Brothers Eddie Lee and Willie Aster Shackleford were drafted into the Army on Dec. 28, 1942. Both trained as infantrymen, but one brother would be stationed in Europe while the other was sent to the Pacific theater.
Both brothers would survive the war physically unscathed but one would do so without firing his weapon a single time.
“To tell you the truth about it all, I was very lucky,” said Eddie Shackleford, 92, of Snow Hill. “I didn’t see too much combat because the war ended shortly after I got there.”
Eddie and Willie, while only separated in age by two years, experienced the war half a world apart from each other. Eddie served in Italy, France and Casablanca; Willie fought on New Guinea and Okinawa. While Eddie can still remember dates and names, Willie struggles to remember the war. One thing both of them have in common is that to this day, they can still recite their service numbers.
“We both went to basic training together but were in separate platoons,” said Eddie. “It was kind of hard because I wasn’t used to all that running and stuff. We did a lot of training that took a lot of getting used to. The only thing I was used to when I got drafted was farming and the Army was a lot different than plowing a field.”
Eddie landed in Casablanca after leaving Hampton Roads, Va., with 9,000 other soldiers.
“After Casablanca, we landed at Red Beach, France, and we followed up through France,” Eddie said. “I’ll never forget Christmas at the Rhine River. We got attacked and had to pull back. The Germans took advantage of us trying to celebrate. I still don’t know how I made it out of there without firing my weapon.”
Eddie recalls moving into Germany and being in charge of handling German prisoners of war.
“Everything ran so smooth,” said Eddie. “The Germans knew what we had to do and what they had to do so it made things easy. We made them do laundry — lots and lots of laundry.”
During his service, Eddie says because he was black he was completely segregated from the white soldiers.
“It wasn’t too bad, to tell you the truth,” said Eddie. “Where the whites had their own facilities, we had our own too. I didn’t have no fear. They left us alone for the most part. The worst part for me wasn’t being separated, it was adjusting to the rules and regulations of the Army.”
As Eddie struggled getting used to the rules of the Army, Willie was in the Pacific, where he remembers waves of planes taking off at New Guinea and flying across the Pacific. For a brief period of time, they would both be attached to the Air Force.
“Boy, did we eat good,” Willie said.
Both brothers smiled and began reminiscing about the food and how terrible it was in general.
“We didn’t have to eat C and K rations anymore,” said Eddie. “The food was amazing. Lord have mercy, it was so amazing. I was so happy to be with the Air Force.”
Willie, after a few moments of silence and smiling about the food looked his brother in the eyes.
“We joined the Army,” Willie said. “We only liked it because we had to.”
You can reach Thomas Brennan at 910-219-8453 or thomas.brennan@jdnews.com . Follow him on Twitter @ thomasjbrennan.