American Valor Quarterly Issue 5 - Winter 2008/09 | Page 19

I remember a young soldier, not much more than a boy, with me
in that first camp. He received a letter from his family at home.
My folks and I were never able to communicate, as they had
been notified that I was killed in action. But this boy got a letter
from his family, which had a long tradition of serving in the
military; and they were quite proud of it. In that letter, they said
to him, “We are disowning you from our family. We are so
discouraged that you got captured.” With that said, the kid hung
himself that night right there in the prison.

know we were there, which was answered by two clicks back to
let us know they were not Germans. It was pitch dark, but finally
I got the chute collapsed and got my cricket out. I started clicking,
and another guy started clicking off in the distance. I could hear
him, but couldn’t see a thing. Finally we found our way to each
other. Now I didn’t realize if you do anything that appears to be
heroic, you automatically become a leader. We were circling
around the swamp, going nowhere. Thinking back to my
commando training, they said that if you saw trees growing in
the water, you are not far from the edge of the swamp. The only
Greg Henesy: All right, Jack. I understand that you had a chance light we had was when a plane blew up, it gave us light for about
to meet Mr. Churchill in England.
30 seconds or so. When there was a flash of light and I was able
to see a tree, I started toward the trees, making my way through
Jack Womer: They called us together one day and said we are them until I ended up out on a road.
going to put on a demonstration for
Churchill, Eisenhower, and Maxwell
We found a ball of wire out on the
Taylor. I wasn’t looking forward to it.
road, so I knew that a paratrooper had
It was my seventh jump because I had
been out there. So I went back into the
just come into the paratroopers from
swamp, where I found some other
the 29th Rangers. I was training with the
guys. One of them, a captain, said, “Oh,
British commandos. So we went up in
you’ve done fine! Take us out.” I took
the air, and Taylor said to us, “Now
us out to the road, where the ball of
after you jump and hit the ground,
wir