John K. Ward joined the Army 13 July 1940. He was a recruit for about three months wearing civilian clothes because there weren't any uniforms. They trained with wooden guns because there were not enough guns. They used trucks for tanks in maneuvers. One day, he and a friend were out [Annotator's Note: training], and a bunch of guys were jumping out of an airplane in some kind of celebration for Franklin Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. His friend said they ought to join them. Their First Sergeant told them they could try. There was a recruiting officer there on the base. They went down. To get in the airborne, you had to be 18 years old and have no dependents. Ward was not heavy enough. He was told to go eat a lot of bananas and come back in a week. He went back and passed. He and his friend went to Fort Benning, Georgia for training. He got 30 days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] for Christmas. When he got back, they formed the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. From there, he was shipped to Alliance, Nebraska [Annotator's Note: Alliance Army Airfield, Alliance, Nebraska] for physical training. They moved out to Sedalia Air Base, Missouri [Annotator's Note: Sedalia Army Airfield, Sedalia, Missouri]. They made a jump there to take the air base. They did it and then returned to Alliance. They went to Denver, Colorado for a parachute jump for a Bond Drive [Annotator's Note: campaign to encourage Americans to buy United States Treasury bonds to finance World War 2]. They went downtown and had a buffet supper. The next morning, they went back to Alliance. They trained a while longer and then went by boat to England.

[Annotator's Note: John K. Ward went overseas with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division on 16 December 1943.] They got to Nottingham, England and did dry runs for the invasion [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944; also referred to as D-Day]. Everybody was getting ready for it. They trained, sharpened knives, and cleaned weapons. They had classes on how to speak German and French. Everything was secret. Late at night, word would come down that they were going. They would pack everything up and go. They would get on a plane and fly out over the English Channel and then down the Channel. They would get pumped up and ready to go and then learn it was called off. The planes would turn back. They would train more and then it would happen again. Everybody was cursing. One night, everybody was sleeping and they wre told to get their gear. Everybody thought it was another dry run. They were taken to an English air base where they had a big meal. That evening, General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] came around and shook everybody's hand. He said, "good luck, this is it". There were Horsa gliders [Annotator's Note: Airspeed AS.51 Horsa glider] hooked to some planes. He was on a plane pulling a glider. Before they reached land, the red light came on. They got up and checked their chutes [Annotator's Note: parachutes] and equipment. The lieutenant moved into the door and Ward moved right behind him. Ward was peeking out the door and he saw antiaircraft fire hitting the wing. The green light came on and they all went out. Ward landed and tried to find his squad. Everybody was scattered. Ward blew up the railroad tracks and cut the telephones lines. They kept grouping together. They had little poppers for signaling. It sounded like crickets moving through the woods. It worked out alright.

[Annotator's Note: John K. Ward jumped into France with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division on 6 June 1944.] They got into the battle and got down to a marsh about 300 yards wide. [Annotator's Note: Someone off screen says 800 yards.] He started out scouting and ran into a machine gun nest. He threw a grenade in. The Germans ran out saying "comrades, comrades" and showing him pictures from their wallets. Ward could not understand much. [Annotator's Note: He speaks some German words.] Ward sent them behind him and went across the marsh. He got cut-off by a tank with big 88 gun [Annotator's Note: German 88mm gun]. That was one of the worst guns you could come across. It would take three American tanks to put it out. Ward got with a lieutenant and some troops and stayed there until the others came. They then got organized and went into the battle for real. After the railroad tracks were blown up, two of them got together at first. He heard a motorcycle coming. One guy had a Browning Automatic Rifle [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR] and was pointing down the dirt road. He hit the man on the motorcycle. They had jumped at three o'clock and this was close to four o'clock. Sergeant Goss [Annotator's Note: US Army First Sergeant William Goss, the Company First Sergeant of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division], was the first person Ward saw of his regiment. Goss told Ward to scout along the marsh. Things got hot and nobody was following him. He got to the other side and that tank was there. He went through an apple orchard and found the lieutenant. He stayed there a few days. The Germans were pulling back and the Americans kept pressing. Ward's old division, the 8th Infantry Division, came right by him. He does not know where they went, but they were there to replace his outfit. There was a lot of confusion. One whole weapons company had been dropped near Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France] instead of near Saint-Mere [Annotator's Note: Saint-Mere-Eglise, France]. It was pretty hairy. Everybody laid down that night along the edge of the marsh. One guy must have been dreaming, because he got up and shot the guy next to him. Ward was the first guy across the causeway by himself. They were not organized yet. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer is confused and asks for clarity. He then says he is going to ask Ward to repeat himself.] The troops were really scattered. The pilots were shook up and just flew off. The men just got out of the planes. That made it more of a success because the Germans thought there were more of them than there were. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer again asks him what Goss told him.] Ward does not remember exactly what he said other than to go ahead across. Usually in the Army, if somebody tells you to go across there, you go across there. You do not ask why; you just do it. Ward was on the marsh when he saw the machine gun. He pulled a grenade and threw it in. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him to repeat it again.] The Germans came up and pulled out their wallets and their wedding bands. It made Ward feel sorry for them, but a war is a war. He just shoved them back to the rear and kept going. There was a tank up at the edge of the woods. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him how it made him to feel to be told to go across the marsh.] Ward does not know what to say about that. You are trained in the Army to do what you are told. You are trained so that if you hear rifle fire, nobody has to tell you to get down. He was told they were going in for bear, and he was going in. He was a young boy and thought he was the master of all, so he was going in. After he wrapped up the machine gun, it got him to thinking about how they got there, and when they got there. He left the gun there and just kept moving on. He was jittery the whole time he was moving on. You do not know where you are going, you are just going. You are expecting somebody to follow you. He does not know what happened, but nobody came.

[Annotator's Note: John K. Ward jumped into France with the 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division on 6 June 1944.] Ward thought he was the luckiest man in the world. Germans were laying right there with a machine gun. He was not moving that fast. He saw them sitting behind the machine gun. He ran across the road and threw a grenade. They came out with no resistance. Ward could not figure out why they were there. It was a great big marsh and only the two of them there with that machine gun. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer says there was a big house there full of Germans and then asks Ward if he remembers someone named Mattingly.] Ward does not remember him other than his name. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him if he remembers Lieutenant Barr.] Not too well. [Annotator's Note: The tape stops and then restarts with Ward telling a story about someone he does not name.] He took some men as messengers who were always in trouble. Ward only saw one American on the other side of the marsh who was missing part of his arm. An 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] had fired into a wood pile where he was. It had cauterized the wound it was so hot. Ward turned and went up the marsh. A tank was just up the road a little way. He joined up with a group like he was trained. The ranking person took over. A lieutenant was at an apple orchard and told Ward to dig in. There was an old jackass [Annotator's Note: a male donkey] in the field. The Germans were lobbing shells in. For two or three days, he [Annotator's Note: the donkey] was just eating. One day, a shell finally got him. Ward and the men put down land mines. The Germans had a wagon up there and would take it with horses at night up an old road. They would come up and stop and it would get quiet. They had a van with their radios in it and decided to come through that road one night. Ward could hear it driving slowly. He could see the pink lights they called "cat eyes". You could not see them from the air. The Germans hit those mines and the van blew to pieces. The next morning, they went out to look. One German had a watch and a soldier took it. He moved on after that to form up with his regiment. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer corrects Ward that it was not a lieutenant there, but a colonel.] They were all dependent on him. Ward moved out but does not remember what happened after that.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks John K. Ward if he recalls two lieutenants by name. Ward appears to be trying to block his eyes from the lights to see the interviewer.] Ward was in G Company [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division], "Schwartz's" company [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Floyd Benjamin Schwartzwalder; commanding officer of Company G]. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer asks Ward what he was like.] He was more or less like their father. They were all young and mostly farm boys. He had a way with things. When they jumped in Denver, Colorado, Ward stayed and was AWOL [Annotator's Note: absent without leave]. Ward turned himself in to the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] the next morning. He was locked in the stockade [Annotator's Note: jail]. He stayed about three days. An MP came in and got him. The Captain was there. He had come from Alliance Army Air Base [Annotator's Note: Alliance Army Airfield, Alliance, Nebraska] to see some men who had injured themselves jumping. He took him to the airplane on the landing strip. There was a jeep in it. The Captain was going to the officer's club and told Ward to sit in the jeep and not leave. They came back and flew back to the air base. Ward had to report to the First Sergeant. Schwartz then called him and told him he made a fool out of him. Ward was just a kid and was shaking. His punishment was having his head shaved with four of five other guys. He made a platoon out of them and called them his "Eight Ball Platoon" [Annotator's Note: after the eight ball in the game of pool, considered to be a sign of bad luck]. They were put outside in pup tents. In the morning for reveille [Annotator's Note: a signal sounded to wake personnel], they would fall out. He had a big stick with a big Eight Ball on the end of it and they had to carry it. They had about 20 days of that. The company was going to ship overseas, and Schwartzwalder said they were not going to go. Ward really wanted to go and begged him. Two of the guys had been in a prison in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. They were Polacks [Annotator's Note: derogatory slang for people of Polish descent] and rough guys. The captain made them messengers. He told Ward he would take him with him, but he did not want to hear another word from him. He was a good man and he was honest. When he told you something, you could bet on what he told you. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Ward if he remembers the glider guys coming through while he was in orchard.] He does not recall one. He remembers sometime along in there, the Colonel got them all out. He took them somewhere, but he does not remember where. You could hear the tanks move around at night and sometimes in the daytime. He could hear artillery way off. The heavy weapons company that dropped near Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France] took two or three days to get to them. They rejoined and moved on. He had crossed a causeway early in the morning. That night they had come up the edge of the road to the causeway. When paratroops jump into battle, the leader jumps first or last. He then does what is called a roll up. He turns and goes back the direction the planes came from, or if he jumps out first, he follows the plane. [Annotator's Note: Ward knocks his microphone off and then repeats the story.] They will all be in a line somewhere.

[Annotator's Note: John K. Ward jumped into France with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division on 6 June 1944.] Crossing the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River, Germany] was something else. [Annotator's Note: Ward is referring to Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945, Wesel, Germany]. People were hanging in trees. The day before they went in, they took pictures for the briefings. They showed the gun emplacements had been abandoned. They had moved back in when they jumped and were waiting for them. Landing in a tree in a parachute, it is a job to get out of it, they shot them right in the trees. Ward's job was to take a castle [Annotator's Note: Diersfordt Castle, Wesel, Germany]. One man got shot right between the eyes. The castle had a moat. If you get right up close, they cannot shoot at you. One guy went around the back and Ward squatted down by the machine gun. A guy was lying there, they were chatting, and the guy was hit right between the eyes. His name was Gonzalez. Ward lost another near the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. His name was Wilkerson. Ward was supposed to go see his family, but he could not do it. Wilkerson had been sent down as a replacement. Ward took him to the machine gunner. He did not have a chance to tell him what his job was. In just a few minutes, shells came in on them from the Siegfried Line. Wilkerson was hit. Ward could not find anyplace he had been hit. The medics took him out. Ward went down the next day and saw his helmet had a big hole from shrapnel. His family wrote him and asked him to come to Kentucky, but Ward figured it would make things worse and did not do it. That was the only two men he lost.