Alfred C. Sullivan

In 1941, he was drafted into the Army. "After basic training, I was assigned to the training cadre in the Signal Corps attached to the Air Corps at Drew Field, Tampa, Fl. I was in S-2, the Inspector General's Depart., and, as a technician "corporal" spent most of my time for the next 2+ years inspecting the "books and paperwork" of the Signal Corps Radar Companies that were going through their training at Drew Field. About that time, the Battle of the Bulge began, it was decided to discontinue the signal Corps Training Facility at Drew Field, so all able-bodied soldiers there were transferred out, most of them to the Infantry. I was one of them. After a rigorous but short Infantry Training Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, my group was shipped to Belgium by way of England and France, to a Replacement Depot, just in time to immediately be sent as replacements to Company K of the 9th Infantry regiment (at that time located in France near the German border). We were replacements for soldiers killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and we constituted about two thirds of the company. Strangely enough, we still retained our ranks, even though we were assigned to tasks for Privates. I was an Ammunition Bearer in one of the two Mortar Squads. There were several Corporals and several Sergeants including one Master Sergeant. After several weeks of action we were all given the choice of either voluntarily relinquishing our "stripes" or being given positions appropriate to Corporals or Sergeants. Since these appropriate positions in the Infantry, were leadership of infantrymen during action for which we had little prior experience while those being lead often had far too much experience, I voluntarily relinquished my "stripes". Only one of our group (a Staff Sergeant) demanded to keep his - sadly enough but not unexpectedly, he was severely wounded "while leading" his Squad in the next "action" and had to be sent back to the hospital, never to return again. Our 9th Infantry Regiment participated in several actions and some breakthroughs in Germany, including some long marches and some long rides on top of tanks. We were often under rifle fire, machine gun fire, mortar fire, tank fire, and artillillery fire, also sniper fire. Thank God no mortar, tank, or artillery shells exploded near enough to me to set off the ten mortar shells I usually carried, or there would have been no trace of me left. Our 9th Infantry Regiment ended up in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, to accept the Surender of a whole German Army, fully armed, fleeing from the Russians (talk about something scary- first here comes this whole gigantic Army with their guns coming right into our Regimental camp, and only a few hours later here comes the heavily armed company of advance scouts of the Russian Army coming in right behind them). With the end of the war in Europe, our 9th Infantry Regiment was to be sent to the Pacific Theatre, so all the "old timers" were shipped out of our Regiment and newer replacements brought in and the whole Regiment was then shipped out to the US for a one month furlough enroute to the Pacific Theatre. While we were at home on that furlough, the was with Japan ended, so I didn't have to leave the country again". - Written by my father, Alfred Charles Sullivan

After the war, he worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, Canadian Pacific/Soo Line Railroads, Frisco Railroad, and Western Trunk Line Committee. He loved reading, and watching Chicago Cub/St. Louis Cardinal's baseball. He loved all of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.