Gordon Hazlett 30th Infantry Division

MIA twice. article 4-21-2008: Veteran's story: World War II survivor from Mansfield has lots of dark memories By RON SIMON, News Journal. MANSFIELD -- Of the 200 men in Curtis Hazlett's infantry company who landed at Omaha Beach, only nine survived the long, dark and bloody road to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. Hazlett, 91, survived. "I lost a lot of friends. Every day it seemed a new guy would show up as a replacement, and then he was gone. It scares me to think about it even to this day," Hazlett said. "There were so many close calls, mostly from artillery. I was in an outpost by myself when I heard a shell coming. I ducked and it landed close by but never went off. It was a dud." Darkness is a wartime memory for Hazlett. "The Hurtgen Forest was the darkest place I've ever been. It was a scary place," he said. When the war ended, Hazlett's main memory is of light. Suddenly lights came on. The long darkness of war was over. Hazlett was one of four brothers to go into the service during World War II. He was drafted in 1940 and remembers the "Day that will live in Infamy." "I was at the PX at Fort Sam Houston on a Sunday when the message sounded that every man was to return to his barracks and stay there," he said. Before the day was over, the news of the Pearl Harbor attack had been relayed to the men. "I knew I wasn't getting out of the Army then," Hazlett said. Not only did Hazlett serve, so did his three brothers. Robert served with the 82nd Airborne and was killed near Cherbourg, France. Gordon, who served with the 30th Infantry Division in Europe, was reported as missing in combat twice, but survived. Ralph, the youngest brother, joined the Army Signal Corps. He served in Europe and survived. "Ralph was our baby. He's living in Cleveland," Hazlett said. "Gordon died several years ago." After Pearl Harbor, Hazlett became a member of the 2nd Infantry Division and remembers the long stateside training. "I hated Louisiana," he said. "We were there twice for maneuvers. I got captured once. I remember the man who captured me was riding a horse." Eventually, after picking up winter gear and training at Camp McCoy, Wis., the men of the 2nd Division sailed on board Liberty Ships for Ireland. "It took 15 days and it was rough," he said. "Everybody but me got seasick. All I ate all the way over was bread and some of that had worms in it." From Ireland, the 2nd Division moved to England and a camp overlooking the English Channel. "You knew an invasion was coming. You could see all those ships lined up out in the Channel. I wonder why the Germans never saw them. They bombed us almost every day," he said. Hazlett and his buddies lived in a 10-story hotel and had to run down to the basement every time the bombing raid alarms went off. "It was harder going back up than it was going down," he said. Hazlett's unit landed on Omaha Beach the second day of the invasion. "It was a lot safer, but there were still a lot of dead bodies there," he said. The 2nd started taking heavy casualties during the fighting in Normandy's hedgerow country. "The Germans were on one side of the hedge and we were on the other and you had to be really careful. We eventually used bulldozers to get through," he said. The 2nd fought a long siege at the port of Brest. "We were supposed to take it in a couple days. It took a couple months," Hazlett said. "The Germans were really dug in. When it was over we took close to 40,000 prisoners. "We also liberated a lot of whisky." During the rest of the war, the 2nd was part of the Battle of the Bulge and in the Rhine crossing operations. Much of the fighting has disappeared into clouded memories for Hazlett, but he admits he had to kill enemy soldiers. "It was me or them," Hazlett said. The darkness, the cold and the close calls are what stay in his memories. He recalls reaching the Elbe River "where the Russians were on one side and we were on the other." His best memory of the end of the war was when the lights went on at Pilsen. While he never saw any famous generals in combat, he recalls a speech to the troops delivered by Gen. George S. Patton during training in Northern Ireland. "He had us lined up in a square and local people opened their windows to listen," Hazlett recalled. "When he started swearing those windows started coming down. He was a pretty hard talker." When the war ended, Hazlett and his buddies lingered a long time in Europe. "I had a lot of points, but not enough to come home right away. We just wasted time and drank a lot of beer." Hazlett eventually rode another Liberty Ship back across the Atlantic and was eventually discharged at Indiantown Gap, Pa. He went to work for the Tappan Company, where he spent 30 years. He and his first wife, Donna, had no children and eventually divorced. Hazlett and his second wife, Arlene, had two children, Michael and Lori Conard, both of Mansfield. There are three grandkids. The Hazletts live on Grasmere Avenue. Hazlett still has his medals, including his Combat Infantry Badge and five battle stars, all kept in a small field shaving kit bag that belonged to a young buddy from New York City. Like most of Hazlett's buddies, the kid from New York City didn't survive. But his kit did, and it is usually tucked away in a bedroom drawer for safekeeping.

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