My Hero

On December 7th, 1941, my great-grandfather, Charles Thomas Sewards was an elevator operator in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He had moved there from Ohio in late August looking for work. He had maintained that job for nearly four months when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Phillipine Islands.

On December 10th, he was drafted and reported to basic training during which time he merited "Expert" on the M1 Garand and "Sharpshooter" on the 1903 rifle. From there he was assigned to Company E, 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division. The 35th was mostly made up of National Guard troops from Nebraska and the surrounding states, augmented by the influx of draftees. He attended training all over the southern states for the next few years. He recieved certification in Combat Intelligence and Anti-Tank Crewman, was promoted to Corporal, then shortly to Sergeant, then almost twice as fast to Staff Sergeant.

He was shipped to England in late May, 1944 with his division and landed on Omaha Beach on D+29, or July 5th, 1944. He was only in country a few days before the Battle of St. Lo began. His battalion spearheaded the advance through the hedgerows surrounding "Hill 122" outside St. Lo under "withering small arms, machine gun, and artillery fire". Their capturing of this key strategic hill lead to the allied units liberating St. Lo on July 18th, 1944. During the fighting for Hill 122, SSgt. Sewards was wounded for the first time by a German "Potato Masher" Grenade. Also, for their actions the 1st Battalion, 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division recieved the first of two Presidential Unit Citations bestowed upon them during the Second World War. The cost had been high though, during actions in and around St. Lo, the regiment suffered 35 percent casualties in two days, including 102 men killed, 589 wounded, and 102 missing.

Not even two weeks later, SSgt. Sewards was wounded AGAIN, and AGAIN by a German grenade. The details of these wounds is not known as "Papaw Chucky" never talked about them nor the war. All evidence that I have collected is mostly from After Action reports, his discharge paperwork, and good ol' finger work on the internet.

SSgt. Charles Thomas Sewards was later part of Patton's Third Army that bulldozed through stiff German resistance to rescue the encircled 101st Airborne Regiment during the mid stages of the Battle of the Bulge. Can you imagine being an Anti-Tank Crew Team Leader during one of Nazi Germany's premier armor assaults?

He was all over the ETO during the war, his WWII experience ending after the Rhineland Campaign. With the end of the war, he was shipped home and married my "Nanny", Dorothy. She had had a boy from a previous relationship, Dale Hartley, and Charles adopted him as his own. Dale is my grandfather, "Granddad". Having never known his own father, Dale, took, after a short time, to Charles. They lived as father and son as far as each were concerned until Papaw Chucky's death in 2000.

The man I knew as my "Papaw Chucky" was a jolly man, everytime we went over to his house, he ALWAYS dragged out the candy jar from the top shelf in the kitchen to load me and my brother up with sugar and chocolate before sending us home. He would eat a few bits here and there, but I didn't know until after his death, he wasn't supposed to eat candy as he was a diabetic. He just did it because we would not let him be until he ate a gum drop too. Always let us sit on his lap even if it hurt, he never showed it. After my mom had forbidden us to climb a tree in his back yard, he came out and gave me and my brother a helping hand up to the first branch because, as he said, "Boy just ain't boys if they are doing what they are SUPPOSED to do!"

Everytime I go home on leave, I take my service blues with me and I make a stop by his gravesite and spend a few minutes with him before rendering a salute, then sharply making and "about-face" and returning to the truck.

I miss him, and I am glad that there were men like him who came before. I often wonder if he is proud of me and what we are doing today. I look forward to helping my future son into a tree when his mother told him to stay out, so I can say to him as Papaw Chucky said to me, "Boys just ain't boys if they are doing what they are SUPPOSED to do!"