In 1939 syndicated columnist Dorothy Thompson wrote in Let The Record Speak. “This it seems to me, is the lesson of the news in the last three years, National Socialism, or Nazism in Germany, will become the most world-disturbing event of the century, though Nazism is not, in its nature, only a German phenomenon. Nazism is a fusion of elements that are present in the minds of men and women everywhere, and it does offer one answer to political, social, and economic problems that everywhere press for solutions.” She argued, “Americans must understand there is a fundamental incompatibility between any form of order based on political and economic freedom, and the dynamic aggrandizing of Fascism, or National Socialism. Nazism is a total Revolution.” In Germany Himmler was calling Nazism “Counter-Revolutionary” in that it aimed to reverse all the change, including the American Revolution, that had happened since the European Enlightenment. Thompson agreed, describing Nazism as “a break with Reason, with Humanism, and with the Christian Ethics that are the basis if America’s Liberal Democracy.” She thought Nationalism was worse than Communism, because it denies the concept of the inviolability of the Human Being. She saw Nazism, unlike Communism, as treating all of life as an unremitting struggle of tribal groups for biological survival. “In this struggle telling lies is openly accepted as a useful means to an end, which is dealing with what Nazis believe to be naive and decadent democracies.”
As her book hit the streets, Montana’s Army National Guard, 1750 members of the 163rd Infantry Regiment, received federal orders Aug. 27, 1940. They were told to discharge those unfit for service and to be at full strength by Sept. 16, 1940. That day of induction, initially for one year of active duty with the 41st Infantry destined to become the Jungleers, happened as the first peacetime draft became law. Federalized, drafted and voluntarily enlisted Montanans began flowing to Military Service. In 1940 our state had only 559,456 people compared with our present-day 1,000,070. Along with a huge exodus of Montanans to coastal defense industries, 57,000 Montanans, including 567 women left for war. 1,869 of these were killed.
Jim R Ickes, 22, Big Horn, was inducted Dec. 4, 1941. From that date until August 1945, he wrote over 200 letters, usually signing, “With Love to All from Jim”. Each letter was stamped with a censor’s approval, return addressed to PFC Jim R Ickes, AT Company, 15th INF, A.P.O #3 c/o Post Master, New York, NY. All were addressed to Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Ickes, Big Horn, MT, and were later found among their effects. With his effects were a metal box containing two German pistols, an SS Officer’s dagger, a handful of German medals, including several Iron Crosses, a photo album of his buddies and a handwritten list of the names and addresses of 83. Nine names were from Montana. On the list he wrote: ”October 23 - 42- Left U.S.
Sept. 4 - 45 Left Europe”
The 15th Infantry was one of the three regiments of the 3rd Infantry Division. By Victory in Europe Day, according to the Saturday Evening Post, “Nearly 35,000 men, more than twice the original strength of the division, were dead, wounded or missing in action, across North Africa, Sicily, Southern Italy, the beach at Anzio, Rome, and France and Germany. The Third Infantry Division had suffered more casualties than any other division in the American Army. ” The men of the division earned 31 congressional medals of honor, including that of Audie Murphy, one of World War II’s most decorated soldiers, who also served in the 15th Infantry Regiment. The Anti-Tank (AT) Company of the 15th Infantry neutralizes German and Italian armor in North Africa, repelled German counter attacks by destroying tanks at Anzio and during the capture of Rome, and while advance from Southern France into Germany during battles across the Voges Mountains, in the Colmar Pocket and pushing past Nuremberg into Germany. They contributed significantly to the success of the 15th Infantry Regiment and the Third Infantry Division.
The nine names of other men who made it back alive to Montana were: Percy A Mielke, Hamilton, MT; Gene Vaught, Bozeman, MT; Eddie Novis, Anaconda, MT; Fred Deering, Laurel, MT; John S. Opheim, Wolf Point, MT; Harold Lester, Great Falls, MT; Harry Weber, Joliet, MT; Henry Maki, Belt, MT; Lloyd P. Wick, Sidney, MT.
In 1946, the year I was born, 359 military cemeteries around the world contained the remains of 286,959 American WWII war dead. The number of identifiable remains was 246,942. Of the missing sets,18,641 had been located. Of the located sets, 10,986 remains were placed in overseas military cemeteries and 7655 remains were in isolated graves. In 1947 some relatives of the war dead wanted their loved ones brought back to the United States to be reburied in local or national cemeteries. That program was discontinued in the mid-1960s. By then, 171,000 bodies of dead Americans had been repatriated. This left 97,000 others, including 935 Montanans, near their place of death.
These 935 Montanans, still overseas, are serving as one civilian, two merchant mariners, 32 marines, 191 sailors, 282 airmen and 427 soldiers. In total they wear 4 Distinguished Service Crosses, 44 Silver Stars, 70 Bronze Stars, 3 Legion of Merit, 28 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 4 Navy Crosses, 312 Air Medals and 714 Purple Hearts.
In his letters PFC Ickes also told of 2Lt Carroll G Johnson, Sarpy Creek, killed in action Oct. 8, 1943, in the fighting along the Volturno River in Southern Italy. His body was among those reinterred in the National Cemetery at the Custer Battlefield. He had been engaged to Dorothy Anderson who had attended the Tullock Creek Grade School with Jim Ickes, a close friend of her brothers and awaited the return of her fiancé while teaching at the Big Horn School. She later married Jim Ickes, who returned home after his girlfriend married someone else. Jim Ickes asked to be “buried with the boys” in Billings, and Dorothy chose to be buried with her husband.
These are facts about real courage, pain and sacrifice for our freedom. In guarding against tyranny, we must never abandon facts, or we abandon freedom. That’s because if nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to make the criticism. When nothing is true, then all is spectacle. Michael Jackson once called Adolph Hitler the greatest entertainer in history, and now we have Donald Trump aspiring to be his apprentice. In elections the biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights, and though I’m not seeking or accepting contributions, I ask for your vote, because I believe in truth.
- John B. Driscoll, Democratic Candidate for Montana US House District 2 (East)
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