D. Clarke Evans Photographer

Herbert Coleman

Colonel, U.S. Army
1936–1966

Lt. Herbert Coleman
England, 1944

Shrapnel went through my helmet, arm, back, and abdomen. I thought, ‘Well, this is what it feels like to get killed in combat.’

I was born December 29, 1918 in Omaha, Nebraska and went to North High School. I had read a number of fictional books about Civil War battles and it fired me up to be a soldier. I joined the Army National Guard in 1936. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, they moved us to California. I went to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning and graduated in May, 1942. I stayed at the school for two years as a tactical officer. My job was to observe one platoon of each new class. At the end of training, I was the guy who said this guy graduates and this one doesn’t. Before I could go overseas I had to have three months troop duty, so I went to Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

I was a platoon leader and first lieutenant when I landed in Northern Scotland in June, 1944. While I was in the replacement depot in Southampton, England, I went through the chow line and there was Mickey Rooney as a KP. He served me some chow. On board the ship going to France there were some US officers who were wounded on D-Day. I asked them what the secret was to staying alive in Normandy. They said stay out of rifle companies and get in a machine gun or heavy weapons company. Rifle companies are on the line.

I landed on Omaha Beach several weeks after D-Day. I volunteered for a machine gun platoon and ended up in various hedgerow battles. Normandy was a big mass of hedgerows. You didn’t know where you were or where the Germans were. I was digging a foxhole when the Germans attacked. I was dug down about 12 inches when a shell hit the top of the hedgerow. Shrapnel went through my helmet, arm, back, and abdomen. I thought, ‘Well, this is what it feels like to get killed in combat.’ I blacked out. My diaphragm was penetrated and I was evacuated back to England.

I stayed in the hospital for three months. Because of my perforated diaphragm I got limited duty, which means you can do any job in the Army except combat units. I shipped back to France in October, 1944 and was assigned to the Headquarters ETO in Paris. I was in Paris while the Bulge was going on. While riding the Metro, I saw farmers coming out of Northern France with a goose under one arm and a pig under the other. They were running from the war.

I came home in January, 1946. I used the GI Bill to go to Creighton University in Omaha, took four years of pharmaceutical studies and graduated in 1949. I was a captain in the Nebraska Army Reserve. I got a job with Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company, in Baltimore, Maryland and was there for one year. Then the Korean War started.

In Korea I was an ambulance company commander, evacuating a couple of divisions about ten miles from the front. It was a big job. We evacuated the entire Korean peninsula including a hospital train. I got to Korea right at the beginning and came back in 1953.

My last assignment was Headquarters 4th US Army. I got into the Army in 1936 and retired in 1966—30 years exactly. They said if I’d go to Vietnam, they’d make me a bird colonel. I thought about it, but figured 30 years was enough.

I have two of the most important ribbons on my uniform—the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. I got the Purple Heart on the last day of the Normandy Campaign and the Bronze Star in Korea.

I think the reason I survived the war is the fact that I’m a Christian. I didn’t worry about anything because it was out of my hands. {03-14-2019 • San Antonio, TX}