The Final Salute: National D-Day Memorial June 4-9, 2019 - 26

BY DAN SMITH

'THE BEST SOLDIERS IN THE WORLD'
Bill Sisk's experiences as part of the 90th Division, 914FA (Artillery) Batallion, Battery D were so
dramatic-including nearly losing a leg and experiencing the horrors of a German concentration
camp-that they all but overshadowed his participation on D-Day.

Bill Sisk displays some
of his war-time medals;
and as a young soldier.

THE FINAL SALUTE

ar fervor was at an intense

pitch in August of 1943 when
20 E.C. Glass teenagers-who
had yet to graduate high school in Lynchburg-
trooped down to the enlistment office and joined
the army. They wanted to get into the fight
before it ended, even though some of them were
not yet of legal age to join.
Bill Sisk, born 1925, was one of those who had
not quite reached legal age.
"It was patriotic," he says today. "We all decided
to go. I was 17 then and when we got to Camp Lee,
a sergeant told me the colonel wanted to see me."
That was serious. Colonels don't generally have
much time for buck privates in boot camp. "He
asked my age and I couldn't lie any more. So, he
sent my [permission] papers home to my father
and for the next 15-20 days, I was on KP [kitchen
patrol.]"

He shipped out as an American soldier in
March of 1944, just three months before one of
the biggest days of his life, D-Day.
Sisk was assigned to the Signal Corps, as a
radio man who could string wire, work a switchboard, make and receive calls.
"I never shot my carbine," he says. He didn't
even learn how to shoot it until he was on the
Queen Mary, heading-on a circuitous route
from New York to Florida, back north-across
the Atlantic as part of a 200-plus ship convoy
that would take part in the invasion of Europe.
The convoy was necessary because of the large
number of German submarines patrolling the
Atlantic.
On board, "Some of us slept in the [swimming]
pool or in life boats." The trip was exciting, Sisk
recalls, but few on board knew the exact destination or what would happen when they arrived.
"We had no idea what we were doing. We had
two meals a day, at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. The breakfast
was cornbread and tea and we lived on Baby Ruth
[candy bars] from the PX for the rest of the day."
The ship landed in Scotland, then soldiers
traveled to Cardiff, Wales, 150 miles west of
London, to join the 90th Division.
At Cardiff, a sergeant, who was considerably
older than Sisk, "took me under his wing because
of my age. He had kids my age. Most of the guys
[in his unit] were 30 or so and were Texas cowboys. The sergeant wouldn't let me smoke or
drink, like everybody else. He asked if I could do
that at home and when I said 'no,' he said, 'Well,
you can't do it here, either.'"

The Final Salute: National D-Day Memorial June 4-9, 2019

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