A young George Franklin started his military career in September of 1944 at Fort Snelling. Across the Atlantic Ocean Allied troops had reached Paris, and in the Pacific U.S. troops had landed in the Philippines.

From Fort Snelling George was shipped to Texas for training. His next stop was Fort Mead, Maryland “and soon after that I went across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary landing in Scotland and going from there to South Hampton, England by train overnight” and according to George the journey would continue in France as American troops were transported in boxcars referred to as forty and eights, “they were French Army box cars, and they could carry 40 men or eight horses.”

These American troops would end up near Luxembourg where they joined the 76th Division. “I was in the 417th regiment. We went clear across Germany over to what would end up being the Russian zone. The Army wanted us to know just what the Nazis were like, so some of us were taken by truck to the Buchenwald concentration camp” as George remembers. The soldiers toured the camp and were able to see first-hand the terrible conditions. “There were gallows and a small gas chamber and a crematorium right there. The gas chamber was small. I guess they could probably kill about 30-40 people at a time. The Army just really wanted us to know what went on. The camp was established in the early 30’s and it originally housed political dissidents. “They kept thousands in that camp. I was young and easily impressed, and I can remember the gallows where they could hang about 5 people at one time. It was an extremely cruel place to be” as George now recalls.

From there the next leg of the trip would take George back into Bavaria. Where his regiment ended up would eventually be a Russian occupation zone, where they would act as an occupation Army until the younger soldiers, George included, were to be sent to the far east where WWII was still going on. “We were sent back to France to a replacement depot near the French city of Faso. There were rumors that the group would then be sent through the Suez canal to China/Burma…but the war ended when were there. I was then sent to Le Havre where I spent about a year. Again, we were part of the occupation force processing men who were going home. When it was my turn to go home I was amused because on one side of the pier we were loading up troops that we going to the United States, and on the other side of the pier were German prisoners coming back from the United States. We went home to the U.S. on a ship called the Westerly Victory, and I ended up in a camp in New Jersey, and then I was sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois where I was discharged.”

But that was not the end of George Franklin’s service to his country. “For personal reasons I enlisted again in 1949 and went to signal school in New Jersey. I was sent to Korea, and I spent a good year and a half there. I came home and was discharged” says George “and I spent a year with the Great Northern Railroad.” When business at the Great Northern slowed down, George was laid off, but he soon found employment with a telephone company where he stayed for 44 years.
Relating back on his war time experience, George spent time as an occupation force in Germany to make sure there were no problems. “But in general, there wasn’t any problems with the German population. They were as happy to have the war over as we were.”

For a young man who only had turned 18 just 26 days before he enlisted in the Army, to a service man in his mid-20’s when he was discharged in 1951, George’s military career, although not continuous, would span over 7 years, but more impressive is that he would have experienced 2 wars, WWII and Korea.

As we sit and talk, George will talk about his time in the service. “You know that the camps around La Havre were named after cigarettes. At first I was in camp Lucky Strike and then I was transferred to camp Phillip Morris. They had to have a name of some sort.”

It would only be 3 years between George’s out processing from WWII to his enlistment for the Korean War. His duty in Korea as a member of the signal corps was the experience he would rely on to find his position with Northwestern Bell, a phone company that had service to many towns in North Dakota.

Pusan would be George’s first stop in Korea in 1950. Soon George would be shipped north to a position just outside of Seoul. “We had a radio station in a location that was an old Japanese radio station. But soon, the Chinese Army came down and we were back in Pusan again” says George.

The Army called up reservists at the start of then the Korean Conflict. It was not unusual to see men who had spent time in WWII “and there were a lot of officers who had been in WWII and were restored to officer’s rank to serve in Korea.”
George Franklin, now 98 years old, is one of the few veterans of WWII left. George’s father was a WWI veteran, and his brother was a gunner in a tank stationed in the Pacific. He was part of the second Philippines invasion.
Still hanging in his closet are his 2 uniforms, and he jokes about being much smaller back when he enlisted in 1944. On a table in a separate room are his military photos. He is slowly working through the photo albums, re-organizing them.

He is always eager to share the photos and stories from his military years, and is quick to say, “I really didn’t do much.”
We often forget that these men and women; sons, daughters, husbands, wives & even grandfathers and grandsons, did answer the call. Even though WWII would end during their military tenure in Europe, they would step up again in just 3 short years and answer the call to Korea. Not with a grudge, and not with a complaint. But with a desire to serve their country. Yes, George Franklin, you did a lot.

View our full Tribute to Service: https://www.nordaknorth.com/newspapers/northernsentry/online-issues/tribute-to-veterans-2024/