Beech Tree News Network

Elmo Lincoln Martin and Charles E. Roman’s shared stories from World War Two and both have written very interesting books about their lives.

Elmo is 101 years old, over eighty years ago when he was making slingshots, he would have never dreamed that ten years later he would be a Sargent in the U. S. Army and training his men to shoot M1 Carbines and Bazookas. He was born and raised on Long Branch School Road on the north side of the Green River.

Around 1934 Girlie Smith was building his hotel, Otis, Elmo's older brother was helping build the foundation,  they were mixing concrete with shovels and hoes. Girlie’s mother lived on a farm and one of Elmo's childhood jobs was to help her with chores.  It was getting late one night after the hotel had been completed and Girlie invited Elmo to spend the night, this was the first time he had used an indoor toilet and there was running water.  The next morning, he was helping in the kitchen and noticed they were using soap to clean the dishes.  He wasn't sure about eating off a plate that had been washed with soap.

When he was seventeen the Ohio Valley was deluged with rain, he had seen the backwaters rise but now they were approaching their wood frame home over a mile from the Green River.  They spent a week with relatives and when returning home, they noticed that four inches of water had flowed through the house.  They were lucky compared to many Butler County residents; this was the Flood of `37 that people still talk about.

“The Battle of the Bulge”

December 16, 1944, 5:30 am, Hitler, in a last-ditch effort had amassed 21 Divisions along a hundred mile border in the Ardennes Forest, an area that Army Intelligence did not think would be attacked.  Over two hundred thousand Germans overran the sparsely scattered mostly American troops.  Elmo was in Company L, 99th Infantry Division, 395th Infantry Regiment.  Fighting went on for five weeks in below freezing temperatures, at times the snow was four feet deep.  At one point Elmo's Company was surrounded for three days before reinforcements arrived.  Thousands of soldiers on both sides died but the Germans were pushed back, and the tides of war had turned.

Elmo's book is  “Butler County Memories” and has over one hundred short stories about life here in the 20’s,  30’s and 40’s.  It takes you back in time to what our grandparents and great grandparent’s lives were like.

Photo of Charles Romans with his book "Silver Wings to Golden Years"

Charles E. Romans was born in 1925, his family had a sixty-acre farm in Logansport that bordered the Green River.  He remembers riding the waves created by the steam ships going by and the whistle when they pulled into Aberdeen.

Some of his grade schoolteachers were Miss Bessie Roman’s,  James Ayers, Miss Neva Flowers, and Miss Artie Johnson. By the age of twelve, he could split chestnut logs for fencing and with a broad axe he could hew railroad ties for twenty five cents each. He would check his trot line in the morning before school.  They enjoyed many meals of fried fish for breakfast. When he started high school, the bus cost fifty cents a month, so he walked the two miles each way.  Money was very tight and his parents were grateful.

Charles credits Miss Vida Lee for his excellent grammar skills that have served him well over his lifetime. His sophomore summer, he gained forty pounds of muscle working on a sheep farm in Illinois. With some of his money, he ordered a camera and film development kit from Sears and Roebuck. In 1942, the government added Aviation to the curriculum, and he found it very interesting.

1943 he graduated from Butler County High School and that August he turned eighteen and joined the Army Air Corps.  After seven months of Preflight School, they started flying small planes and worked up to the bombers.  May of 1945, he earned his Wings.  Charles says that the Atomic Bomb probably saved his life as he would have been an easy target.  He finished out his enlistment training navigators, something he was very good at.

During World War Two, America built over 300,000 planes.  By 1960, the vast majority that survived the war had been decommissioned and scrapped. Charles is very appreciative of the Commemorative Air Force which has saved and rebuilt almost two hundred vintage planes.  He was able to fly in several of these and it was a chilling experience.

 “Silver Wings to Golden Years” is Charles’ book and it has hundreds of interesting stories.

Elmo and Charles, we appreciate your service and dedication, Butler County Loves our Veterans.