THE BIG WHEEL

[Music] [Music] the history of the 35th division began with wheels in 1846 from the Mexican War broke out we were hustled from our homes in Missouri to the far west to guard the pioneer wagons that blazed the old Santa Fe Trail from then on our outfits saw action in a civil war with the blue and the gray the Indian campaigns the spanish-american war the Philippine insurrection and on the Mexican border in 16 and 17 in fact it was in 1917 that we adopted the Santa Fe cross which had been employed in the old days and markers along the historic trail and we used it as the shoulder patch design a white cross within a white wagon wheel on a blue field well wheels came into our lives again in World War one after being organized as a division from Midwestern National Guard units in August of 1917 the thirty-fifth took to the high seas and arrived in France May 11th 1918 we attacked the boss from September 26th to October 14 1918 capturing BA kua our own chicken in the oven Corps and some entire sections in April of 1919 we were finally relieved and returned home to Blighty there was an officer with us at the time in command of battery D of the one to artillery captain Harry as Truman who hitched his wagon wheel to a star and became the big wheel himself 27 years later [Music] but the good old thirty-fifth wasn't to be permanently deactivated during the years of peace the 35th as units of the Nebraska Kansas and Missouri National Guard had stood ready in a vigil for our national security then a guy named Hitler decided to get tough of the world he rolled up in his mercedes-benz job and then he began to roll all over Europe with his armored blitzkrieg [Music] that's when we joined up to dump the wheels of a Nazi apple cart with our own wheels of war so back into federal service went the old thirty-fifth when we were inducted December 23rd 1940 and we were on wheels again we began training at Camp Robinson Arkansas took part in a Louisiana maneuvers polished up our training at Rucker Alabama at the Tennessee maneuvers and the West Virginia winter mountain maneuvers we knew we were being toughened up for something important the big push maybe our first inkling of what was in the cards for us came in May 1944 when under secret orders we embarked for England yep we were on the go again [Music] to heaven month bodman Penzance and say lives in merry old England merry [Music] generalife in General Patton inspected us together with Major General Paul W body our commanding general for the duration [Applause] a great guy Ike he promises a party on the Rhine with champagne what was all over you know he paid off too he oh that's getting ahead of our story exactly nine days later the Santa Fe division found itself on the go again [Music] this time it was for real this was it for on 5 July we became part of the invasion of Europe and celebrated a late 4th of July with guns and men in Normandy France on Omaha Beach and Colville sir mayor with San Louis our objective the Gateway to the French interior our first action was a defensive one at the beer canal July 8th near st. Nicholas then on July 11 at Oh 600 we attacked [Music] and some more we met heavy machine-gun and mortar fire reinforced with everything the Heinie's had but we went through until one battalion was stopped at Chateau Cecile there a heavily fortified church another metallian five past the church [Music] the Krauts were tough at La Petite Burma [Music] we broke through though at advanced to la carry on yep the thirty-fifth kept going and on foot some of us drove to a point a little north of San lo our immediate objective being a long forbidding Hill Hill number 122 dominating the town that drive carried others of us to Emily the Grouse counter-attacked 12 times [Music] no soap though our wheels weren't geared for going backward so we attacked once more on July 18 it's still Hill 122 but at the day's end sure we took Hill 122 and on to the ruins of sant lo which had once been thriving city of about 10,000 people [Music] with sound low taken we hunt putted it across the Cherbourg Peninsula and on to more tane on wheels through a branch just in time to help throw back the German counter-attack we did our bit more tame and rescued the 30th divisions famed lost battalion some of us were lost to there was no stopping us after that [Music] August 16th we liberated or Leon and went on to cross the rivers soir Seine Marne news and the yon River - honey you should have seen the faces of the French people in Motown G but we liberated the city from the Krauts we provided an honor guard for the fallen FF II but continued on again until we reached no see we crossed the Moselle and took nasi on September 15th [Music] some of us didn't join in the fun then we crossed the mirth River the next day until on December 5th we attacked saga mean we took saga mean and cross the Tsar and the blithe rivers ever hear of a place called bostonia we got to learn a lot about it in the ardennes campaign when we beat off attacks by four kraut divisions yep four of them that's where the 134th earned its well-deserved regimental distinguished Unit Citation [Applause] but help was needed in the north so the thirty-fifth was Mosin up on wheels again to join the ninth army at Maastricht Holland where we relieved the 150 fifth British infantry brigade we took up positions along the Loire River in Germany from an endow south to crowd or under lieutenant-general WH Simpson our former commanding general the jump off for the Rhine came on February 24th that hill fort where they tried to stop us with mines casualties to otaku joven we're at it as some tough opposition [Music] then we rolled 45 miles along the famed siegfried line on our wheels again and took van Lowe Holland on our way to the Rhine [Music] we took 23 towns in two days including Semillon mentioned Gladbach and lint port we converged on dropped Milligan and Austin Berg also fell Rhine Berg was cleared by some of our boys of the 137 by March 10th we had completed the reduction of the Reysol sector the British made contact with us the next day with Germany lying ahead of us ours for the taking did we take it well what do you think he [ __ ] Orion was kaput we had definitely reached the pursuit phase though there was still a lot of work to be done [Music] we were part of the 9th Army's drived in the final crushing of the Krauts the tactician 'he's described it as exploiting the enemy's rear areas after breaching his frontal positions we called it a rat race so far we had traveled 1,300 miles across France Belgium Luxembourg Holland and Germany to do it on March 27 solvus moved into the center of the line and battled and strongly defended woods loaded with small arms mortar and artillery fire [Music] we took blood buck and pushed on past the bridgehead limits to within two miles of Reckling housing we took Reckling housing April 3rd and then Curtin suffered overlaps along the Rhine her in a canal the Krauts tried to stop us by blowing up bridges on our faces [Music] but her and Canal territory was ours when we crossed the canal and grabbed her 'no and Gelsenkirchen the Ruhr pocket was almost cleared so we jumped on wheels again to 95 miles in two days to the old river as the crow flies who were only 40 miles from Berlin of all American troops the Santa Fe was the nearest to Berlin capital of the German Reich by April 27 the last resistance in our sector was over yes the Heinie's were ready to call it quits [Music] the thirty-fifth was given a rest on occupation duty in the Hanover area at Coblentz and Tiger Munda we put in a few more licks of occupation duty and grabbed some relaxation and Bob Bear Creek in Germany where we conducted a swimming meet but the thirty-fifth was scheduled to be redeployed through the US for duty in the Pacific no dice though VJ Day came along peace broke out while we were still in France [Music] we broke open some French piss water to celebrate and some of us celebrated in other ways yes the big wheel and rolled to a full stop many of our buddies had hitched their wagon wheels to their last stars at Brussels Belgium President Truman came over and reviewed his old outfit that garnered its full share of honors and decorations Medal of Honor yep the SES sure 35 of them all lots of other kinds of fruit salad including 15 thousand Purple Hearts and seven distinguished Unit Citations we were returned stateside September of 45 today once more we're back home in our armories as citizen-soldiers carrying on the traditions of our forefathers National Guardsmen of the 35th [Music]