You can throw it away… but it won’t stay gone

T/Sgt. Neal C. Crane of Company M, 23rd Infantry Regiment, from Vandervoort, Arkansas, used to say the world is small.

After months at the front line, he finally reached a place where he could shower and receive clean clothes. When he checked the waistband of his freshly issued trousers, he froze.

His name. His serial number.

They were the very same trousers he had worn on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and thrown away eight months earlier.

Somewhere along the line, a quartermaster had repaired them, cleaned them, and sent them back into circulation. The odds of them finding their way back to Crane?

About two million to one.

And yet… there they were.

This story was recorded by war correspondent Hal Boyle and published in The New Tribune on February 23, 1945.

A small story worth remembering — T/Sgt. Neal C. Crane (1910–1975).

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Illustrative photo: Pvt. Genaro G. Gomez (337th Regiment, 85th Division) after using division showers and receiving clean clothes near the front lines, October 15, 1944.