American Valor Quarterly Issue 12 - Spring 2015 | Page 20

these uniforms made?”
He said, “They can do them in one
day.”
So we got to Bond Street and the
first tailor said he could do it but he
was pretty loaded with jobs. “When do
you want it?” he asked.
I told him we’d like it by tomorrow,
and the tailor said normally he could
do it, but that we’d find plenty of
tailors on this street that could have
it ready for
tomorrow.

CIA photo

So we got the
uniform, and
everything else.
Then we went
up the street
where there
was a photo
shop and a pub.
We got photos
made but I don’t
recall whether
we visited there
or the pub first.
Looking at the
photos now, it
looks like I may
have visited the
pub first.
After I got my officer commission,
I wanted a line company, but they
needed somebody to do S3 work for
the 2nd Battalion. They had a drunk
as the S3. His name was Lewis Nixon.
I was assigned to be his assistant.
After picking him up off the floor
two or three times, I realized my
Mom didn’t raise me to be the maid
of a drunk. I went to see my battalion
commander to request a transfer. He
threw me out of the office because
he needed me, or so he thought. I
worked with Nixon for a couple more
days and still thought I needed to see
Col. Sink to request a transfer. I was
on thin ice already because I never
should have been in the 506. When
you get promoted from an enlisted
man to an officer, Army regulations
state that you are supposed to be
20

transferred out of the division. Col.
Sink and Gen. Taylor told me they had
a special permission to keep me in the
unit because they valued me so much
as an officer. Those were their words,
not mine. I went to see Col. Sink and
he asked, “What the hell do you want,
Shames?”
I said, “Sir, I want to be transferred
out of my current job and put with a
line company.”

MEMBERS OF THE EINDHOVEN
RESISTANCE WITH TROOPS
FROM THE 326TH MEDICAL
COMPANY OF THE 101ST
AIRBORNE DIVISION POSE IN
FRONT OF THE EINDHOVEN
CATHEDRAL, SEPTEMBER, 1944.

He said, “Did you get permission
from Col. Strayer?”
“No, sir. Col. Strayer threw me out
of his office.”
“Why?” he asked.
I said, “Sir, I caught him going
the wrong way in the Bloody Gulch,
grabbed him by the arm and said, ‘Sir,
the fighting is in that direction,’ and I
think he has had it in for me since.”
Col. Sink said, “Shames, you think
you’re the meanest officer in this outfit

don’t you?”
I said, “No, sir. I don’t like mean, sir.
I think I’m tough.”
“I have a job for you,” he said. “I
want somebody as my platoon patrol
leader of the regiment. That’s going to
be you.”
So I got back to my company and
told the company commander that
I was going to be renamed as the
platoon leader of the patrol platoon.
This meant I’d be back in the thick
of battle. I got on a plane going back
to the continent from England. The
first man I met when I touched ground
was head of the southern region of
the Dutch underground. By chance
he was right by me when I got out my
parachute. He was told me about a
secret line they had formed. He had
no idea who I was, and I had no idea
who he was, but I had this information
and didn’t know what to do with it.
When we cleared out our first city
in Holland, the line was between
Eindhoven and Tilburg. Tilburg was
still held by the enemy and we were in
Eindhoven.
Col. Sink called me and said, “I want
you to stick with the underground
people until we find out who is
ahead of us to the North over our
regiment. Get to that line in Tilburg
and get that information to us here in
Eindhoven.”
“How do I go?” I asked.
He said the Dutch people would
give me a uniform to wear. Now that
scared the living hell out of a soldier. I
was going to go as a civilian with the
Dutch underground to get to where
I could phone in the information
they wanted. I did this for three or
four days, scared to death because I
knew what would happen to me if
was caught. Fortunately, without any
trouble whatsoever we did what we
set out to do. I got back to my unit,
which had traveled up the road where
the British troops were having real
trouble. They were stuck on an island
between Arnhem and Nijmegen on
AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY