Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton Link: Allan Howerton Homepage
on September 2, 2009, 4:44 pm, in reply to "info on my grandfather Norman Long"
98.163.77.119
The 84th Division roster lists Pfc. Norman B. Long of Fort Smith, Arkansas as a member of Company K, 333rd Infantry. He was likely promoted to Sergeant after the roster was compiled following the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945. He served during the Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns but not in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) and was awarded a Purple Heart Medal. That he was not with the company during the Ardennes campaign probably means that he was wounded during the fighting along the Siegfried Line (Geilenkirchen area) in the fall of 1944 before the 84th was committed to the Battle of the Bulge in late December.
Sgt. Long served in one of the best know companies of the 84th Division thanks to the book “The Men of Company K” by Harold P. Leinbaugh, the company commander and John D. Canpbell, the deputy commander (Wm. Morrow & Company: 1985). The book is out of print but used copies may be found at various Internet booksellers. This excellent book was an inspiration for my memoir “Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory” that tells the story of my unit, Company K, 335th Infantry.
Sgt. Long was a member of the Railsplitter Society. A 1980s Society Directory lists him as living in Fort Smith, Arkansas at that time.
163
Message Thread:
« Back to thread