[Annotator's Note: The interview begins with a conversation regarding how the interview is going to be accomplished.] Dwain Gregory Luce was born in Mobile, Alabama in April 1916. His grandfather was a doctor and delivered him. He has two brothers and all of them were in the service in World War 2. His father was in the lumber business. Luce's son still operates the tree farm. Luce's first job was a strikebreaker [Annotator's Note: person who works in place of others on strike]. The first stevedore's [Annotator's Note: person who loads and unloads ship cargo] strike [Annotator's Note: labor strike; workers collectively stop work in order to gain concessions from their employer] occurred there. Luce's father had helped him get a job as a stevedore during it. They were paid 60 cents an hour. He was about 15. He was sorry to see the strike end. This was during the Great Depression. They were not broke but had to be careful. His father put his three boys through school. Luce went to Auburn University [Annotator's Note: in Auburn, Alabama] which was Alabama Polytechnic Institute then. All men took ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] for two years at that time. He decided he wanted a commission, so he had it for two more years. He trained at Fort Benning, Georgia in the summer. He was in horse-drawn artillery at Fort Benning. He practically lived with two horses for the six-week training. They had a French 75 [Annotator's Note: M1897 75mm field gun] left over from World War 1. He graduated in 1938. He did active duty to get it behind him. It was 30 days in a horse drawn outfit. There were three pairs of horses pulling the caisson [Annotator's Note: wagon for carrying ammunition]. Each pair had a rider on the left-hand horse that was called the "on horse". The riderless horse was called the "off horse". He studied chemical engineering in school. If he had it to do over again, he would do mechanical or civil instead. In those days, they dated a lot of girls. He had a lot of fun.

[Annotator's Note: Dwain Luce was commissioned in the Army and completed his active-duty requirement in 1938.] Luce was working as the manager in a vegetable canning plant in Mississippi. He was down at a Gulf [Annotator's Note: Gulf of Mexico] beach. He stopped by to see his parents and they told him that Pearl Harbor had been attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He went down Monday and asked to be called for active duty. He was turned down because he was in an essential industry, the food industry. It did not take long for them to change their minds and he reported in on 15 January [Annotator's Note: 15 January 1942] at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He went through refresher training. When they finished, one half went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Luce went with the other half to Alexandria, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: Camp Claiborne in Rapides Parish, Louisiana]. The refresher training was more refined than basic training. The Divisions at the time were put through more training as a Division. He was in the 82nd Division, which was not yet the 82nd Airborne Division. General Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army General Omar Nelson Bradley] was the commander. They finished with high marks. There had never been airborne troops in the Army and they decided to make the 82nd an airborne division. They were told they could remain or transfer out. Luce volunteered to remain in gliders. They had no parachutes. The Divisions were triangular; made up of three combat teams. They had a basic regiment for infantry, an artillery unit for support, engineers and signal corps. The 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] was made up of two combat teams of parachutes and one team of gliders. They did not know how to drop heavy equipment then. They took the pack 75s [Annotator's Note: M1 75mm pack howitzer] and broke them into three pieces to drop separately. If a piece was lost, there was no gun then. They took a 105 [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer] and cut it down to make it fit gliders and to direct lay fire for the infantry. Direct laying is looking at what you are shooting. It was a special 105 [Annotator's Note: M3 105mm lightweight howitzer] for the airborne. It was not as good as the regular 105 but it was a good gun. When they went into Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], they could just get a 105 into the glider due to size and weight. They practiced shooting it stateside. They did not have helicopters in those days. They shipped into Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco] and moved to Tunisia where they continued their training and developing their techniques.

Dwain Luce left for North Africa from New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. The battleship USS Texas (BB-35) was their ship in the convoy. They went to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco] without any u-boat [Annotator's Note: German submarine] sightings or action that he saw. They laid offshore for 24 to 48 hours. Malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] was a big problem, so they were all given Atabrine [Annotator's Note: an anti-malarial medication]. They went ashore and set up camp. They stayed about a week and then took a convoy across to Oujda [Annotator's Note: Oujda, Morocco]. It took two days. They camped outside of Fez, Morocco the first night. They had few trucks. They had jeeps but no heavy equipment. It was a beautiful trip. The old French forts in the Sahara [Annotator's Note: Sahara Desert, Africa] reminded him of the film Beau Geste [Annotator's Note: 1939 American adventure film]. They stayed at Oujda for a month. They then took a train to Kairouan, Tunisia, a holy city. In Oujda, they found that the Romans had been there. There were holes in the ground where they had stored their grains. Some people fell in and had to be dug out. They are an entirely different people there. They set up to practice shooting. The local sheikh [Annotator's Note: chief or head of an Arab, tribe, family, or village] had given them the range area. On their first shot, they hit outside of their range right in the middle of an Arab's tent, killing several animals and a woman. They made peace and made trades for what they owed. They left the woman for last thinking it would be harder. The sheikh said that was no problem as they had plenty of women and did not charge them for her. That is their attitude. They had to keep the local people from bothering them. There had been a lot of fighting and there were a lot of buried bodies. The locals would dig the bodies up and take the clothes. It was very hot. Luce says he lived with diarrhea. The medicine for the diarrhea made them have the opposite problem. They got to Tunisia where a Scottish unit of the British Army was, along with some Arab units. The Scottish unit would parade about once a week with bagpipes and drums. Luce became good friends with one of them who later got himself killed in action. Luce and his unit [Annotator's Note: 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division] trained in their gliders. Weight is the big factor, balanced and secured so it cannot shift around. They practiced that as well as landing so that the equipment could get out quickly. The maximum size of the crew was 13, depending on the weight.

Going into Sicily [Annotator's Note: Sicily, Italy] was not a complete success for glider pilot Dwain Luce. He did not go in the first night. The unit [Annotator's Note: 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division] went in on the tail end of a German aircraft raid. The Germans were dive-bombing the Naval vessels. The flight of gliders and parachuters came in behind it. The antiaircraft gunners were firing at them all. There were not enough planes left, so Luce had to go in by boat. That was the first Airborne experience of the Army. Some of the airborne did get on the ground but there were a lot of causalities. One of the problems when getting on the ground is assembling the teams. The Air Force was not that accurate with navigation then and the people were scattered. Their normal objectives were to get in behind the beach to give the troops a chance to get on the beach. The airborne were to get in and keep the German reinforcements from coming up and driving the troops off the beach. Luce went in by boat and they fought their way across Sicily. The Italians did not give them any trouble. The Germans put up a big fight. They day before they went in, General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] and General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] came to see them. [Annotator's Note: Luce asks the interviewer if she has seen the movie, "Patton", 1970 American biographical war film about General Patton.] Patton gave that speech that he made in the movie. The speech in the movie was accurate but they left out one part that Luce liked, "Some troops can move, and some troops can shoot, but when you can move and shoot at the same time, you and Napoleon are pissing through the same straw." They were all gung-ho and ready to go then. The beach was under control when Luce landed. This was his first time under fire. Anybody who says they were not scared is either lying or was not there, particularly when they [Annotator's Note: the Germans] aimed that 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] at you. They made it across and prepared for the Italian invasion.

Dwain Luce says there were several plans for airborne [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division in Allied invasion of Italy 3 September 1943] in Italy. General Taylor [Annotator's Note: US Army General Maxwell Davenport Taylor] went into Rome [Annotator's Note: Rome, Italy on a secret mission]. They were all set to go in. The plan was to invade Italy and drop on Rome at the same time. Luce was in his glider when Taylor gave the word to stop. The Italians had alerted the Germans and they were prepared. The airborne would have been massacred. Taylor escaped by submarine. The story is not told much but it was dramatic. General Mark Clark [Annotator's Note: US Army General Mark Wayne Clark] was in charge and had the Texas Division [Annotator's Note: 36th Infantry Division]. They had trouble on the beach, and dug in. If you stay dug in and do not move, they are going to get you. They were stuck on the beach and called on the airborne who helped them get off the beach. Luce lost a boyhood chum. He had been looking for him because he knew he was there. After a few days, Luce found out that his friend had been hit by a bomb. Luce wrote his wife a v-letter [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail]. Most of the Division [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] came in at the beach and did not parachute in. They were driving the Germans back to establish the beach as a foothold to bring in materials. The British were coming from the East. They worked their way up and took Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy]. It is the prettiest country, but not good country to fight through. The city was full of everything, including fleas. In Naples, they were made into mountain troops. It was a muddy mess. They had to cross the Volturno River but there was only one bridge. Troops were standing in line to cross it. Luce was sent to where they could cross. General Clark came down and asked the lieutenant in charge of moving people across what was going on. The lieutenant replied "General, it beats the hell out of me." They fought in the hills there and then were pulled out to go Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They returned to Naples and took a ship to Algeria. They joined a convoy to Northern Ireland. They got replacement troops while there. [Annotator's Note: They take a break.]

Dwain Luce was staging in Northern Ireland for the invasion of Europe [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] when he got word that his second child had been born. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Luce to tell her about his marriage.] They were married in Mobile [Annotator's Note: Mobile, Alabama]. He had an automobile and went to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana where he volunteered to become part of the new Airborne Division [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division]. The parachute part was training at Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina]. They went up to a camp in New York before going overseas. They were issued clothing and they crossed on an old Grace liner [Annotator's Note: Grace Lines shipping company], the SS Santa Maria. They went in a large convoy to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco.] Luce had smuggled some booze in his packs. He and some friends drank to celebrate his child. They did some training and Luce had to make several trips to London [Annotator's Note: London, England] as he was on battalion [Annotator's Note: 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division] staff. There were was no place to put all of the troops preparing for D-Day. They moved into England and did some shooting down in Wales. They moved into a special camp. Secrecy was absolutely necessary and once in, they could not get out. They would sand table some of the operations. They had sand on a table and would locate things on the map so they would have some familiarity when they landed. They were in constant contact with the French Underground. His drop zone was Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, France. They did not drop there as they learned the Germans had put a crack division [Annotator's Note: crack is slang for elite, or best, soldiers] there. They changed to Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him how the mission briefings were structured.] Division S-3 [Annotator's Note: person in charge of operations planning] briefed his group. The Germans planned a defense with concrete emplacements all along the beach. They would keep their crack troops, SS divisions [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] and armored back in central points to be able to come in and drive the troops off the beach. The airborne's job was to get in between them and have the Germans hit them, not the beach. They held the Merderet River line, and the Germans did not break through. When you are sitting with two guns pointing in opposite directions, it is a pretty good sign that you are surrounded. They held on. They knew that if they did not hold, they would be abandoned as there would be no way of getting them out. When the first tank came through, they told Luce two things: the beach is held, and help is on the way. It got messy around Sainte-Mere-Eglise. [Annotator's Note: There is an odd tape break, and they discuss telling some different stories.] In Normandy, there was no front line. Luce had a very good friend cut in half by anti-tank fire. It was not pleasant there. Luce's glider crashed and it scattered all over. He went back on the 40th anniversary [Annotator's Note: of the D-Day invasion, 6 June 1984] and found the spot where he came down and the house he ran behind when being shot at.

Dwain Luce feels that they must have loaded up in advance [Annotator's Note: loaded the gliders in preparation for the D-Day, Normandy, France landings 6 June 1944]. They were enclosed and nobody was getting in or out. He recalls that they were told they were not going on 5 June. On 6 June, they said they were going and that was it. Luce went over in a British Horsa [Annotator's Note: Airspeed AS.51 Horsa glider], a little larger than the American CG-13 [Annotator's Note: Waco CG-13 military transport glider]. He had heavier equipment and about five or six men besides him and the copilot. The Horsa had a tricycle landing gear. When he saw the pilot going over the treetops, he knew they were going down. They were supposed to land at about 70 miles per hour, and he saw the speed was 110. If they landed too hard, the landing gear would come up through the bottom. His glider was in bad shape when they got down. A lot of glider pilots were killed on the landings, most of them, most of the ones that flew the guns in. Later when they invaded Holland [Annotator's Note: Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 17 to 25 September 1944], he had to fly copilot because there were not enough pilots. They were scattered out as the Air Force was not good at getting them to the right spot. They used to say if they are knocking a bridge out, the safest place to be is on the bridge. His first night he picked up with some men and was looking for his outfit [Annotator's Note: 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division]. It got dark and they decided to get in a ditch and get a nap. About that time a German came through with a machine pistol [Annotator's Note: German MP-40, or Maschinenpistole 40, 9mm submachine gun] and was spraying them [Annotator's Note: with bullets]. Luce's friend shot him and then they all went to sleep. Luce found his outfit the next day. They had nicknames. They called one fellow "Airborne." He was a nice kid but did not belong. When Luce got to headquarters, someone said Airborne was in a ditch with a broken leg back where the Germans were. Luce volunteered to go get him. He went back and found him. Airborne was in the ditch with a hole in his forehead that had powder marks around it. That means somebody stood over him and shot him. That bothers Luce to this day. They spent 33 days in Normandy. They never gave an inch of ground and they accomplished all of their missions.

Going into this invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] was not harder for Dwain Luce [Annotator's Note: than his first one at Sicily, Italy]. You learn from your experiences. He did not look forward to it but he had a job to do. C-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] towed them over in a British Horsa [Annotator's Note: Airspeed AS.51 Horsa glider]. Double tows were with the CG-13s [Annotator's Note: Waco CG-13 military transport glider]. They got flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. They tried to go in at about 2,000 feet to keep below the heavy flak. He does not know what happened to his pilots. The job of the pilots was to get them in there and get out of the way. His job was to get to his battalion [Annotator's Note: 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division] headquarters. The pilot's instructions were to get back to the beach. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer talks of the only member to earn a medal, but Luce does not know about it.] Luce and his unit were being used as normal troops and giving artillery support for the infantry. The Germans were methodical, so Luce and his men knew when they should get in their foxholes. His group dug their own holes. Luce carried a .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] that he wishes he would have brought back with him. On a mission, he would grab an M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] and take it with him. He was a sharpshooter with a rifle and a pistol. He eventually made Captain. They were informed that they were going to be gassed with mustard gas [Annotator's Note: also called sulfur mustard; chemical warfare agent]. They were put in the clothes for that. The first thing they did when they went ashore was throw away their gas masks. They never got gassed. He had a morphine patch with him on one shoulder and a grenade on the other. The morphine was in a little tube [Annotator's Note: syrette; device for injecting liquid through a needle; similar to a syringe]. Some of them, like Luce, got escape equipment which included a silk map, morphine, and a small file [Annotator's Note: metal file to use to cut through metal bars] encased in rubber to file out. They were to put that in their rectums if captured. He thinks they were only given to officers. Luce was very lucky and never got hit. In Germany, in the Ardennes [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], he got hit in the helmet, but it did not penetrate. They [Annotator's Note: the 82nd Airborne Division] got pulled out [Annotator's Note: of Normandy, France to go to England 13 July 1944] and everybody got a week off. General March [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] was a good friend of Luce's. They would sit and have toddies. March told him it was pretty successful; they expected to lose half of the men, and they only lost a third. Luce told him he was glad he waited to tell him that. You had to keep a sense of humor. You could not survive without it.

[Annotator's Note: On 13 July 1944, Dwain Luce and the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division went back to England after participating in the D-Day landings in Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] The "jackass" Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] had a plan [Annotator's Note: Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 17 to 25 September 1944] to swing through the North [Annotator's Note: northern Europe] and go to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. There were a group of bridges where the Rhine River branches out. The plan was for three Airborne Divisions to take the three main bridges. Montgomery got bogged down. Luce and his outfit took their objectives, but the British 1st Airborne [Annotator's Note: British 1st Airborne Division] got cut up terribly. Luce had gone in on the initial landing. The way had been cleared for them [Annotator's Note: the gliders]. The Air Force got them off course. Luce was riding copilot because they were out of pilots. He asked the copilot to let him try to fly the glider in case something happened. Luce did not do well, and his sergeant told him he was getting sick. Luce knew they were in the wrong place and told the tow pilot. The pilot ordered him to cut loose. A lot of the gliders were knocked down. The Germans captured some of Luce's friends. Luce gathered up 22 boys and they had a firefight. The Germans backed off. Luce got into a barn. He had his rifle. He almost made a terrible mistake. He knew there were people in the house, so he kicked the door open. An old lady put a glass of milk in his face. He was glad he did not throw in a hand grenade. He got together a fighting unit. They did not know where they were, but he guessed correctly that they were out past Nijmegen [Annotator's Note: Nijmegen, Netherlands] and Groesbeek [Annotator's Note: Groesbeek, Netherlands]. He knew they had to get into the woods. He marched in the general direction of where he thought the unit was and then they camped. The next morning, he realized he had invaded Germany. [Annotator's Note: Luce laughs.] He got a friend on the phone and confirmed their location. Then they had to get through the lines without getting shot by the American troops. They got back in. He got a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for his actions. They were supposed to be there three days and were there three months. The British always set up an Officer's amusement center. They set one up at Grave [Annotator's Note: Grave, Netherlands] outside of Nijmegen. They would let two or three Americans come back and celebrate with them. They would go to the Grand Hotel [Annotator's Note: Grand-Hotel de Draak, Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands] and have a good time. There was a piano there. A fellow would get drunk and play it. Outside of Mobile [Annotator's Note: Mobile, Alabama; he says do not record this part], there is a British rail plant. Luce was in the banking business and handled some of their business. He was there for a supper and a woman asked if he had ever been in England. He said yes, and she called her husband over. They had a nice chat and Luce told him about the piano player. It turned out to be the man he was talking to.

After Holland, they [Annotator's Note: 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division] went to Rots, France to get replacements. Dwain Luce was told to go get a truckload of ammunition because they were pulling out to the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The 82nd was supposed to take the south side at Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Bastogne, Belgium]. They got on the road first, so they took the northern side and stabilized it. Luce went back on the 40th [Annotator's Note: 40th anniversary of World War 2] and found some of the French people he stayed with. They were in the Ardennes. Their last crossing was up in Cologne [Annotator's Note: Cologne, Germany]. They were on the riverbanks and retrieved a few bottles of wine. They had been in the dark for a long time. The power plant was across the river. There was an understanding with the Germans that the Allies would not shoot the power plant if the Germans left the power on. For the first time, they had power at night. Luce ended up crossing the Elbe River as his last crossing. He was sent back to get something. Coming back, he thought he had run into the whole German Army. The 21st Army [Annotator's Note: 21st German Army] had surrendered. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him to compare fighting in the Bulge to fighting in Normandy, France in June 1944.] Normandy was bloodier. The Bulge was difficult because they were not properly clothed, and it was a record winter. A tank would go down a road and slide off into the ditch. All of the communication lines were in the ditch. It was a mess. It was cold. They had 105s [Annotator's Note: M3 105mm lightweight howitzer] they used as artillery. They had several forward observers. They used what they had and who they had. The way it is organized is that there is a director of fire. The forward observer picks the spot on the map and give the location to the director. [Annotator's Note: Luce describes the process in detail.] They also had a small airplane for forward observing too. They had 12 105s. Luce saw some concentration camps. When the war ended, there was a displaced persons camp [Annotator's Note: Wöbbelin, subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp, Ludwigslust, Germany] with people starving to death. They made the people who lived in that town dig graves and bury those bodies. They did not want them to ever forget what they had let happen.

Dwain Luce did not have to wait long to go home. When the war was over, each country sent their finest Divisions to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. The 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] was chosen. Luce could have gone but he wanted to go home and had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. He went home on the Green Airlift [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. They had been taken back to France and got new uniforms. He was flown to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco] in a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. He rode in the nose. It was exciting. They flew to Dakar [Annotator's Note: Dakar, Senegal] and then to Belém, Brazil, up to Natal [Annotator's Note: Natal, Brazil], then Georgetown [Annotator's Note: Georgetown, Guyana] and then Florida. They got on a train and they made him train commander. There was a bunch of kids going home and there was no way to command. He just sat in the back and stayed out of the way. All of the little old ladies in Florida would bring them orange juice to the train stops. He went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to get checked out. They had orders to hold him as he had a specialty that might be needed in the East [Annotator's Note: for the invasion of Japan]. He told his wife they were paying him, and he wanted to take a trip. He did so. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks what it was like to see each other after three and a half years. His wife answers "great" from off-camera.] It was good to get home. He had two kids he wanted to see. It was different. He did not sleep well but he got over it after a while. He has times when things bother him. He was lucky. He did all of it and he was just lucky. He was discharged in Hattiesburg. He went in the Reserves [Annotator's Note: he says do not record this] and went to work for a bank. He was sitting at his desk and a sergeant said they had pulled his file in connection with Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953]. He resigned from the Reserve immediately. He sleeps with his hand on his gun sometimes.