Grayson County TXGenWeb

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Military Veterans |
George
Patterson

The Denison
Herald
Saturday, August 2,
1919
pg. 9
COLORED SOLDIER MADE
GOOD IN FRANCE
The real dark colored
boy who used to work at the Southern Garage
for many months, has returned from overseas.
George Patterson was one colored boy
who did not worry much about the draft as he
drank lye when he was a baby and he couldn't
eat nothing much but oatmeal and milk, he
claiming that Uncle Sam could not diet him,
which the Army did to as nicely as they took
George and gave him plenty of
everything but oatmeal and milk, thereby
adding two inches to his height and 24
pounds to his weight.
George Patterson,
perhaps for a colored soldier, has had as
varied and important a service record of any
of his kind. He had a varied
experience working under Mr. Crook, as his
first employee in Denison, and as such
became very proficient as a machinist and
driver. As soon as Uncle Sam found out
his qualifications, rapid was his progress
to France, and on the twenty-ninth day from
the time he left Denison, George was on his
way across.
As soon as he got in
France, he was given a liberty
truck in the 332nd Service Battalion,
80th Division, and was engaged in
transporting trench timbers up to the new
trench construction and for weeks around the
Meuse battlefields was under direct
artillery fire, where he became a
first-class mechanic, and the signing of the
Armistice found him in Argonne Forest.
In December he
went on a special detached service and for
two months he nor his truck saw his company.
On March 10 he was called in and with
his truck went into the grave registrations
work in the great Caberet
Rouge British Cemetery where 35,000
Americans are buried. While engaged in
this service, George began to long for home
and Denison, and his old job and friends.
George has had a great experience and
is distinctly and Army made man.

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