The Story of Eric Eugene Anderson, a small-town boy

from Summerville, South Carolina who met the chal-

lenges of his time head-on and dedicated his life to the

defense of his country. This book honors and dedicates

his final resting spot at Arlington National Cemetery

on the Second of December, Two Thousand and Nine.

Eric E. AndersonSaluting a True American Hero

FORWARDMARCH

© 2009 by Lance AndersonPublished in 2009 by Jozu Publishing.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in the USA

Eric E. Anderson was born in Paragould, Arkansas where his

father worked. Bradford Anderson and Josephine Sanders met in college in Greenville, Illinois and were married in June of 1920 and moved to Thornton, Arkansas where their first child, Helen Rebecca was born in September of 1921. After a move back to Paragould where Eric Augustus and Cora Tooker Anderson, the grandparents lived, the twins came along in January 1924. Cora, Bradford’s mother described the event, “Two sweet babies came a few minutes after 11 p.m. A little girl, Bettie Jo Anderson and ten minutes later a little boy, Eric Eugene Anderson. Thank God.” The small lumber town of Para-gould was just beginning the transition from the profitable timber industry to farming and the process was difficult and took time and many jobs suddenly became obsolete. By the time Eric and his twin sister, Betty Jo were two, their father had accepted a more secure and better paying job as a bookkeeper for a lumber company, J.F. Prettyman and Sons in Summerville, South Carolina. Eric and Betty Jo, their older sister Helen, their mother Josephine, and Bradford all moved cross country to a new life and a new home.

The twins - Betty Jo and Eric in the center with their Grandmother, sister Helen at left and cousin Martha on the right. Below: Betty Jo and Eric in High School.

Building the Foundation

Bradford wrote to his parents in July, 1928 from Summerville and described some of the antics of the twins, “Today Eric and Betty Jo went out doors right after dinner. We knew they were play-ing but pretty soon they came back in the house plastered with paint in gener-ous spots and portions of their clothes and anatomy. It appears that they had found, or discovered, some paint cans with relics of the past still therein. They reasoned out that if mud (or sand, for the soil is sandy) and water would make delicious pies, why wouldn’t paint and sand make still better, and far more beautiful pies. The result was a mar-velous success from their viewpoint. At least, until they were paddled and

then scrubbed and scoured until partly clean at any rate.” On another occasion Bradford wrote, “Last Sunday night I heard the children, or rather the twins, yelling to beat the band. It was begin-ning to get dark. I went to the door, and saw that they were yelling at some mule that had managed to violate the stock law and was peacefully eating grass near our front gate. The children suddenly disappeared around the house. Soon I heard more wild Indian yelling. I looked out again and there Betty Jo and Eric were challenging that mule to a duel. Eric had the brace and bit, and Betty Jo the hatchet. And of all the bloodthirsty

Bobby and Bradford Anderson

Eric about 14 with his friend, Robert Hemphill. Eric’s dog Rex. Boxing Medal Azalea Festival 1941

language they were using. I made them put up the instruments of bloodshed and once more established peace on earth, good will toward mules.” Eric’s younger brother, Robert Eldon Anderson was born in Summerville in 1930. In those wonderful, carefree pre-war days Eric enjoyed an idyllic childhood. The depression was raging everywhere but the Anderson family continued on without suffering as badly as others. Hunting, fishing, exploring - it was a real Huck Finn type of existence and Eric made the most of it. There was a time when Eric decided to make a parachute and on the completion of

a sophisti-cated design he decided that it needed to be tested out properly. His always nearby “guinea pig” was available and before she knew what to

From the Charleston newspaper: Taking it easy - Some of the outstanding fighters in the Carolinas Golden Gloves were snapped yesterday afternoon as they relaxed before last night’s milling at the Armory.

Eric and Robert Hemphill going on a camping trip. Notice Eric’s pistol and the boy’s snake boots. That is not a cigarette in Eric’s mouth.

think Betty Jo leaped boldly off a fence, plummeted rapidly towards earth, and came away with a broken arm. In all the commotion the merits of the parachute were promptly forgotten, although as a precursor to Eric’s future this event was key in his formation. Boy Scouts was important to Eric, and it was through this fine organiza-tion that he became introduced to the sport of boxing. Eric was a natural and success came quickly and readily for him, primarily because he enjoyed the training and the dedication that was needed. He fought in the state Golden Gloves tournament as a member of the Florence Lions team under coach Tresco Johnson and came away a winner in his

Top: Eric and his girlfriend, Isabelle Bailey at Bacon’s Bridge, a popular swimming spot. Center: Bob Clark, coach of football and basketball at Summerville High School. Illustration Eric did for the “gossip sheet.” Below left: Eric pretends to beat on Robert Hemphill while Gerald Smith looks on. Below: Tommy Salis-bury has Eric in the palm of his hand.

weight class. Eric also fought and won his weight class in the Azalea Festival Tournament held in Summerville in 1941. In high school Eric played most all sports, he was captain of the school boxing team, but it was in football that he really excelled. His Senior year in 1943 saw the “Green Wave” reach its greatest goal under Coach Robert Clark, winning the District Championship, the first time a Summerville team had done that in 15 years of existence. The team not only went undefeated that year but only one touchdown was scored against them the entire year, the totals were Summerville: 342 points, opponents: 6 points! Eric was co-captain of the team with Thomas Salisbury. Although Eric had a reputation for toughness he was never a bully, his preference was for knocking down the bigger opponent. Yet he was also very popular with the girls. A good example of how others perceived him was from a mimeo-graphed high school publication from April 1943 (Eric did all the illustrations, see example) that included a gossip sheet, “Gossip of the month -- Robert Bull has agreed to kiss Isabel (sp) Bailey, in the Junior play on one condition ---- that is that Eric Anderson is chained to his seat. Izzie agrees on the conditions that Dorothy Rogers is chained to her seat. A suggestion from me is --- Please don’t chain them in seats together!!”

Eric was art editor of the yearbook and he was on the staff of the school news-paper, The Pine Log. For the yearbook he drew a cartoon of each senior and a humorous poem was included. For his cartoon Eric drew himself face down on a boxing ring with birds circling his head and the poem read, “Eric Ander-son - Look who’s on the mat. He was out to conquer the ring. The birds now sing so sweetly, Around the conquered King.” Eric dated Isabelle Bailey and also

Right: Eric’s cartoon of himself for the yearbook. Be-low: Eric admires his artwork. Bottom: After killing a large gator on the Ashley River the boys show off.

Dorothy Rogers, but the one girl he was really sweet on was Joan Winings from Springfield, Illinois. He met her when he was visiting his Aunt Nona in the late 1930’s, Joan was her next door neighbor, and they kept in touch until after the war. Joan was the girl Eric gave his prized jump wings to, which she still treasures today. Joan became a nurse and her letters crossed the country in search of Eric after he was wounded and eventually found their way to Sum-merville where they lay unopened in his mother’s attic. In 2004 Joan and her husband, Bob West, came to SC and visited Eric and together they opened up a couple of the sixty year old letters. Needless to say, Joan was a little embar-rassed. Eric was inducted into the Summer-ville High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000, he attended the ceremony and was very pleased and honored.

From Toccoa to Europe

Eric E. Anderson was one of the tough guys in the 517th, a unit full of tough guys. Eric was pretty well-known because he was on the boxing team and was very successful. Going to the fights was a popular thing to do with all the tough guys of the 517th and when one

Joan Winings at right wrote on the back of the photo, “as you can see this is a year old... How about one of yourself now? Good or not. Oct. 1941” Bottom: Eric in April 1943.

of their boys won they were all proud. Drafted in 1943 just after his 18th birthday Eric didn’t enter service until he finished his last year of high school

in Summerville, SC on May 10th. There was no question that he was going to be drafted because his father was on the draft board. In an interview Eric stated that, “my father drafted me.” He went on to relate that his father talked him and eleven other high school boys into volunteering so that married residents might stay home. Bradford Eric An-derson was a veteran of the First World War and was very active in the local American Legion. By June of 1943 Eric was waiting in Camp Toccoa, Georgia for the rest of his company to arrive from locations around the country to begin their training. He wrote home every chance he got, especially to his girlfriends and his mother, “Say mother, what do you think of your son being in the paratroops?” he asked in one of his letters. “Don’t worry about me, I will be better than just an ordinary soldier. I doubt we will ever have to jump in battle,” he continued in the letter. Most of the fellows were that way, proud and cocky in a matter-of-fact way. In another letter he discussed the officers

On new year’s day 1976 Eric visited with his good buddy from the 517th, Rudy Aube. Eric’s girlfriend Jen McBride Baird is in between the two troopers.

at Camp Toccoa, “We sure have a lot of good officers. They are just a bunch of young men around twenty-seven, the average. The oldest is not but around thirty-one or thirty-two and he is our cook. They sure make us dress - shoes shined twice a day.” Eric greatly admired his Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Richard Seitz and the two men had a warm relationship until Eric died. From Camp Toccoa they went to Fort Benning for airborne training where they earned their jump wings and the coveted combat boots. Eric’s first jump came on the 20th of September with his second on the 21st, followed by two more on the 23rd, and his fifth jump, the one that qualified him for his wings, was on the 24th. Further training at Camp Mackall in North Carolina fol-lowed and then training maneuvers in Tennessee. Quite a number of men were lost in various training accidents prov-ing how dangerous the mission could be even without hostile fire. Luckily the 517th, on one of their training jumps, was filmed by Hol-lywood cameramen. The footage is used in the Errol Flynn movie Objec-tive Burma, a Warner Brothers movie released in 1945.

Then the men were sent to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia in May, 1944 where they loaded up on troop ships that took them to Naples, Italy. Their first combat was in the Rome-Arno Campaign and heavy fighting was encountered with Eric earning a Bronze Star for his actions. When the fighting calmed down PFC Eric Anderson was selected to receive a special training course with the Pathfinders Team in or-der to precede the jump for the invasion of Southern France. The training was in Frascati, about ten miles southeast of Rome. He became an alternate mem-

ber of the Pathfinders, but his primary duty was as a scout and his mission was to make contact with the Free French Intelligence of the Office of Strategic Services. On the 15th of August 1944 the 517th participated in the invasion of Southern France - Operation Dra-goon. Also known as the “Champagne Campaign” because of the area in which they dropped, the operation was a major assault that included British and Canadian troops. Eric described his jump, “I was asleep on the plane. I unhooked my pack and the next thing I knew they said, ‘Stand up!’ So I quickly buckled myself back up - I had that much sense - I jumped from the plane and my musette bag broke away from me, that was my rations, my hand gre-nades, and my extra food. And the next thing I knew I felt my weapon and the bag it was contained in slipped right out from under me. Coming down I heard people talking, a motorbike start up and go - I think they were as scared as I was, ‘cause I didn’t have any kind of weapon. I got down on the ground and they ran faster than me. I found a weapon where somebody had been killed. I picked it up and went on with the operation. My job was as a scout and we were to wade across a stream to find a place to bring the other men across. I couldn’t find the other scout so I continued on the mis-

Top: a v-mail Eric sent from Italy. Center: Eric’s jump into Southern France. Bottom: Robert Hemphill and his friend William Henson during the war in front of a Basic Trainer BT-13 that they flew.

sion on my own.” In a 1958 newspaper interview with Gen. Seitz and Eric on their being assigned to the same unit again, “Sgt Eric Anderson of Echo Company of the Rock was a scout with D Co, 517th Regimental Combat Team when they jumped from C-47’s into the village of LeMuy, France. ‘D’ Co was the first company to jump into LeMuy and Col. Seitz, who at the time commanded the Second Battalion was the first man out the door, with Sgt Anderson following as third.” Eric is quoted in the book about “the spectacular airborne invasion that turned the tide of battle in South-ern France in 1944” The Champagne Campaign by Robert H. Adelman and Col. George Walton, “In the towns the people seemed to welcome us with open arms, but when you attempted to become more friendly, you wondered whether the people trusted or wanted you, although wine and women were ours for the asking.” After two weeks of heavy action during which he received his second Bronze Star Award, Eric was wounded severely on the 31st of August and was taken to a field hospital. Evacuated to Italy for further treatment, Eric was sent back to the US on the first of Novem-ber, arriving at Mason General Hospital in Brentwood, New York on the 17th Top: Eric at the convalescent hospital in Daytona Beach, Florida. Center: Eric painted this depiction of his jump into Southern France while at Daytona. Bottom: The leaflet that Eric and Robert dropped over the Lowcoun-try of South Carolina.

of November 1944. After a series of stays at different hospitals he wound up in Welch Convalescent Hospital in Daytona Beach, Florida. While he was recovering Eric began training again and joined the Golden Gloves Boxing

Team out of Jacksonville. The team was very successful and won a berth in the nationals at Madison Square Garden. Eric lost his match in the nationals but he was very proud of the fact that he was able to participate. Eric fought as

a welterweight (152 lbs.) losing to champion Gilbert Garcia. Chicago Tribune Sports Editor Arch Ward had conceived the idea

of a city-wide amateur boxing tournament in 1923, to be

sponsored by the news-paper. The idea spread around the country to dif-ferent newspaper sponsors and each champion was

awarded a miniature golden glove which gave the tourna-

ment its name. Eric proudly wore his golden gloves for many years. Eric was sent back to duty in the summer of 1945 and was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia and was discharged from the Army on the 25th of October that year. After the war a newspaper item from the Charleston paper referred

to Eric and a friend from his school days, Robert Hemphill, who served as a pilot in the war: “2 From Summerville Scatter Leaflets - Eric Anderson and Robert H. Hemphill of Summerville, who served in the European theater of operations with J. Strom Thurmond, candidate for governor, yesterday scat-

Top: Newspaper article about the boxing team leaving for New York. Below: Eric “recuperating” in Florida.

tered Thurmond leaflets from a plane over the Lowcountry counties. They rented the plane. Anderson, a para-trooper, landed with Thurmond over France.” In 1946 the President of the Pro-visional Government of the French Republic issued the French Croix De Guerre with Silver-Gilt Star to the 517th stating, “This crack organization distinguished itself by its bravery and endurance during the campaign in the

south of France. Parachuting on the morning of 15 August 1944, into Provence, in the vicinity of Draguignan, with the mission of protecting the right flank of the landing forces, it vigorously conducted the combat for 94 days in succession. They pushed back the op-posing forces to the Italian frontier, in spite of heavy losses and a lively enemy reaction. This greatly contributed to the success of the landing in Provence.”

Love Eric didn’t know what to do after his discharge but he did have a knack

left: Jean Safford served in the U.S. Navy from April 1943 until December 1945. Bottom left: Jean Safford and a friend in Washington at the Jefferson Memorial. Below: Eric and Jean at Art School. Bottom:A drawing Eric did at art school.

for art and when his father discussed his future with him they decided school under the new G. I. Bill would be the best course of action. On June 22, 1944, President Frank-lin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights. By the time the original GI Bill ended in July 1956, 7.8 million World War II veterans had participated in an education or training program and 2.4 million veterans had home loans backed by the Veterans’ Administration (VA). The difficulty was finding a school. Bradford wrote around trying to locate art schools near their ideal location of Chicago, Illinois. The problem was

locating schools approved under the G.I. Bill of Rights. By mid-October they had a list of approved schools in the Chicago area. The only one with any openings within the next year was the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts on South Michigan Avenue. At this point Eric was back home in Summerville and he sent a check for $5 to the school to reserve a place for him at their earliest opening. Eric wanted to study illustra-tion but he knew that “I would like to start with an elementary class for a few months or as long as necessary to build proper foundation. I feel that I would be a greater success in illustration if I build from the bottom up.” The May before classes started he moved up to Illinois to stay at his Aunt Verna’s house in Bloomington. In a letter to Eric his father had a little advice, “I hope you will make an effort to see how little trouble you can be to whomever you stay with, at present Aunt Verna. For example, picking up your own things, and waiting on yourself.” He began the first of July, 1946, the summer term. School was difficult but Eric enjoyed the challenge. Eric befriended a fellow student that was hearing impaired and in order to communicate with him he learned finger spelling and some sign language. Jean Safford observed this and was impressed by Eric’s kind heart. It wasn’t too much time before the two became an item and love blossomed.

left: The happy couple strolling through Chicago while attending Art School.

Jean was from Green Bay, Wiscon-sin and had joined the Navy WAVES in April 1943 and worked as a radioman in Washington, DC throughout the war. After her discharge in December 1945 she decided to attend school at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. It wasn’t long before they decided to get married and tied the knot on New Year’s Eve 1946. On finishing school in 1947 they moved to Summerville in search of work for Eric. After a series of temporary jobs, such as working for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co., Eric was able to secure a nice position in the advertising department of the Charleston News and Courier. Eric was eager to get back into the army but his wounds denied him reen-try. After much research and letter writ-ing, Jean found that if they established residency in Wisconsin, Eric would soon be able to join the Wisconsin State Guard. Then it would just be a matter of time before becoming eligible to join the National Guard and transfer to ac-tive duty. So they moved to Green Bay,

Above top: Leif ’s christening in 1948, the window in the background now has a stained glass window in memory of Jean. Center: While working at the Charles-ton News and Courier Eric created this christmas card for his growing family. At the top is the front of the card and below is the cards interior. Below the baby it said, “JEAN ERIC LEIF and Tinker”Above bottom: Tinker with Leif and Eric. Left: Eric and Paul Johnson at the Charleston News and Courier.

Wisconsin where Eric was able to find a job with The Green Bay Engraving Co. doing layout, paste-up, illustration, and color separations. In 1951 he went to work for the Fort Howard Paper Company (now the Fort James Paper Company) as a staff artist. While in Green Bay, Lance was born in September 1950, and Kirk came along two years later in August 1952. Things were working out with the State Guard in Wisconsin, which Eric was able to get into on the 27th of August 1951, and he was on track to get into the National Guard, but money was tight. To make ends meet they would park cars for the Packers games, but Eric, without Jean’s knowledge, was boxing professionally, and quite success-Right: The excited family before heading overseas. Below: Wildflecken, Germany in 1956. The town had been a well-known displaced persons camp at the end of the war.

fully. He used an alias, Johnny Freeman, but he was found out by his father who saw his picture in a boxing magazine and mentioned it to Jean. Needless to say, he finished out his obligations and then quit the fight game. He was the top fighter in his weight class in Wis-consin and considered a man to beat if one had hopes of getting to a title fight nationally. The little family had great fun while in Green Bay. Jean’s cousin Teckie (Saf-ford) Krouth remembered that, “when you (Eric) and Jean and Jack (Teckie’s husband) and I played cards in Green Bay, you lived in an upstairs apartment on the east side of town.” Teckie also remembers Jean as having “a magnifi-cent sense of humor. Her friends found her very clever.” Eric entered the National Guard in June of 1952 and put in applications to go active duty. It was not all smooth sailing, on the 9th of September, 1954 a Dr. Weber reevaluated Eric and physi-cally disqualified him from going on active duty. It was the first of many run-ins with doctors that Eric would have over the years. Eric and Jean scrambled to get the evaluation cleared and by November 1954 their efforts were suc-cessful. He went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri with the Sixth Armored Division and was assigned to the 86th Reconnaissance Battalion where he went through basic training again. In Febru-ary 1955 he went to advanced training in Texas at Fort Sam Houston’s Brookes

Medical Center to study to be a medical aidman. Then came the thrilling news of an assignment in Germany. Their departure point was Fort Hamilton in New York and then on to Europe.

Above: Eric taking it easy while in the field with his dog, Lesko. At right and below: The smart canine and his proud master march in a parade in Wildflecken, Germany along with other members of the 33rd Scout Dog Platoon.

Germany 1955-1958 Eric was initially assigned to the Medical Detachment of the 373rd Armored Infantry Division but he was soon able to get transferred over to the 33rd Scout Dog Platoon. He attended the Scout Dog Handler course from July through October 1956, with the responsibility of bonding with his dog and going out on patrols along the border with East Germany - the Rus-sian side. Eric’s dog, Lesko was a dark German Shepherd and was very well-trained by him, spending many hours working together. Their prime respon-sibility was to prevent infiltrators from the Soviet sector walking over the bor-der in forest or rural areas. The job was

Above: Eric as a Communist official. Left: Eric with Lesko. Bottom left: Leif, Eric, Lance, and Kirk on Christmas morning. Below: The family in the salzbergwerk (saltmines) at Berchtesgaden, Germany on the 17th of December, 1957.

turned over to the Air Force after nearly two years and Eric was transferred to the armored unit in Wildflecken, the 373rd Armored Infantry Battalion, where he was an instructor for the V Corps Escape and Evasion School. Eric’s knowledge, initiative, and imagination helped make him an excellent instructor at the school. John Leland, a Charles-ton newspaper reporter interviewed Eric and wrote, “Playing the role of a Communist official, he was among the first men the Army had to train its soldiers on how to resist indoctrination and interrogation, he said. Spitting in his pupils’ faces was only part of his job, he claimed, which guaranteed its en-rollees “a miserable ten days.” Anderson said the American troops were put in cages they had to escape from and then hunted down by military and civilian police. Area civilians were given awards if they aided in the capture, he said.” Both Jean and Eric travelled through much of Europe with the boys, with stops in Austria and Italy and places too numerous to mention. When it came time to rotate stateside everyone was disappointed. However, it was an excit-ing trip back on the USNS Gen. Rose at the end of May 1958. Returning to Fort Bragg was good for Eric because it allowed him to get better at his job. He was assigned to Company E 2nd Airborne Battle Group of the 503rd Infantry Combat Team

Above: Jean and Eric at their 9th Wedding Anniver-sary. Below: Jean in her German peasant clothes and Lance and Leif in lederhosen.

and his commander was Lt. General Richard Seitz, who was also Eric’s com-manding officer while in the 517th dur-ing World War II. Years later, in 1996, Eric commented to Gen. Seitz, “As a leader you were someone who stood in the forefront, setting the example. I stand tall when I say, LTG Richard Seitz was my commander, not just once, but twice.” Some training was on base at Fort Bragg, but he attended advanced ski training at the Cold Weather and Mountain School in Alaska at Fort Greely from November 1958 through February 1959. When Eric completed the school in December he stayed and trained his entire unit for an exercise in

February in Alaska known as Operation Caribou Creek. He did such a good job that the unit received a superior rating from the Commanding Officer. Beginning in May 1959 and through September Eric was assigned as an instructor to the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York instructing the plebes in light machine guns. Eric’s “competent and forceful efforts as a line supervisor while the cadets were firing contributed immeasurably to the effectiveness of the training.” Tragically Jean was diagnosed with cancer, called a malignancy of the pelvis. Below: Eric at the Cold Weather and Mountain School in Fort Greely, Alaska. Note the skis leaning against the quonset hut in back.

What a blow that was! She was operated on the first time October 25th, 1959 at Womac Army Hospital, Fort Bragg. Shortly afterwards Jean was sent to Walter Reed Army Hospital for radia-tion therapy treatment for her cancer, Eric was able to get a transfer from the 503rd Airborne Infantry to work in the hospital. His advanced training after he completed his basic training had been in the medical field and this worked to his advantage making it fairly easy to transfer to Walter Reed. He worked in the morgue and visited with Jean every chance he could. Brigadier General Charles Dunn, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote about Eric to his airborne company com-mander in Fort Bragg, “I thought you might appreciate an outsider’s picture of this very splendid Sergeant. Because Mrs. Dunn has been at Walter Reed un-dergoing major surgery, I was able to observe and talk with Sergeant Anderson for a period of two and a half weeks. I was particularly impressed because despite the fact that he knew his wife inevitably was going to die, he managed always to keep a smile on his face. Not only was he of great moral assistance to his wife, but to many others there. He also demonstrated great courage -- the kind of courage that one does not of-ten see. Of particular note was his complete devotion to, and

Above: Bradford, Eric’s father, loved to sing with Jean. Both were active in church choirs.

Below: Eric and Jean during her stay in Walter Reed Army Hospital. The photo was preceded by a lot of preparation on Jean’s part. She had her hair done and wanted to look as nice as possible. The photo is dated the 27th of February 1960, she died a month later.

pride in, his unit. . . I think you will find that despite the adversities he has had to face, he is still a most splendid soldier. I wish we had more like him.” It is difficult to imagine the heart-ache Jean and Eric experienced during her time at Walter Reed. She was not going to see her children grow up and all her hopes and dreams were disap-pearing quickly. Eric worked in the morgue and dealt with death constantly and watched his beloved wife painfully slip closer to death every day. Eric’s father wrote later that, “she had no delusions about the gravity of her illness after the operation. I encour-

aged her to pray for grace and strength to endure the days ahead. Told her that I was praying for a miracle of Grace and Healing but that the MOST IMPOR-TANT WAS GRACE. Urged her to recite the Apostles Creed; she told me she did so every night.” Five months and two days after Jean was operated on the first time at Fort Bragg, on a Sunday morning, she passed away. The 27th of March, 1960. She earned the right to be buried at Arling-ton National Cemetery because of her service in the United States Navy during the Second World War. With full mili-tary honors she was buried on the 30th of March. The couple had been married for thirteen years and Eric’s final resting place is beside Jean in Arlington. The same funeral home, Joseph Gawlers Sons, handled arrangements for both Jean and Eric nearly 50 years apart. Jean had left behind 11 year old Leif, 9 year old Lance, and 7 year old Kirk, and of course, an inconsolable husband, Eric. It would take time for his wounds to heal.

Rebuilding Orders for an assignment to Oki-nawa in the Pacific Ocean were given to Eric and his unit in Fort Bragg in May 1960. He had begun shipping his equipment over when he had to request

Top: Eric relaxing inside the tiny apartment in Gainesville, GA. Center: The outside of the apart-ment. Bottom: Kirk, Lance, Leif, and Eric on Lake Lanier.

a waiver to not go. He was unable to leave his sons at this time, so Eric was given a compassionate reassignment by the Army in order to have time to recover from his loss and to put back the pieces of his family. On the 23rd of June 1960 he was assigned as a military instructor at Riverside Military Acad-emy in Gainesville, Georgia, his official title was Light Weapons Instructor. The school was chartered in 1906 and opened for classes in September 1908. In 1913, a young educator named Sandy Beaver became president of the academy, and in 1915 he gained owner-ship of it. Beaver would go on to run Riverside for the next 56 years. In 1932, Sandy Beaver purchased

the Hollywood Hills Hotel in Hol-lywood, Florida. With the exception of a brief time during World War II when the Navy used the Florida campus as a training facility, the school’s cadets and staff would spend January through March at the Florida campus and the remainder of the school year would take place in Gainesville on the shores of Lake Sidney Lanier. While at Riverside Eric became in-volved with a scuba diving club as well as a sky diving club in the area. One of his innovations for both clubs were to combine their activities. He organized para-scuba events where the members would skydive with scuba gear into Lake Lanier - this was great training for Eric and he built up a reputation that went beyond the local level. He was called once to assist in an ocean body recovery off the coast of Florida. He ac-

Left: Eric in SCUBA gear after diving in Lake Lanier, Georgia. Below: Eric and his mother share a laugh in Summerville, SC.

complished his mission but came up too quickly for some reason and suffered from the bends requiring hospitalization for a few days. Eric couldn’t handle raising three boys and all the other duties facing him. Thankfully Jean’s older sister Audrey (she was 68 at the time) came to the rescue and moved down to live with them in Gainesville during the school year. When summer vacation came she would take the boys to Summerville and go back to Chicago, returning in time for school in the fall. She stayed with Eric and the boys until the summer of 1964. Audrey was a very talented musician, playing accompaniment to vaudeville entertainers and playing piano at silent movie houses in the 1920’s. She was an adult when Jean was born but the fam-ily was very close, so it was not quite so surprising that she would want to help her baby sister’s children. In a letter to his father from April 1961 Eric wrote that, “Kirk is back at school today after being sick for the last four days. Lance is getting along just fine and is full of life. Leif is the same doing a lot of studying and reading. The other night when the people came around for the can-

cer drive Lance, went to his bank and got out .50 cents, didn’t say a word and gave it to the ladies. Those boys sure miss their mother. I don’t know what I am going to do. Audrey is good with them but she is not like a mother, more like a grandmother.”

Korea 1962-1963 The excitement of another overseas assignment was just the distraction Eric needed and when he arrived at Combat Support Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Cavalry of First Cavalry he fit right in. It was the 6th of July 1952 and he joined the Army parachute team and was a major force in them winning numerous competitions. Eric continued his scuba diving and trained Korean and U.S. troops in underwater work. He worked tirelessly with the Army boxing

Right: Audrey Duket, Jean’s sister. Far right: Eric ready to jump in Korea.

team as a coach and refereed many tour-naments. Eric spent quite a bit of time in the field and he participated in opera-tion “Winter Snap II” and was a Recon

Leader. While Eric was in Korea the boys stayed with their Aunt Audrey in Gainesville, but when the tour in Korea was up Eric was sent to Fort Knox.

Fort Knox, Kentucky 1963-1964 Assignment to the United States Army Training Center - Armored on the 2nd of August, 1963 in Fort Knox, Kentucky was, to Eric, what seemed like a step backwards. His goal was to get into the new Special Forces program. From the 14th through the 16th of December he went through the Special Forces Jumpmaster course at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In the meantime he was working at Fort Knox as an instruc-tor at the NCO Academy, teaching military leadership, and then taught Infantry Light Weapons to the Armored troops stationed on base. Audrey and the boys lived with Eric at 5336-C Brett Drive in Fort Knox. Eric helped organize a sky diving club, as well as a scuba diving club. An unfor-tunate accident happened to one of the female members of the sky diving club whom Eric had mentored, Peggy Gria. While on a routine club jump in nearby Ohio Peggy, who had made static line jumps and was attempting her first free fall, panicked when her main chute did not open, she quickly pulled her reserve, it opened, but then the main chute opened, tangling the two into a hor-rible mess sending Peggy to her death. Unfortunately Leif was a witness to the

Left: Eric in Korea skydiving. Center: On a field prob-lem in Korea. Bottom: On leave in Tokyo, pensively pondering his future.

tragic event. Eric was working with Leif teach-ing him all the basics of jumping to have him go for his first jump when he turned sixteen. It was a great opportu-nity for the two to spend time together, working on parachute landing falls, packing a chute, and more. Unfortu-nately, before Leif ’s scheduled jump he broke his arm quite badly and the event was cancelled. Eric was rarely home and Audrey realized that at her age she could not handle growing boys all alone, so she informed Eric that when school was out that year she could no longer continue. Leif had trouble coping with the loss of his mother and he was too difficult for a woman in her seventies. As the oldest of the boys he was expected to be the young man of the family, but he was completely unable to come to terms with his mother’s death and needed help that no one understood in those days. The person that could have helped him most, Eric, was unable to see or under-stand what was happening to his son. Eric also realized that he needed more income and the opportunities for advanced Special Forces training with additional jump pay would help. He could not take care of his three young boys by himself. Experienced with military schools and the effect it has on young men, Eric consulted with his par-

Top: Lance, Eric, and Leif on the first day of school at Camden Military Academy in 1964. Center: Eric and his father in Summerville, 1965 Bottom: Kirk, Eric, Leif, and Lance in Summerville, 1966.

ents and decided to send Leif and Lance to a military school in Camden, South Carolina for students from 8th through 12th grade. Leif was in ninth and Lance eighth, but Kirk was in sixth grade so he would stay with his grandparents and attend Summerville schools. It was felt that this would help Leif overcome his difficulties, because Eric’s parents were, like Audrey, too old to handle such problems. Tuition was expensive and took most of what Eric earned, but he needed more to make ends meet. The opportunity for additional funds came with the escalation of U.S. operations in Vietnam and the chance to make hazardous duty pay. But in the meantime Eric attended more schools such as the Special Forces Operations and Intelligence Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland in Janu-ary 1964. The fort was near Baltimore and it was here that Eric met Alice, his future wife.

Combat Eric returned to combat in August

1965 when he was assigned to Compa-ny D 5th Special Forces Group Advisors 1st Special Forces in the Republic of Vietnam. During this tour he served in Binn Thann Thon, Camp Cai Cai, Phu Quoc Island, and in Nha Trang. On the tenth of May, 1966 while as-signed to the Special Forces “A” Detach-ment located at Cai Cai in the Mekong Delta IV Corps tactical zone Eric was awaiting a rice resupply mission by Caribou. Cai Cai was a remote camp Above: Eric and a mortar in Vietnam. Below: Always friendly, Eric poses with some of the local population. For a time Eric’s nickname in Vietnam was “White Tiger” for his aggressiveness in combat.

five hundred meters from the Cambo-dian border with a border surveillance mission covering fifty miles. The camp was constantly under probes and attack from both north and south. The only government in the area was the Hoa Hoa force that the ‘A’ Detachment was with. Captain Joseph Cincotti took command of the force when the former Special Forces Commander, Captain Leo Donker was killed inside the camp during an attack from an artillery air burst. The only resupply for Cai Cai was by air, normally LOLEX by Caribou*. The camp was protected on all sides by minefields, claymores and wired Fu gas. The minefields were in depth and there were no lanes marked. The only area safe from mines were narrow trails leading to the village. Even these trails

had to be cleared daily of enemy mines and booby traps. All that morning the camp had been receiving automatic and semi-automatic fire from the vicinity of the Cambodian border. As the Caribou came in it overshot the LOLEX extrac-tion point and crashed in the minefield protecting the village. The pilot, a Captain, was unconscious and the co-

*The Caribou specialized in resupply of Special Forces outposts that were inaccessible by road and that nor-mally were supplied by either air drop or an occasional helicopter. The Army Caribou pilots took justifiable pride in their proficiency at bringing this big twin-engine airplane into the shortest possible strip. Even the old Southeast Asia hands of “Air America” were impressed when this lumbering bird made its unbelievably slow, steep approach into some of the primitive airstrips. LOLEX means low-level extraction.

Below: A Caribou coming in for a landing. Bottom: Eric runs toward the crash site. Right: Eric preparing to go out on an operation.

pilot, a Warrant Officer, was burning. Eric, with great danger to his life, tore the top of the aircraft apart and freed first the Captain and then the Warrant Officer from the wreck. He saved the lives of both men and then carried them out through the unmarked minefield to safety. For these heroic actions Eric was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for heroism. The Soldier’s Medal was awarded because it was not involving actual conflict with an armed enemy - a mere technicality, however it is one of four decorations for which an enlisted soldier may increase his retirement pay by ten percent, and of course, Eric took advan-tage of that option when he retired. Sergeant Bernie Magiboyat , who at the time was doing a pictorial of the camp, took pictures of Eric running to the plane wreckage. We do not have original photos for this book, however we do have a xerox copy that was made since the originals were used when Lt. Col. Cincotti recommended Eric for the Silver Star. The Special Forces men at Cai Cai were called Buffalos, according to Robin Moore, by the Vietnamese “because they travel, fight, and live in the flooded plains like water buffalos, were spoiling for a grudge fight.” Eric was then assigned to Company C 1st Special Forces Group in Oki-nawa, Japan where he stayed off and on until 1974. While there he did duty in Vietnam working out of Kontum for MACV-SOG (an elite Special Opera-

tions Group), Thailand, and Korea. He then did another 13 month stint in Vietnam in MAC-V Recondo as a Special Missions Advisor. Then back to Okinawa with stints in Taiwan, Pakistan, Korea, and four different 3 to 6 month tours in Vietnam. Alice, Eric’s wife since 1966, refused to let Eric’s children live with him in Okinawa, and she caused such trouble for Eric that he was nearly kicked out of the Army. Alice was going out to military clubs on a regular basis while Eric was in combat. She decided to return stateside before his return but that was not possible until a lot of paperwork and planning had been done, but she was adamant. She decided to plead her case to the Base Commander. He was courteous to her and listened to her story of abuse and violent outbursts and how she feared Eric. As soon as she left his office it hit the fan. The General was livid that she did not use the chain of command and wasted his time with such a ridiculous problem, he wanted that woman off the island immediately. The paperwork was quickly put in order and Alice got her wish. Of course when Eric returned he was embarrassed and had a lot of explaining to do. The inci-dent nearly wrecked his career. Forty years later Alice wrote Eric and wished she could undo all the mistakes she made. She never remarried and she was alone most of the remainder of her life. Eric held a long grudge against her for the damage it did to his career, con-

sidering her the one person he disliked most. On September 7, 2003 Alice wrote a note when she returned some old photos, “Eric, I wish we could be friends... everyone needs a friend... especially as we get older. We could share a lot of memories and nostalgia.” She continued on, “But looking at those pictures made me take a good long hard look at my-self and made me realize that I could have done a lot better insofar as our marriage was concerned.” In December of 1967 Lance and Kirk came to Okinawa to live with Eric. Leif continued on at Camden Military Acad-emy since it was his senior year and he was an honor roll student and Cadet Lt. Colonel, the highest rank possible. Eric had met Fumiko Tokeshi at the American Express Bank that Alice had worked at. When Alice left, Eric began to get to know Fumi better and soon began dating, getting married in late 1969 with Lance and Kirk in attendance. Eric divorced Alice in early 1969 with his father’s help. These were very happy years for Eric, the happiest he had been since Jean’s death. He was able to actively pursue the adventurous life. He went through HALO training, High Altitude - Low Opening which meant he would jump from 20,000 feet and free-fall until he opened his parachute approximately 90 seconds later. During this training he made 23 such jumps. He was able to spend time at the Special Forces SCUBA school as a student and as an instructor. Okinawa was an ideal location to dive

Left: Eric receiving his third Bronze Star, 1970. Inset, receiving his first. Right top: Leif at Camden. Center top: Lance, Fumi, and Kirk. Center: Fumi and Eric at church. Below: Eric and Fumi’s wedding portrait.

with the beautiful coral reefs all around. In January 1968 Eric received sealed orders for a special mission to be opened enroute. Because the USS Pueblo had been seized by communist North Korea the previous week Eric and some of the other men carried cold weather gear on the assumption that their destination was Korea. When it turned out that the destination was Thailand the men felt a little foolish for having heavy winter gear in the hot steamy jungles. On a short tour in Vietnam, from September through November 1970, Eric was awarded his third Bronze Star Medal for gallantry in action in connection with military operations against a hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. This was while he was a member of MAC-V Recondo. He was an instructor at the Recondo school and took the soldiers out on reconnais-sance patrols where they frequently saw combat. It was just all in a day’s work for Eric. In one of Eric’s letters home to his mother he had concerns about Vietnam, “Duty wise I have a very good assign-ment. Still I think VN is very pretty countryside with its mountains, etc. I am still lost for a lot of answers, about things over here. American young men I don’t understand? I am at a school, the best from units, but all I can say is it is a good thing we did not look at things the way they do when we were in WWII or Korea.” In another letter he had more concerns, “Things sure have changed. I sure hope this will be my

last trip here and I might add I hope my sons don’t have to come over. To sum it up, I just can’t understand the young people today and their actions. You will never know how proud I am of my sons.” Eric’s concerns were over the use of drugs by many servicemen in the field. In 1971, while on another tour in Vietnam Eric again gave some specific concerns and addressed who he felt was at fault. “Before, I said we had a mission here but now we have made such a mess of things the only thing we can do is get our hat and leave with our tail between our legs... I go skindiving, we get our share of fish and lobster. It is hard to believe that this is a combat

Below: General William C. Westmoreland congratu-lating Eric in Vietnam. The two South Carolina men became good friends after retirement. Right: Eric on the Mekong Delta.

zone the way we live and eat. Special Forces fix their places up very good and live in style, but these other units live like pigs because that is the way they want it, it seems. You have to work to have, but these young kids just sit and cry and feel sorry for themselves.... This is an easy war but we have made it one of the worst because our troops are lack-ing in discipline, and most of all we lack leaders in the higher places, no backing from headquarters.” Eric said more about the drug issues in 1971, “Now I have to worry about Kirk going into the Army. I sure do not want any of my sons to have to come over her in Vietnam. Germany is just as bad. I have seen this come on for the last ten years. I knew that the Army knew about it because I talked with Gen. Dunn in Washington when Jean was in the hospital. When I was at Fort Bragg I tried to make an on the spot correction to a GI. I thought he was drunk, no he was high on pot. I was told by an officer it was not my place to make corrections. Regulations state that is the duty of an NCO. After a few events like that I just turn my back because I saw that the weak point was from the top, not backing the NCO in doing his job. In 1965 at BTT I gave intel to higher headquarters that a high official was using us to smuggle dope in to our country from Cambodia via Vietnam. I was told that the intel he gave was of such value that I was to keep quiet about what I knew. We are using Korean troops and Thais, and

they are making more money than our GIs for being in VN. Why? We are pay-ing them every last cent, they can do the job of fighting, but our hands are tied. Plus they are one of the main sources of bringing dope into Vietnam for our troops.” Eric had become disillusioned with the regular soldier in Vietnam, but the elite units, such as the ones he was in, had very little drug problems. He was worried about the dangers posed to him, and others like him, by the ordinary soldier, “Sergeants and good officer lives are in danger, not from Viet Cong, but from our own troops. Lifers (that’s me) can not do our job because this new modern Army will not let us do what we are trained to do. Our Army is just one MOB not an ARMY. I have often thought that the WWII group is feeling sorry for the job that they had to do and is bending over back-wards to make the private the king. They forget that there must be an enforcement group and a leader.” Eric also felt that, “each man who is on dope is an enemy and should be treated as one, not as a wounded GI. I would do just what we have done over here, give a dumb GI who gets on the stuff a rifle and let him finish the job himself. I only see a group of weak soft people who are looking for an escape from life itself.” On one of Eric’s patrol’s in Vietnam in the Mekong Delta near the Cam-bodian border he ran into a group of

Vietcong and he single-handedly killed four of them, receiving the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for his actions. Spe-cial Forces men would routinely go on one to two week intelligence gathering patrols with one other American and six to twenty Vietnamese. During his time in Vietnam Eric’s assignments with the 5th Special Forces

Group included SOG at Kontum, the MAC-V Recondo School, the Special Missions Advisory Group, FANK (Cambodian), and A-Detachment at Cai Cai, Ben Tam, Phuoc Wha Island, and LZ Sally. Some of Eric’s operations were very obscure, such as the United States Army

Above: The Studies and Observatiions Group, US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for Extraordinary Heroism in 2000 and ceremonies were held at Fort Bragg which Eric attended resulting in a group photo on the magazine cover.

Individual Training Group(UITG), which also went under the name FANK (Forces Armee Nationes Khmeres). This was a Special Forces project in Vietnam 1970-1972 that trained Cambodians. Once the Cambodians were trained (Ba-sic infantry training) they were shipped back to Cambodia to fight the North Vietnamese Army and Khmer Rouge. The reason this training was done in Vietnam was because of the Church-Cooper Amendment which wouldn’t allow US troops to be combat advisors in Cambodia. In August 1973 Eric was sent to Pakistan as part of a flood relief effort. He was still part of the First Special Forces Group and the team he was with were referred to as DART (Disaster Assistance Relief Teams. The special-ized skills that Eric and other members of his team brought, especially small boat handling and their military organiza-tional skills, really assisted in helping this foreign country suffering from a crippling natural disaster. The eight weeks Eric spent in Pakistan were even-tually recognized many years later when he was awarded a humanitarian medal. Eric had always fit in easily when deal-ing with native cultures, there was an apparent kindness that people spotted immediately, but he always respected the individuals he was dealing with. In March 1974 Eric was transferred

from Okinawa and assigned to Fort Devens, Massachussetts as a member of the Tenth Special Forces Group work-ing as an Operations Sergeant. He was unable to convince Fumi to move to the U.S. but he did go back to visit her on two occasions before their relationship ended. From July 1974 until October 1975 Eric was Senior Instructor of military

training at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. Eric was a magnet to the impres-sionable students at this liberal school. Articulate in his opinions regarding the military and their role in world politics, Eric gave a real world perspective of military life that the students had only been presented in a distorted fash-ion. His personal presence showed the student’s that their opinions needed rethinking. According to his senior officer Major Barber, Eric was, “a leader by example and in excellent physical condition. He is energetic, innovative and an

asset to any organization.” Eric led the students on several adventure type programs that included rappelling, snow shoeing, mountain hiking, and extended cross country skiing. From October through December 1975, Eric studied the Arabic-Syrian language at the Defense Language Insti-tute at the Presidio in Monterey, Cali-fornia. Eric did not do well in trying to learn this difficult language, but he

Above: Eric off-duty while an instruc-tor at the University of Vermont.

did give it his best shot. He was praised for “putting forth great effort to pass the course” but he was retained into an audit status prior to the actual course, which meant he sat in on an eight week session before he actually was enrolled in the official class. It was during this time that his beloved father died and Eric, with his son Kirk, who was living with him at the time, drove cross coun-try to get back home to Summerville, making it in time for the funeral. Eric was now at a loss, for his father had as-sisted him in every major decision in his life and provided him with stability. He was the one person Eric always turned to when in trouble. Eric was stationed in Fort Dix, New Jersey from January 1975 through Au-gust 1977. As a Sergeant First Class in Company , First Battalion of the Third Basic Combat Training Brigade, his role

was to represent the interests of enlisted men to the base commander, inspect facilities and personnel, and counsel the men under his charge. Eric had been trying to get a duty assignment back to Okinawa, but in 1976, with being forced to retire due to age restrictions within three years, he was facing his terminal assignment. If he had received orders for Japan he would have retired overseas, but that was not to be. Eric was assigned to Fort Devens, Massachusetts in August 1977 and as the senior noncommissioned officer he was responsible for advising the commander in planning operations. He supervised the training and instructions of the SCUBA detachment which gave him the opportunity to conduct train-ing in Florida and in Norway. Eric was

Below: Eric, on the far right, decides on a course of action during a joint training exercise in Norway with U.S. and Norwegian soldiers.

highly praised for his work as the Operations Sergeant of the joint US and European service exercises and easily won the respect and admi-ration of the men he worked with. Eric continued his efforts to remain in the Army past the mandatory retirement age of 55 for enlisted men. In one letter to Represen-tative Mendel L. Davis in September, 1978, Eric commented that, “I have served my country honorably for over 25 years and feel that I can serve my country further. I have no wish to retire but am prepared to do so if I am denied reenlistment or extension of service.” The answer was no. Eric had a very distinguished retirement ceremony at Fort Devens on the 31st of January, 1979 with full military honors befit-

Right: Eric at the time he retired from the United States Army as a Command Sergeant Major. Above: Charles-ton’s Mayor Riley declared June 5, 1987 as Sergeant Eric Anderson Day.

ting a senior Non-Commissioned Officer. The U.S. Army Band provided

music, troops from the Army Intel-ligence School passed in review, and a color guard rendered the appropriate honors.

Later Years After a long career in the United States Army Eric suffered from a culture shock in his transition to civilian life, he was used to living under military law and its structured environment. His focus was to get back into the Army but he needed to find himself, to adjust to the life of a civilian. His first job was at Allen Military Academy in Bryan, Texas as Senior Military Advisor to the Junior ROTC Program. From November 1979 until June 1980 Eric taught basic military skills to the cadets. To keep abreast of military activities he continued his stud-ies with the Army through professional development courses. While in Texas Eric became involved in Operation Lazarus, an attempt to free

Left top: Vietnam veterans jumping into Death Valley. Left: Plaque and monument on Wake Island where Eric honored his friend, Wesley Platt. Below: Eric and a friend SCUBA diving off the Marshall Islands.

American POWs from Laos. On the first of March 1981 Eric and 26 other former Special Forces veterans met in Leesburg, Florida with retired Lt. Col. Bo Gritz to organize the operation. As related in the book, The Heroes Who Fell From Grace by Patterson and Tippin, the operation was derailed by media interference and poor planning by Col. Gritz. Eric was involved in two other covert operations during this time. Afterwards Eric went to work at the Texas Department of Corrections where he was a correctional officer in a maximum security prison.

Eric joined up with a Vietnam Veter-ans group that parachuted into Death Valley and ran 100 miles out in order to raise awareness for the plight of veter-ans. Eric began running in this incred-ible marathon when he was 62 years old and continued until he was 67. The event consisted of the vets parachuting

into Death Valley, California and then running 100 miles in seven days ending at the Furnace Creek Memorial to Vet-erans. Eric ran 5 to 10 miles a day for years only stopping when he was nearly 80. He ran in marathons, such as the annual Marine Corps Marathon and the Infantry Marathon. Eric returned to South Carolina in March 1983 and began working at Brasswell Shipyards in Charleston as a security guard. In May 1984 he began to work at the SC Department of Cor-rections as a counselor helping rehabili-tate the incarcerated veterans. Working at the Coastal Work Release Center in North Charleston, Eric lived by an ideal he told the inmates, “Yesterday is his-tory. Today is the future.” In 1987 Eric read an article in the

Below The 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Mar-shall Islands, Operation Flintlock, occurred while Eric was on Kwajalein and Eric was honored as a veteran of the war, along with Jack Held, chief warrant boatswain, Merchant Marine at right. Photo from the Kwajalein Hourglass newspaper.

Army Times about religious headgear being authorized in the military. In response he sent off the following let-ter, “The recent announcement... was very disturbing. Webster’s definition of uniform is having always same form, conforming to one pattern, regular, consistent, not varying; official dress. We must have in our military service continuity; to stand together, move as a unit and believe as one. The Ameri-can military must conform to a set of uniform laws and regulations. With discipline they must conform to an established standard. Clothing, as we have heard, makes the man. Uniforms make the unit. Headgear is a part of that uniform.” It was in these years that he re-married again. It was a conflict-filled relationship, with Eric always on the lookout for work that would take him away. The most enjoyable aspects of his time while in this marriage were his two grandchildren, Eric and Allen Ingle, who he doted on whenever he could. Eric spent a considerable amount of time studying, taking numerous Army cor-respondence courses, and attending Trident Techni-cal College where he was awarded an Associates Degree in Public Service in February, 1989. Eric resigned from the Dept. of Corrections in July 1990 and began working for a military

contracted secu-rity company called Am-Pro Protective Agency. He went to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and worked from August 1990 until November 1994. It was a perfect paradise for him as

a patrolman at the Kwajalein Missile Range. Eric’s title was

officially Senior Patrol Of-ficer with the Roi-Namur Police Detachment. Spending his off duty time scuba diving and exploring WWII wreck-age in a beautiful coral setting, it was a very

happy and peaceful time for him. Kwajalein is a major test range, managed

Above: LTG Richard Seitz. Below: Eric’s Senior Patrol Officer Badge. Right: Eric with the Department of Corrections of Texas.

Eric and his three sons, Lance, Leif, and Kirk in Summerville.

by the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command. In February 1993 a large tanker ves-sel was adrift off the coast of Kwajalein. The crew were gone, but on board the ship and hidden below were 535 frightened Chinese nationals, Eric and the other members of the Kwajalein Police Department provided assistance for the processing and welfare of these poor unfortunates from the vessel, “East Wood.” This task required a concen-trated effort for many long, arduous and sometimes confusing hours. The whole event lasted from the 12th through the 15th of February. While in the Pacific Eric went to visit Wake Island. As a child he would play war with some friends and one of the kids, about ten years older, taught the younger ones about survival and tac-tics. Eric never forgot what he learned from his friend Wesley McCoy Platt, a boxer and football player at Clemson, where he majored in chemistry and graduated in 1935. During the attack on Pearl Harbor on the seventh of De-cember, 1941, Platt was stationed with the Marines on Wake Island. Highly respected by his men and tough as nails, Platt was a Captain at the time the Japa-nese attacked Wake on the eleventh of December. The heroic defenders turned what was supposed to be an easy victory for the Japanese into a protracted and costly battle for Imperial Japan. Platt wound up a Japanese Prisoner of War shuttled from camps in China, Korea, and the mainland of Japan for the

remainder of the war. He continued to serve in the Marines but lost his life in the Korean War. Eric on his pilgrimage to Wake located a plaque commemorat-ing Wesley Platt. Eric fondly recalled a visit with Wesley just after the war when he reminded Eric about their kid’s games together. He told Eric that the evasion games they played in the sandy areas around Summerville came in good use on the beaches of Wake Island. Eric had few mentors over the years but the most influential, and the ones he most admired, were his father Bradford, Wesley Platt, and General Richard Seitz. Even heroes have heroes. Eric transferred with Am-Pro to Kuwait in 1995 and it wasn’t long after his arrival that a doctor certified Eric as unfit for duty because of his age and Am-Pro had no choice but to send him back to the United States. Eric was devastated, but undaunted. He was hired as a Military Science Instructor at the new Norman C. Toole Military Magnet School that was just opening up in Charleston. It was a job he enjoyed for the military aspects and Eric continued until he was over 75 years of age and was asked to retire. Eric was still not finished. He approached the newly opened Eagle Military Academy in Summerville and landed a job with them that lasted a few years. When Eric left Eagle he moved to Greenwood, SC and stayed with Lance and his family for seven months until Lance was able to get him into the

Soldier’s Home. After six month’s in Washington, Lance brought him back to Greenwood to live. While in Washington, DC the Na-tional World War II memorial opened and Eric was able to attend the opening ceremonies with Lance and Kirk. He was interviewed at length by the Pen-tagon Channel and the broadcast was aired around the world. Eventually Eric moved into an as-sisted living facility. In November 2008 cancer was diagnosed and on September 25th, 2009 Eric passed away at Hospice in Greenwood, SC.

Above: Eric at Jean’s grave in Arlington in 2004 with Samuel, Kirk, and Lance. Top: Eric back at Camp Toccoa, Georgia with a WWII reenactor at the plaque honoring the men of the 517th. That evening Eric met with the Command Sergeant Major of the nearby Ranger Battalion. Right: Bobby, Eric, Betty Jo, and Helen. Bottom: Eric’s sons and their families; Amanda Matlock, Julie, Sam, Matt, Lance. Front row; David, Shontelle (with Davy inside), Lisa, Eric.

Eric at Camp Toccoa, Georgia with his grandson, Samuel, 2005.

One of Eric Anderson’s favorite quotes was:You’ve never lived till you’ve almost died,

For those who have to fight for it,Life has a flavor the protected never know.