The Lost Ranger: A Soldier's Story
Page 2
Arm or Service - Ranger BN
Component - AUS (meaning Army of the United States per Army TM 12-235)
Organization - 5th Ranger BN
Date of Separation - 19 April 1945
Place of Separation - 3610 SCU Percy Jones Hospital Center , Fort Custer , Michigan
Civilian Occupation and no. - Automobile, Body Repairman, Metal
Date of Induction - 7 Jan 1943
Date of Entry into Service - 14 January 1943
Place of Entry - Fort Hayes , Ohio
Squad Leader 746
Military Qualification - Combat Infantryman
Battles & Campaigns - Battle of France
Decorations & Citations - Good Conduct Ribbon, Bronze Star for Campaign, European-African-Middle
Eastern Theatre Ribbon, Unit Citation GO 26 1st Army 17 June 44, Purple Heart, Combat Infantrymans Badge
Wounds Received in Action: France 2 September 1944
Service outside Continental United States & Return
Date of Departure: 7 Jan 44
Unknown
19 Dec 44
Destination: Date of Arrival England 19 Jan 44 France 6 Jun 44
USA 27 Dec 44 Total Length of Service - Continental 1 yr 3 mo 22 days, foreign 0 yr 11 mo, 21 days
Highest Grade held - S/Sgt
Prior Service – None
Reason & Authority for Separation – Certificate of Authority for Discharge AR 615-361 (Disability), 3610
SCU Percy Jones Hospital Center , Fort Custer , Michigan
He also had an Honorable Discharge Certificate dated 19 April 1945 These were not a lot of facts to begin with. Part of the initial research conducted led to my purchase of two books concerning the Rangers in World War II. These were Rangers In World War II, by Robert W. Black2 and “Lead the Way, Rangers”, History of the Fifth Ranger Battalion3 by Henry S. Glassman, both of which are considered by most to be the authoritative works covering the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion. The concerning thing to me in the early part of this endeavor, as well as to Mr. Styles was that my grandfather appeared neither in these texts nor in records of the Battalion that he had acquired over the years. Staff Sergeant Hull was lost to history. To his credit, even though Mr. Styles developed and held the belief in January through March of 2012 that S/Sgt Hull must have been a replacement Ranger, he continued to help me diligently. The concept of Hull having been a replacement would have meant that, he did not join the unit until after June 15, 1944 at the earliest. It would have meant that certain of the facts represented in his discharge papers and on his uniform might have been in error. If true, this would have set back my research for an unknown amount of time. Mr. Styles does not know this, but these beliefs made me want to dig in with extreme determination and find the facts in a way that I otherwise might not have done. I set about the research this as if a scientific topic. I established hypothesis, and ran down each research thread until exhausted either in support of or against any single piece of evidence. It is for this reason that our family owes Mr. Styles our thanks. He also introduced me to some remarkable individuals who are discussed in this book, such as Major General John C. Raaen, Jr, (ret) and Colonel Robert W. Black (ret), and Richard “Doc” Felix. These great men have given much of their personal time in order to collaborate back and forth with me at each stage of this quest.
This is the story of a United States Army Ranger. It is the story of his service in World War II. It is the story of the American Infantryman in World War II. It is the story of the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion from its creation through September 1944. It is a story of valor and fortitude. It is the story of how a man became lost to the consciousness of his unit. It is about how a soldier was lost to history. This story is about the research to find him in and of itself and what the journey yielded. Most importantly however, it is about how with the help of some determined individuals, he was brought home to his brothers in the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion, to his rightful place in the unit history. He was also brought home to a family who never really knew him.
Figure 3: Photo taken in approximately 1953 of Herbert Hull with children (left to right), Mary Kathleen, Linda and Herbert.
2 HERBERT STANTON HULL - TRANSITION FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER
Herbert Stanton Hull was born on January 14, 1924 in East Palestine, Columbiana County, Ohio where he lived until he began his military service. His parents were Stanton Hull and Ethel Hull (Young). He had one brother, Raymond and four sisters, Helen, Shirley, Lucile, and Doris. He was the fifth of six children. Herbert’s grandparents were George Hull and Anna “Belle” Hull who had immigrated to the United States in 1890 from Bedfordshire, England.1
Herbert Hull’s father was a jigger-man in the general ware pottery industry and was employed by the W.S. George Pottery Company of East Palestine and was considered a semi-skilled laborer. The plant is shown in Figure 4. It is reported that this company employed about one third of the city’s residents throughout the first half of the 20th century. The company manufactured semi-porcelain hotel ware, toilet ware, and dinnerware. East Palestine, Ohio is located in a portion of the Ohio River valley that historically has played an important part in the industrial fabric of America. The pottery industry thrived in this portion of Ohio during that era.2 His mother did not work as of the 1940 United States census and stayed at home to raise the family.
Figure 4: WS George Pottery Company, East Palestine Postcard: Public Domain Herbert, “Herb” as he was known, had graduated from East Palestine High School in 1942, one of two siblings to do so. He had become a skilled mechanic and automobile repairman by 1943 at Brittain Motors in East Palestine. He would return to work there after the war until he later became a Police Officer in East Palestine. He was 5’11” and 178 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. He was reported to have had a beautiful singing voice and sang constantly. He liked to laugh and it is said that he was a great deal of fun, constantly pulling jokes and pranks. He once shot one of his sisters in the behind with his BB gun. He had a love of the outdoors including gardening and hunting. He loved dogs. He often would head up into the hills to find edible wild mushrooms. He attended the East Palestine United Methodist Church as seen in Figure 5. This sleepy small town life was soon to be interrupted.
Figure 5: East Palestine Methodist Church Postcard: Public Domain Worldwide events continued to evolve rapidly in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. In the spring of 1940, Hitler returned to his blitzkrieg war resulting in the overrun of Western Europe. Hitler’s forces were flying the Swastika flag from the Rhine to the English Channel, from the Pyrenees to the Arctic Circle in fewer than six weeks.
In response to these in Europe and events involving Japanese aggression, President Franklin Roosevelt encouraged Congress to write and to pass legislation known as the Burke-Wadsworth Bill which would establish a peace time draft. This would be the first time this had been done in the history of the nation and also created the Selective Service System. The Selective Service system made provision for calling into Federal service up to 500,000 men. The Burke-Wadsworth Bill was signed into law by the President on September 16, 1940 and he also signed an Executive order which also federalized selected National Guard units into active service for a one year training period. This became known as the Selective Training and Training Act (STSA) of 1940. Most of these units would report to training camps in the spring of 1941. Congress in turn appropriated over one-billion dollars for the national defense in May of 1940, in part, to construct the facilities to house and train these men. Using an inflation calculator this would equal approximately 16 billion dollars today. The STSA required registration of all men between 21 and 45. The selection process for one year's service was done by a national lottery.
The government returned to the World War I system to serve as a model for World War II conscription. In August 1941, the term of required service was extended by one year, and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the STSA was further amended on December 19, 1941 to rea
d for the duration of the war plus six months. The draft of World War II required the registration of some 50 million men, 36 million of them being classified as fit for military service and with 10 million being inducted. The STSA established the Selective Service System as the agency responsible for placing men into military service. The Selective Service System (SSS) remains in place to this day. Later in the war, as needs changed, men were conscripted into the Marine Corps as well as the Army. An important change that affected Herbert Hull occurred in December 5, 1942 when Presidential Executive Order 9279 PROVIDING FOR THE MOST EFFECTIVE MOBILIZATION AND UTILIZATION OF THE NATIONAL MANPOWER AND TRANSFERRING THE SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM TO THE WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION dropped the age of registration from age 21 to 18 years of age.
Herbert was conscripted into the United States Army for the duration of the War plus six months at the age of 19. Conscription in the United States, also known as compulsory military service or the Draft, has been employed several times by the U.S. Government, usually during war throughout our nation’s history.3
He was drafted by the lottery system through Columbiana County Draft Board and was inducted in Akron, Ohio for enlistment into the Army at Fort Hayes in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio which will be discussed later. His date of induction was January 7, 1943 at the Armed Forces Induction Station #5303, Akron, Ohio. The United States Army Medical Examination and Induction Board No 4 was located at 76 South High Street, Akron Ohio, and was located on the west side of the street between East Mill Street and East Market Street in downtown Akron. Its phone number was FR-9318. The building that housed the Induction Station was built in 1916-1917 and was formerly the home of the Central Union Telephone Company. That company left this location sometime in the latter 1920’s, leaving the building vacant by the beginning of the war. This multiple story building was constructed of masonry and concrete. It had an L-shaped floor plan, and had offices, a dining room, locker room and rest rooms according to the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for Akron, Ohio. The Akron Induction Center building is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: 1978 photo of Akron Ohio U.S. Armed Forces Induction Center (Courtesy, City of Akron Planning Department) His date of entry into service was January 14, 1943. It is unknown how he transported between East Palestine and Akron, but it likely involved a bus or a train ride at Army expense. It is likely that he travelled to Columbus from Akron via train or a bus based on other Ohio soldiers’ accounts that were drafted in the Youngstown, Ohio region at the time. The Pennsylvania Railroad had a train station in East Palestine, and there was ample bus service from East Palestine so either mode would have been possible.
Part of the registration process would have resulted in classifying his suitability for military service in one of four Classes of I through IV by his local draft board. The word “classification” appears multiple times for different reasons throughout the conscription process. A man classified as IA would be deemed to be available and fit for general military service. This is the classification that Herbert Hull was given. He would have received notice by way of U.S. Mail when he, like millions of other men, received a D.S.S. Form 150 Order to Report for Induction. An example of this form is shown in Figure 7. This form would instruct him as to the time and place to report for induction, in his case, Akron, Ohio as stated previously. After a man received his classification and DSS Form 150, he and other men from the community would assemble at the Local Board, where a group would be formed under a leader and assistant leader. Orders were announced charging the selected groups of men to report to a particular Induction Station under the leader and meal and lodging tickets were distributed, and the men’s records were turned over to the leader for delivery to the Induction Station.
Figure 7: DSS FORM 150 – Order to Report for Induction, for a new soldier named Carl F. Weast, of Alliance, Ohio4 (Courtesy Mark Weast)4 An Induction Station is any Camp, Post, Ship or Station of the Army or Navy forces at which selected men are received and if found acceptable, are inducted into Military Service. Decisions were reached at the Induction Station whether to accept or reject each selectee and to induct or enlist those accepted into the Military Service. Physical examinations were given under the supervision of a Medical Officer. An Officer of the Army, Navy or Marine Corps administered the prescribed oath of office below to each person who was accepted. The officer then explained their obligations and privileges as members of the military. All of the actions taken at the Induction Stations generally lasted less than 24 hours. Figure 8 shows the general route of Hebert Hull in Ohio as he went off to war.
Figure 8: 1942 Ohio Division of Highways Map (Ohio Department of Transportation)5 10 USC 502. Enlistment Oath .— Each person enlisting in an armed force shall take the following oath: "I, {name}, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
Based upon the STSA of 1940 and Army regulations for men inducted into the Army, he was assigned his Army Serial Number (SN). The first digit of (3) in the SN indicated that a man was conscripted (drafted) into the United States Army, regardless of whether the man formerly had an Army, Navy, or other service number, and this SN would be retained thereafter upon enlistment or reenlistment for the Regular Army. The second digit of (5) indicates the corps area of induction. The Corps Areas of induction were specially designated geographic areas that assisted in tracking inductees back to their point of origin. In the case of Herbert Hull, he was from the 5th Corps Area, which included OH, IN, KY, and WV, and included Army SNs 35,000,000 to 35,999,999.
Consecutive numbers were not assigned to men of the same surname. Canceled numbers were not to be held available for reassignment. The Army serial number assigned to an enlisted man is part of his official designation and, except as indicated, will ordinarily appear in every military record in which his name appears, including every letter, telegram, order, report, pay roll, etc., at least once, preferably where the name first occurs. Special care must be taken that the correct Army serial number is used for the reason that certain records are filed and certain accounts are paid by the Army serial number and not by name.6
The importance of a soldier’s SN in conducting research on the soldier can not be overstressed as this vital number provides the link to everything that exists in the governmental archival records concerning said soldier. He was given Army SN 35-597-467, and it is this number that helped track him down when finding him. Herbert Hull’s enlistment records may be found at the National Archives, Archival Database in the Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records) in Records Group 64, in Box # 0964 on Film Reel # 5.26 and may be accessed at: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/
The physical qualifications for men inducted into the armed forces included that the selectee be 5 feet tall, and weigh at least 105 pounds. The recruit must be firmly muscled, vigorous and healthy. The hearing requirements were to be rated at least 10/20 in one ear, and 20/20 in the other ear. The vision requirements were that he must be able to read 20/100 without glasses and 20/40 with them, with no disqualification for color-blindness. Herbert Hull met all of these requirements. Figure 9 shows the induction process.
Figure 9: Induction Center photos: Taken from U.S. Army Heritage Trail, USAHEC, Carlisle, Pennsylvania (author’s collection) To summarize the induction process during World War II, millions of American draftees began their military service by reporting to induction centers established throughout the country. At the induction center future soldiers had to successfully complete the following tasks:
Undergo physical examinations conducted in groups of 25 using an assembly line approach. Receive a psychiatric evaluation Be fingerprinted and undergo a criminal background check Participate in a p
re-assignment interview during which
interviewees expressed the type of service they desired
Sign induction papers and receive individual serial numbers
Participate in a formal swearing in ceremony
Depart on up to two weeks furlough before reporting to reception centers located
throughout the country.
(Taken from U.S. Army Heritage Trail, USAHEC, Carlisle, Pennsylvania) Next, he may have been given a few days furlough with orders for now Private (PVT) Herbert S Hull to arrive at the Fort Hayes Reception Center, Columbus, Ohio on January 14, 1943 to begin his enlistment.
Fort Hayes was a historic fort established in 1863 that served as an important military post during the Civil War. The 77-acre military post known today as Fort Hayes in Columbus was born out of the need for a federal arsenal to store and repair Ordinance Corps arms and to equip Ohio regiments called to duty during the Civil War. In 1861, Columbus was a city of 19,000 inhabitants in a geographic area not nearly as large as it is today. That same year Congress authorized the erection of an armory and arsenal in Columbus. In 1922, the name of the post was changed from the Columbus Arsenal to Fort Hayes in honor of President and former Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Fort Hayes continued as it had in the past as a reception center for soldiers during World War II. On March 1, 1944, this function was discontinued. The federal government granted the Ohio National Guard use of the post on December 17, 1946, and it has been used by both the Army Reserve and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The compound has continued to be in use by the local, State and Federal governments for both military and civilian functions to this day.
The former Fort Hayes site sits northeast of the Greater Columbus Convention Center and the central business district of downtown Columbus and is bordered to the north and south by Interstate 670, to the east by Interstate 71 and to the west by Cleveland Avenue. The photo in Figure 10 accurately reflects the Fort Hayes that existed in 19437,