Nicholas Drahos

Born Ford City, Pa 6/12/18

Read Nicholas Drahos' recollections of the war and excellent history of the 1142nd here.

William Alga Pace

My grandfather, William Alga (Algie) Pace, was born August 13, 1913 in Mebane, NC. He was one of 11 children of Newton Lee Pace and Julia Ann Baker.

Algie entered the US Army on October 21, 1943 and served until his honorable discharge on January 13, 1946. He served with the unit from its formation until November 1944. From October 25th – November 15th, 1944, the headquarters company was stationed in Sichen, Belgium (current day Zichen Zussen Bolder) where the unit made a school house its base of operations. During that period, he was awarded the Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds received from a German “buzz bomb” that landed near the school house. The school house still stands today in Zichen and you can view the pictures of it on the "Photos" page in the Willy Willems gallery.

After his release from the hospital and before he could rejoin his unit, he was swept up in the Battle of the Bulge. Sometime during the battle, he was hospitalized again with severe frostbite of his feet. A US Army surgeon told Algie he was the luckiest man in the US Army to not lose his feet with the extreme frostbite he had received. He would always wear multiple pairs of socks because his feet were always cold.

As to which unit or units he was attached to after his release from the hospital before the Battle of the Bulge is not known or stated in his service record. He returned stateside from Europe on January 8, 1946. Algie was a switchboard operator and operated both the BD-71 & BD-72 switchboards. The BD-72 switchboard and field phones are pictured to the right.

Algie was married to Annie Mae Davis of Galax, Virginia in December 1941. He went to be with the Lord on September 4, 2009. They have 2 children, 7 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren.

Photos courtesy of the Museum of Communications

Bernard A. Picchi

My father, Bernard (Bernie) Picchi, was born March 13, 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He was one of four children of Rustico and Mary Picchi.  He died on November 27, 2004 in Sarasota, Florida.
   We know very little of my father’s war experience; he never spoke of it.  We got a sense it was tough duty, but he kept it to himself.  Do not misunderstand; he was not dour or haunted.  He was a happy and positive person who always saw the best in people; he had put the war behind him and he refused to look back.
   My father was a supplemental resource to the 1142nd.  Most men of the 1142nd were from the Piedmont or Sand Hills of North Carolina.  My dad was from Philadelphia, so he may not have had the kind of bond many of the NC men did.
   There are two stories I can share about my father’s war experience, but they may not be accurate and entirely factual as I was just a child when I pressed my father for his personal history.
   My father entered the service as a medic or corpsman (an enlisted man who works as a field medic).  As I understand it, corpsmen had special markings on their helmets – a white circle with a red cross – and did not carry the full weapons complement of a combat engineer.  Once deployed to Europe, he realized that the enemy found it easy to shoot at medics with their unique helmet markings.  He went on an all out campaign to get his duties reassigned so he could have a complete allowance of arms, and shed the undesirable helmet marquee.
   The second story is that a group of men in the 1142nd pooled some money and purchased a very good Swiss wristwatch – a Universal Geneve chronograph in a stainless steel case – and held a raffle.  My Dad won the raffle.  He wore that watch every day of his life.
   After completing his military service, my father returned to Philadelphia and enrolled in the Baronian School of Watchmaking.  In January, 1947 he completed his course of study and was graduated as a watchmaker.  My father enjoyed the craft of watchmaking and watch repair, but never took it seriously as a commercial endeavor.  He repaired watches for friends and family his entire life.
   After graduating, my father moved to McKeesport, Pennsylvania for work.  His uncle introduced him to a friend’s daughter, Patricia Hamilton.  They were married on September 22, 1947.
   From 1947 to 1956 my father worked for the Kelsey Hayes Wheel Company.  When Kelsey Hayes moved their operation to Detroit, he resigned and took a position with Westinghouse Electric at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory as the manager of shipping receiving and transportation.  During his career at Bettis, he managed the shipment of several reactor cores for both commercial and experimental use, and the reactor cores and fuel assemblies for much of the Nuclear Navy (Bettis was also the home of Pittsburgh Naval Reactors).  He retired from Westinghouse with 30-years of service in 1987.  My parents retired to Sarasota, Florida.
   My father had no contact with his army colleagues until 1985 or 1986.  In an unusual way he got word that the 1142nd was planning a reunion.  At the time, my brother was a Wall Street equity analyst with one of the investment banks.  He published much research.  One of his clients was Wachovia Trust.  A wife of one of the men of 1142nd (I believe Mahon Flake) worked at Wachovia.  She was aware of an effort to track down missing army mates for the reunion.  Picchi is a unique surname; she saw it on the reunion list and remembered reading my brother’s research publications.  She contacted my brother and eventually the unit got in touch with my father.  My father travelled to Asheboro for the reunion.  It was very emotional for him as he had not seen these fellows in over 40 years.
   At the time of the reunion, I was working at Carolina Power & Light in the corporate office in Raleigh.  I learned that some of the men I worked with at CP&L were in my Dad’s unit.  Harvey Horne was a safety engineer at the utility and lived only blocks from my house.  It turns out that many of the men of the 1142nd attended North Carolina State University after discharge and achieved engineering degrees.  I am certain more than one alumnus of the 1142nd worked at CP&L and I may have had first-hand contact with them, or their family members, without ever realizing our connection.
   While my father never spoke of his war experience, I am sure the influence of the 1142nd had some impact in forging his character (he was 19 when he was drafted into military service).  My father was a wonderful person and dad; he lived the Christian ethic – love God and love your neighbor – more completely than anyone I have known.
   He is survived by two sisters, his wife of over 50 years -- Patricia, two sons and daughters-in-law, two granddaughters (whom he loved mightily) and four great grandchildren.

Robert Picchi

Ben Pugh

Newspaper article on the 1142nd keeping the Allies moving during the war which features Ben can be read here.

Heath L. Simpson

My father, Heath Simpson, was born  12 July 1925 in Union County,
North Carolina.  He was one of ten children of Mac and Carrie Simpson.  Dad entered the United States Armed Forces on 6 November 1943.  He was assigned to the 1142 Engineer Combat Group as a Truck Driver.  While serving in Central Europe he received the EAME Service Medal, two Bronze Stars, Good Conduct Medal, and the World War 11 Victory Medal.  On 30 April 1946, he received an Honorable Discharge. 
               Dad didn’t talk a lot about the war, but he did tell us that the men in the 1142 were like brothers to him.  He looked forward every year to the reunions.
               After his release from the military he came home and reunited with his girl friend, Edith Greene.  They were married on 18 January 1947.  Mom and Dad both worked for Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, N.C.  On 27 November 1947 Mom gave birth to their first child, me, Edith Lazette Simpson.  A few years later, 25 October 1952 my brother Timothy Lee Simpson was born.  After a few years Dad left Cannon Mills to work for Kroehler Furniture Manufacturing in Charlotte, N.C.  He worked there for 25 years.  After leaving there he worked for IMO DeLaval, Pump Division and then the Monroe, City School System.  Dad retired from Monroe City Schools on 3 September 1991. 
               In April of 2000, Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.  On 24 January 2007 the Lord called Dad home.  He and Mom had been married 60 years.  My husband and I gave them two grandsons, Christopher Maxwell Thomas and Aaron Lee Thomas.  My brother and his wife gave them two grandsons, Heath Eugene Simpson and Jason Lee Simpson.
               Dad was a kind, humble man who loved the Lord and his family.  He was a wonderful husband to Mom, a wonderful Dad to my brother and me, and a wonderful Papa to his grandsons.

Willliam H. Stephenson

Read Bill Stephenson's recollections of the war and excellent history of the 1142nd here.

On October 30, 1943, I entered active service in the Army of the U. S. (soldiers of temporary rank as opposed to the U. S. Army of permanent ranking soldiers). Inducted at Fort Bragg, NC, we travelled to Camp Crowder for our basic training in the Corps of Engineers, more specifically the 1142nd Combat Engineer Group. It was a joke as to the jobs you were assigned in the Army. Having no typing experience but with experience in an office setting, I became a “typist” for the unit’s Adjutant. While in the Tennessee maneuver area, I had enough spare time to teach myself the touch system instead of my hunt-and-peck approach I had been using. I remember placing my GI typewriter atop a large stump, and practicing my typing. Following the reconstruction of the roads, bridges, etc. in the maneuver area by the engineers, our unit moved to Camp Campbell, KY for some training getting us ready to go overseas. Subsequently, we were moved by train to Camp Miles Standish, just south of Boston, getting us more ready for overseas. Having shipped out of Boston, we landed at Liverpool, England. Approximately 3 weeks later, we crossed the Channel, landing by LST at Omaha Beach in France. During further moves throughout the remaining war period, we crossed into Belgium, Holland, and later Germany, following the movement of the front line of action against the Germans. Our Group along with assigned units of battalions and equipment companies, built and maintained bridges and roads in our areas of assignment. I was fortunate in not becoming subject to front line warfare. After the war’s end, I recall an endeavor I was involved in which cost me one of my rank stripes. Several of us decided one afternoon we wanted to go to a movie some 20 to 30 miles away, and I volunteered to take a jeep out of the motor pool, without an officer’s approval. The movie diversion was great, but someone had reported the jeep taking and the Company Commander arranged a meeting for me when I got back to the Company. The last significant event for me in Europe was a furlough in Switzerland with a couple of my Army buddies.

Later, the GI Bill afforded me a chance to attend N S State University to receive a degree in Electrical Engineering. After many years of employment, I wound up in retirement in Wilson, NC, where I now reside.

Bernard Reams Wicker

Bernard Reams Wicker was born on March 5, 1924 in Sanford, North Carolina. He grew up on his father’s farm, which is located where the Central Carolina Hospital now stands. The street it is located on is named K.M. Wicker Memorial Drive after his father, Kinnie Melton Wicker. During his younger years, Lee County was very rural, made up of mostly farmland. His large family consisted of his parents and 7 children. His earliest memories are of playing baseball and tag football with his siblings and other neighborhood children. During one of those baseball games, he broke his nose, and it is still crooked. Another childhood memory is his father having to stop using his car, a 1919 Chevrolet, during the Great Depression because he could no longer afford gasoline. As a boy, he had to walk when he wanted to go somewhere; church and school were the main places. He attended public school until 12th grade when he was drafted to serve in the United States Armed Forces on October 1, 1943. He was assigned to the 1142nd Engineer Combat Group. His three older brothers, Jim, Bill, and Ken, had already been drafted. He served in the headquarters company until 1946 rising from private to corporal and earning several different medals for his service. After his release from the military in March 1946, he finished what was left of his high school education, and graduated with his high school diploma in June of that year.

He worked on his father’s farm upon graduating from high school. They grew corn, cotton, tobacco, and wheat along with other vegetables, which were canned for private use. After working on his father’s farm, he got a job working at Cornell Dublier, a local electronics factory that produced such things as television condensers and rotaries. It was at this time he started dating his future wife, Mildred Marie Leath Minter, a widow with a small son, Tilla Muscoe Minter. They started dating in 1953 after being friends since 1951. They were married on March 31, 1956 at Buffalo Presbyterian Church where they had met five years earlier. By the time they got married, he had started working for the United States Postal Service as a window clerk. He would continue working at the post office for the next twenty-seven and a half years. On August 25, 1957, the couple had a new addition to their family, Robert Milton Wicker.

Mr. Wicker is currently retired from the United States Postal Service and all other jobs. Both of his sons are now grown; the first married on October 12, 1984, and has a son, Jordan Tilla Minter, born on September 26, 1987. He owns his own business, C.V. Driveshaft Products. His second son has never been married and owns his own business, N.C. Computer Services. Mr. Wicker enjoys woodworking, something he’s done ever since he was young, with his newfound spare time. He also enjoys doing crossword puzzles, watching classic westerns, and spending time with his family. He is an example of an American citizen who has done his part to keep this country running and make it the greatest place in the world.
Bernard Reams Wicker
81
Sanford, Lee County, North Carolina
March 5, 1924
Grandfather
Marie Wicker
March 31, 1956
Tilla Muscoe Minter, Robert Milton Wicker
Kinnie Melton Wicker, Margaret Irene Wicker
James Harold, William Brooks, Kenneth Monroe, you, Annie Louise, Fred Raymond, Mary Margaret
Served in United States Armed Forces from October 1943 to March 1946; engineer combat unit; private moved up to corporal