Henry, as his family called, was born in north LA to a country farmer and a Christian mother. With a smile on his face, he would tell stories of the hard times of growing up and being poor. One story was of him being the bad grammar school student who jumped out of the school house window pulling the teacher with him! She broke both her arms and he never went back to school; yet could do math in his head, followed sports in the newspaper, and cook about anything from memory. The world literally became his university and what an education he had! He soon learned what was "right from wrong". Early in his life, he served on a merchant marine boat and, as he said,"sailed around the world". These years of service didn't apply to the years served for his military pension as it would today. Later he and his brothers went into the timber business hauling logs from deep in the Louisiana forests to the sawmill. In 1937, he and his brother Jess Anderson were working in Talluah, LA at the time of their mother's death. After the start of World War II, he entered in the US Army in 1941 remaining in active service until 1961 and becoming a veteran of WWII in Europe, later Korea Conflict, active service during Viet Nam era and was in the US Army Reserves until 1971. He fought in hand-to-hand combat in both wars, and would tell the story of losing his teeth to the butt handle of a Nazis' rifle. Although he never received a purple heart for his injuries in WWII, he did received a Good Conduct Medal with Bronze Clasp and Four Loops in addition to an Occupation of Germany Medal. After WWII, he was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Hospital for several months with a lung disease. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 1946, he meet his beloved Minnie on a Greyhound Bus in Atlanta, and they were married March 7, 1947. He was stationed at Fort Meade, MD; Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Hood, TX; Fort Benning, GA; Fort Lewis, WA, plus deployed to posts in Korea, France, and Germany. In 1953 while in Germany, he received the honor of having the best firing record 43 AAA Brigade of the 45th AAA Battalion Gun 90 mm...he was 46 years old! The fire at the army headquarters in St. Louis, MO destroyed his military records so the units he served during WWII or Korea are unknown. Daddy just said, "They put me off on a beach in France and I walked in the snow all the way to Berlin." I have memories of the younger soldiers calling him respectively "Sarge" or "Pop". Since he was a "Mess Sergeant" in the army, he became the cook, after his military retirement, at the Florida State Deaf and Blind School and later part-time golf country clubs. His favorite pastimes were fishing or deer hunting and listening to a baseball game on the radio. In his spare time, he became a father-like figure teaching deaf boys to fish. At the time of his death, he was the proud father of two daughters, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. Before he died, he suffered with COPD and had many CVA's over seven years. The world was a better place because my Daddy was here.
OH, DADDY!
Oh Daddy, tell me again of the war in Europe,
Of bloody Normandy Beach, of battles nearly lost.
Show me your pictures of heroes returning home,
About the Peace they won at any cost.
Oh Daddy, tell me of Korea
About cold, cold winds, boots frozen in sand
Tell me about stepping across the Yalu River,
As you missed my first step in Dixieland
Oh Daddy, tell me about Viet Nam,
Of POW's Hilton, or Togkin's Gulf,
While TV's 6 pm news critiqued Uncle Sam.
Tell me about homecomings, sad and tough.
Oh Daddy, tell me about the Storm,
Of National Guards, our new Minuteman
Of turbaned Iraq, Iran, foreign oil dorms.
Our brave men, women too, fighting in sand
Oh Daddy, tales of another war are here
But you are departed to Sweet Beulah Land.
It's a war against terrorist, al-Qaida fighters.
For our freedom, in God we must trust, United We Stand.
By: Linda Davis, Feb 2002
Written in the memory of her beloved father,
Thomas H. Davis, USA Retired
Veteran of WWII, Korean Conflict, and non-combat early years of the Vietnam War
Thank you to my newly-found Stovall cousin Laura for sponsoring Daddy's memorial.
OH, DADDY!
Oh Daddy, tell me again of the war in Europe,
Of bloody Normandy Beach, of battles nearly lost.
Show me your pictures of heroes returning home,
About the Peace they won at any cost.
Oh Daddy, tell me of Korea
About cold, cold winds, boots frozen in sand
Tell me about stepping across the Yalu River,
As you missed my first step in Dixieland
Oh Daddy, tell me about Viet Nam,
Of POW's Hilton, or Togkin's Gulf,
While TV's 6 pm news critiqued Uncle Sam.
Tell me about homecomings, sad and tough.
Oh Daddy, tell me about the Storm,
Of National Guards, our new Minuteman
Of turbaned Iraq, Iran, foreign oil dorms.
Our brave men, women too, fighting in sand
Oh Daddy, tales of another war are here
But you are departed to Sweet Beulah Land.
It's a war against terrorist, al-Qaida fighters.
For our freedom, in God we must trust, United We Stand.
By: Linda Davis, Feb 2002
Written in the memory of her beloved father,
Thomas H. Davis, USA Retired
Veteran of WWII, Korean Conflict, and non-combat early years of the Vietnam War
Thank you to my newly-found Stovall cousin Laura for sponsoring Daddy's memorial.
Henry, as his family called, was born in north LA to a country farmer and a Christian mother. With a smile on his face, he would tell stories of the hard times of growing up and being poor. One story was of him being the bad grammar school student who jumped out of the school house window pulling the teacher with him! She broke both her arms and he never went back to school; yet could do math in his head, followed sports in the newspaper, and cook about anything from memory. The world literally became his university and what an education he had! He soon learned what was "right from wrong". Early in his life, he served on a merchant marine boat and, as he said,"sailed around the world". These years of service didn't apply to the years served for his military pension as it would today. Later he and his brothers went into the timber business hauling logs from deep in the Louisiana forests to the sawmill. In 1937, he and his brother Jess Anderson were working in Talluah, LA at the time of their mother's death. After the start of World War II, he entered in the US Army in 1941 remaining in active service until 1961 and becoming a veteran of WWII in Europe, later Korea Conflict, active service during Viet Nam era and was in the US Army Reserves until 1971. He fought in hand-to-hand combat in both wars, and would tell the story of losing his teeth to the butt handle of a Nazis' rifle. Although he never received a purple heart for his injuries in WWII, he did received a Good Conduct Medal with Bronze Clasp and Four Loops in addition to an Occupation of Germany Medal. After WWII, he was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Hospital for several months with a lung disease. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 1946, he meet his beloved Minnie on a Greyhound Bus in Atlanta, and they were married March 7, 1947. He was stationed at Fort Meade, MD; Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Hood, TX; Fort Benning, GA; Fort Lewis, WA, plus deployed to posts in Korea, France, and Germany. In 1953 while in Germany, he received the honor of having the best firing record 43 AAA Brigade of the 45th AAA Battalion Gun 90 mm...he was 46 years old! The fire at the army headquarters in St. Louis, MO destroyed his military records so the units he served during WWII or Korea are unknown. Daddy just said, "They put me off on a beach in France and I walked in the snow all the way to Berlin." I have memories of the younger soldiers calling him respectively "Sarge" or "Pop". Since he was a "Mess Sergeant" in the army, he became the cook, after his military retirement, at the Florida State Deaf and Blind School and later part-time golf country clubs. His favorite pastimes were fishing or deer hunting and listening to a baseball game on the radio. In his spare time, he became a father-like figure teaching deaf boys to fish. At the time of his death, he was the proud father of two daughters, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. Before he died, he suffered with COPD and had many CVA's over seven years. The world was a better place because my Daddy was here.
OH, DADDY!
Oh Daddy, tell me again of the war in Europe,
Of bloody Normandy Beach, of battles nearly lost.
Show me your pictures of heroes returning home,
About the Peace they won at any cost.
Oh Daddy, tell me of Korea
About cold, cold winds, boots frozen in sand
Tell me about stepping across the Yalu River,
As you missed my first step in Dixieland
Oh Daddy, tell me about Viet Nam,
Of POW's Hilton, or Togkin's Gulf,
While TV's 6 pm news critiqued Uncle Sam.
Tell me about homecomings, sad and tough.
Oh Daddy, tell me about the Storm,
Of National Guards, our new Minuteman
Of turbaned Iraq, Iran, foreign oil dorms.
Our brave men, women too, fighting in sand
Oh Daddy, tales of another war are here
But you are departed to Sweet Beulah Land.
It's a war against terrorist, al-Qaida fighters.
For our freedom, in God we must trust, United We Stand.
By: Linda Davis, Feb 2002
Written in the memory of her beloved father,
Thomas H. Davis, USA Retired
Veteran of WWII, Korean Conflict, and non-combat early years of the Vietnam War
Thank you to my newly-found Stovall cousin Laura for sponsoring Daddy's memorial.
OH, DADDY!
Oh Daddy, tell me again of the war in Europe,
Of bloody Normandy Beach, of battles nearly lost.
Show me your pictures of heroes returning home,
About the Peace they won at any cost.
Oh Daddy, tell me of Korea
About cold, cold winds, boots frozen in sand
Tell me about stepping across the Yalu River,
As you missed my first step in Dixieland
Oh Daddy, tell me about Viet Nam,
Of POW's Hilton, or Togkin's Gulf,
While TV's 6 pm news critiqued Uncle Sam.
Tell me about homecomings, sad and tough.
Oh Daddy, tell me about the Storm,
Of National Guards, our new Minuteman
Of turbaned Iraq, Iran, foreign oil dorms.
Our brave men, women too, fighting in sand
Oh Daddy, tales of another war are here
But you are departed to Sweet Beulah Land.
It's a war against terrorist, al-Qaida fighters.
For our freedom, in God we must trust, United We Stand.
By: Linda Davis, Feb 2002
Written in the memory of her beloved father,
Thomas H. Davis, USA Retired
Veteran of WWII, Korean Conflict, and non-combat early years of the Vietnam War
Thank you to my newly-found Stovall cousin Laura for sponsoring Daddy's memorial.
