&O. Broken in the ranks, he requested a transfer to the 4th Infantry Division since Buker had met several members of the 4th during the Maneuvers. Pending the transfer, he was at home when Pearl Harbor was attacked. By the end of December he was finally with the 4th at Fort Gordon. Buker has been promoted several times since then, he even made 2nd Lt. once but his temper and drinking gets the best of him.
CPL John "Chowhound" Henderson 34035267 Pre war job: Ambulance chaser and sometimes driver
John Henderson was one of the first students to graduate from the Adjutant General school in Ft. Washington, MD in 1943 and was commissioned a 2nd LT. He was assigned to the AGD in London in the Spring of 1944 as a lawyer in personnel administration. Shortly after arriving, he initiated court-martial charges against a drunken PFC who turned out to be a 3-star General's grandson. A long talk with his CO failed to change his mind. When John decided to press on with the charges, he was 'offered' to resign his commission or face a court-martial (for some minor transgression.) John resigned and was transferred to the 4th ID MP Platoon which was preparing to visit France.
T/4 Miles "Astaire" Hamby - Driver Pvt. Mark "Scurvy" Hanna Pvt. Ken "Iceman" Hyatt Pvt. Paul "Rescue" Rea Pvt. Allan "Ambulance" Rea Pvt. Tony "Tank" Barr Pvt. Jared "Bag Boy" Buker Pvt. Tim "Navy" Nosal Correspondent Art Buker