"Captain McPheeters complete devotion to the safety of his men, beyond the importance of his own safety, is in keeping with the highest traditions of the service."
Thus the closing sentence of a citation, awarding the Silver Star "for gallantry in action", strikes the keynote of the entire four years' service of Capt. Archibald A. McPheeters, of the paratroop infantry.
Capt. McPheeters commanded a battalion of the famous 82nd airborne division which helped prepare the path for the oncoming infantry on D-day in Normandy.
He jumped with his men on Holland in the daring days of last September when the "Eighty-second" flew to the relief of trapped British troops at Arnhem. He was back in the gallant fight in Belgium when the great German counter-attack bent back the allied lines on the German border.
But it isn't the jumping and fighting, the organizing and the firing of guns, that tell about Archibald McPheeters. It's the little things---the letters written to Mrs. McPheeters at their home on Northeast Park. Letters from the fellows in his command, their wives, and even their girl friends, telling her that young paratroopers loved and trusted this man---who took all their own risks---first.
In late November, McPheeters wrote to his wife and smal Archilbald McPheeters III, telling them to eat five extra helpings of turkey for him because "any resemblance between 'C' ration and food is purley conincidental"---and 'C' ration loomed ahead for his Thanksgiving.
"As you know, any place I go I have fun," the letter went on "and this has been both fun and pleasure, but it is beginning to get old. The only pleasure that I get now is to try to snag off a wandering Jerry patrol as we did about a week ago...And the only thing that I can get you for Christmas is a little thing the big boy gave me last week. Shopping at present is more or less difficult."
The "little thing" from the "big boy" turned out to be a Silver Star, earned with "the airborne" in Holland---on a dangerous and difficult shopping tour, indeed.
Its story is given in the citation which tells how Capt. McPheeters, accompanied by four of his men, started out on a dawn inspection tour of his right flank road block which was emplaced within 400 yeards of the German boundary of the Reichwald, an enemy stronghold.
During the course of inspection the captain became aware of the presence of a German combat patrol of 12 men, which during the hours of darkness, had penetrated his lines. From a point 1,500 yards behind the road block, the enemy was preparing to attack.
Captain McPheeters immediately ordered his four men to scatter for better cover, and although armed only with a pistol and in an extremely exposed position, he opened fire on the enemy.
By aggresive, rapid fire and movement, and in spite of heavy enemy fire from rifles and two automatic weapons, he then advanced to within 50 yards of the enemy, dispersing them in confusion, wounding two of their non-commissioned officers and taking three prisoners.
The citation reads: "Without Capt. McPheeters' cool aggressive action and outstanding gallantry, in closing with a heavily armed enemy of superior numbers whose presence seriously jeopardized a key point in the defense of the entire Groesbeck sector, severe casualties would have resulted."
Now, further word has come from the war department to the home at 724 Northeast Park, where Mrs. McPheeters waits with their 2 year-old son. It is a brief wire, telling simply that on January 3 (two days after his twenty-seventh birthday) Capt. McPheeters fell in gallant action---still thinking first of his men.
The captain attended Classen highschool and graduated from A&M college, just before enlistment in 1940. His mother, Mrs. A. A. McPheeters Sr., now makes her home in Cincinnati.
(PUBLISHED IN THE OKLAHOMAN ON FEBRUARY 4, 1945, PAGE 40.)
Thus the closing sentence of a citation, awarding the Silver Star "for gallantry in action", strikes the keynote of the entire four years' service of Capt. Archibald A. McPheeters, of the paratroop infantry.
Capt. McPheeters commanded a battalion of the famous 82nd airborne division which helped prepare the path for the oncoming infantry on D-day in Normandy.
He jumped with his men on Holland in the daring days of last September when the "Eighty-second" flew to the relief of trapped British troops at Arnhem. He was back in the gallant fight in Belgium when the great German counter-attack bent back the allied lines on the German border.
But it isn't the jumping and fighting, the organizing and the firing of guns, that tell about Archibald McPheeters. It's the little things---the letters written to Mrs. McPheeters at their home on Northeast Park. Letters from the fellows in his command, their wives, and even their girl friends, telling her that young paratroopers loved and trusted this man---who took all their own risks---first.
In late November, McPheeters wrote to his wife and smal Archilbald McPheeters III, telling them to eat five extra helpings of turkey for him because "any resemblance between 'C' ration and food is purley conincidental"---and 'C' ration loomed ahead for his Thanksgiving.
"As you know, any place I go I have fun," the letter went on "and this has been both fun and pleasure, but it is beginning to get old. The only pleasure that I get now is to try to snag off a wandering Jerry patrol as we did about a week ago...And the only thing that I can get you for Christmas is a little thing the big boy gave me last week. Shopping at present is more or less difficult."
The "little thing" from the "big boy" turned out to be a Silver Star, earned with "the airborne" in Holland---on a dangerous and difficult shopping tour, indeed.
Its story is given in the citation which tells how Capt. McPheeters, accompanied by four of his men, started out on a dawn inspection tour of his right flank road block which was emplaced within 400 yeards of the German boundary of the Reichwald, an enemy stronghold.
During the course of inspection the captain became aware of the presence of a German combat patrol of 12 men, which during the hours of darkness, had penetrated his lines. From a point 1,500 yards behind the road block, the enemy was preparing to attack.
Captain McPheeters immediately ordered his four men to scatter for better cover, and although armed only with a pistol and in an extremely exposed position, he opened fire on the enemy.
By aggresive, rapid fire and movement, and in spite of heavy enemy fire from rifles and two automatic weapons, he then advanced to within 50 yards of the enemy, dispersing them in confusion, wounding two of their non-commissioned officers and taking three prisoners.
The citation reads: "Without Capt. McPheeters' cool aggressive action and outstanding gallantry, in closing with a heavily armed enemy of superior numbers whose presence seriously jeopardized a key point in the defense of the entire Groesbeck sector, severe casualties would have resulted."
Now, further word has come from the war department to the home at 724 Northeast Park, where Mrs. McPheeters waits with their 2 year-old son. It is a brief wire, telling simply that on January 3 (two days after his twenty-seventh birthday) Capt. McPheeters fell in gallant action---still thinking first of his men.
The captain attended Classen highschool and graduated from A&M college, just before enlistment in 1940. His mother, Mrs. A. A. McPheeters Sr., now makes her home in Cincinnati.
(PUBLISHED IN THE OKLAHOMAN ON FEBRUARY 4, 1945, PAGE 40.)
"Captain McPheeters complete devotion to the safety of his men, beyond the importance of his own safety, is in keeping with the highest traditions of the service."
Thus the closing sentence of a citation, awarding the Silver Star "for gallantry in action", strikes the keynote of the entire four years' service of Capt. Archibald A. McPheeters, of the paratroop infantry.
Capt. McPheeters commanded a battalion of the famous 82nd airborne division which helped prepare the path for the oncoming infantry on D-day in Normandy.
He jumped with his men on Holland in the daring days of last September when the "Eighty-second" flew to the relief of trapped British troops at Arnhem. He was back in the gallant fight in Belgium when the great German counter-attack bent back the allied lines on the German border.
But it isn't the jumping and fighting, the organizing and the firing of guns, that tell about Archibald McPheeters. It's the little things---the letters written to Mrs. McPheeters at their home on Northeast Park. Letters from the fellows in his command, their wives, and even their girl friends, telling her that young paratroopers loved and trusted this man---who took all their own risks---first.
In late November, McPheeters wrote to his wife and smal Archilbald McPheeters III, telling them to eat five extra helpings of turkey for him because "any resemblance between 'C' ration and food is purley conincidental"---and 'C' ration loomed ahead for his Thanksgiving.
"As you know, any place I go I have fun," the letter went on "and this has been both fun and pleasure, but it is beginning to get old. The only pleasure that I get now is to try to snag off a wandering Jerry patrol as we did about a week ago...And the only thing that I can get you for Christmas is a little thing the big boy gave me last week. Shopping at present is more or less difficult."
The "little thing" from the "big boy" turned out to be a Silver Star, earned with "the airborne" in Holland---on a dangerous and difficult shopping tour, indeed.
Its story is given in the citation which tells how Capt. McPheeters, accompanied by four of his men, started out on a dawn inspection tour of his right flank road block which was emplaced within 400 yeards of the German boundary of the Reichwald, an enemy stronghold.
During the course of inspection the captain became aware of the presence of a German combat patrol of 12 men, which during the hours of darkness, had penetrated his lines. From a point 1,500 yards behind the road block, the enemy was preparing to attack.
Captain McPheeters immediately ordered his four men to scatter for better cover, and although armed only with a pistol and in an extremely exposed position, he opened fire on the enemy.
By aggresive, rapid fire and movement, and in spite of heavy enemy fire from rifles and two automatic weapons, he then advanced to within 50 yards of the enemy, dispersing them in confusion, wounding two of their non-commissioned officers and taking three prisoners.
The citation reads: "Without Capt. McPheeters' cool aggressive action and outstanding gallantry, in closing with a heavily armed enemy of superior numbers whose presence seriously jeopardized a key point in the defense of the entire Groesbeck sector, severe casualties would have resulted."
Now, further word has come from the war department to the home at 724 Northeast Park, where Mrs. McPheeters waits with their 2 year-old son. It is a brief wire, telling simply that on January 3 (two days after his twenty-seventh birthday) Capt. McPheeters fell in gallant action---still thinking first of his men.
The captain attended Classen highschool and graduated from A&M college, just before enlistment in 1940. His mother, Mrs. A. A. McPheeters Sr., now makes her home in Cincinnati.
(PUBLISHED IN THE OKLAHOMAN ON FEBRUARY 4, 1945, PAGE 40.)
Thus the closing sentence of a citation, awarding the Silver Star "for gallantry in action", strikes the keynote of the entire four years' service of Capt. Archibald A. McPheeters, of the paratroop infantry.
Capt. McPheeters commanded a battalion of the famous 82nd airborne division which helped prepare the path for the oncoming infantry on D-day in Normandy.
He jumped with his men on Holland in the daring days of last September when the "Eighty-second" flew to the relief of trapped British troops at Arnhem. He was back in the gallant fight in Belgium when the great German counter-attack bent back the allied lines on the German border.
But it isn't the jumping and fighting, the organizing and the firing of guns, that tell about Archibald McPheeters. It's the little things---the letters written to Mrs. McPheeters at their home on Northeast Park. Letters from the fellows in his command, their wives, and even their girl friends, telling her that young paratroopers loved and trusted this man---who took all their own risks---first.
In late November, McPheeters wrote to his wife and smal Archilbald McPheeters III, telling them to eat five extra helpings of turkey for him because "any resemblance between 'C' ration and food is purley conincidental"---and 'C' ration loomed ahead for his Thanksgiving.
"As you know, any place I go I have fun," the letter went on "and this has been both fun and pleasure, but it is beginning to get old. The only pleasure that I get now is to try to snag off a wandering Jerry patrol as we did about a week ago...And the only thing that I can get you for Christmas is a little thing the big boy gave me last week. Shopping at present is more or less difficult."
The "little thing" from the "big boy" turned out to be a Silver Star, earned with "the airborne" in Holland---on a dangerous and difficult shopping tour, indeed.
Its story is given in the citation which tells how Capt. McPheeters, accompanied by four of his men, started out on a dawn inspection tour of his right flank road block which was emplaced within 400 yeards of the German boundary of the Reichwald, an enemy stronghold.
During the course of inspection the captain became aware of the presence of a German combat patrol of 12 men, which during the hours of darkness, had penetrated his lines. From a point 1,500 yards behind the road block, the enemy was preparing to attack.
Captain McPheeters immediately ordered his four men to scatter for better cover, and although armed only with a pistol and in an extremely exposed position, he opened fire on the enemy.
By aggresive, rapid fire and movement, and in spite of heavy enemy fire from rifles and two automatic weapons, he then advanced to within 50 yards of the enemy, dispersing them in confusion, wounding two of their non-commissioned officers and taking three prisoners.
The citation reads: "Without Capt. McPheeters' cool aggressive action and outstanding gallantry, in closing with a heavily armed enemy of superior numbers whose presence seriously jeopardized a key point in the defense of the entire Groesbeck sector, severe casualties would have resulted."
Now, further word has come from the war department to the home at 724 Northeast Park, where Mrs. McPheeters waits with their 2 year-old son. It is a brief wire, telling simply that on January 3 (two days after his twenty-seventh birthday) Capt. McPheeters fell in gallant action---still thinking first of his men.
The captain attended Classen highschool and graduated from A&M college, just before enlistment in 1940. His mother, Mrs. A. A. McPheeters Sr., now makes her home in Cincinnati.
(PUBLISHED IN THE OKLAHOMAN ON FEBRUARY 4, 1945, PAGE 40.)
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