Lorenzo Dow Crews was born in April 1924 in Memphis [Annotator's Note: Memphis, Tennessee]. His father worked as a ticket agent with a railroad company and retired during the Great Depression. He also was in the real estate business up until the Crash of 1929. His family resided out in the country. Crews was the youngest of six siblings. His oldest brother was 20 years older them him. The family supported each other well and Crews thought of it as a blessing. Crews was in his senior year of high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was involved in the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] program in school. After he graduated high school in May 1942 he signed up for selected service. Crews initially began the application process to attend West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York] but was worried that he may miss being sent overseas to fight, so he decided to not pursue enrolling there. He enrolled in school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville [Annotator's Note: in Knoxville, Tennessee] until he was ordered to report for service in March 1943, and inducted at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He took a train with a bunch of his friends and acquaintances from his county to the induction center. He was then sent to Fort Jackson [Annotator's Note: Fort Jackson, South Carolina] for three months for basic training. He was selected for Army Specialized Training Program and was sent to The Citadel Military School in Charleston, South Carolina to train as an officer. He was there for about four months until they closed the program because they needed infantry soldiers in Europe. The Army sent him to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to join the 100th Infantry Division.

Lorenzo Dow Crews joined Company I, 3rd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment ,100th Infantry Division at Fort Bragg [Annotator’s Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina] as a rifleman. He did field training with his company. He thought his instructors trained well considering they had never been overseas. He trained with out-of-date equipment and the Army had replaced much of it before he was deployed overseas. His friend convinced him to try out for the 10th Mountain Division, but Crews did not care for the cold weather and returned to the 397th Infantry Regiment. In the fall of 1944, Crews shipped out with his company to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He boarded on the George Washington [Annotator's Note: USAT George Washington] by a ferry. The ship was very large and held about 4,000 men. The space was very crowded, and the food was not good. It tasted like diesel fuel. The voyage was calm; there were no weather problems or enemy alerts. To pass the time, they would do a little bit of exercising, play card games, get some fresh air, and wait in line for food. His shipped docked in Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France] during the evening, and deboarded by climbing off the ship on cargo nets. He heard on the radio Axis Sally [Annotator's Note: Mildred Elizabeth Gillars] remark that she knew his ship has arrived in Europe. His unit moved to the outskirts of the city passing through the center of town. They put up pup tents in the rain and camped there for a few days. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer shares a personal story 0:30:42.000 to 0:31:23.000.]

When Lorenzo Dow Crews and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division] arrived in France, their regiment was restructured into a regimental combat team. They advanced to Dijon [Annotator's Note: Dijon, France] near the edge of the Vosges Mountains to relieve a unit in the 45th Division [Annotator's Note: 45th Infantry Division] during a rainy night. This was his first night of combat. There was a group of French resistance that supported the Allies. The "free French" [Annotator's Note: Free French Forces, or France Libre et les Forces françaises libres, was the French government in exile] would stir up trouble with Germans, and then his regiment would have to deal with the effects of it. Crews was a squad leader by the time he landed in France. The night his unit relieved the 45th Infantry Division, holes were already dug for them, and he could hear noises of the enemy moving around him. It was dangerous to move out of the foxhole because soldiers would begin to fire if they heard anything. The next day he had his "baptism by fire." They came near a rail depot in a small town that they were instructed to take. They had run into enemy fire as they advanced near the town. The Germans were well fortified and ready to defend the railroad depot. He does not remember much how he reacted to being fired upon, but he remembered that he just did his job and overcame his fears. As a squad leader, he was responsible for ten men and his main job was to support them during combat. Crews recalls the medics to be extremely good and ran into combat to help any soldiers needed help. By the time Crews and his unit were in combat in France, the weather had become cold and snowy. Initially, they had some winter clothing, but no winter coat. Eventually, they received white winter jackets towards the end of the war. Because they did not have proper footwear, many of the troops in his unit came down with trench foot.

Lorenzo Dow Crews thought the Germans were well equipped with mortars, machine guns, artillery, tanks, and some air power. The Germans did not have much motorized transportation for supplies; they used horses and wagons. Crews and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division] mostly fought through thick forests and many of the German's fire power would explode the trees, causing more kinds of shrapnal to hit the Americans. As they advanced through Bitsy [Annotator's Note: Bitsy, France], the superior officers ordered them to pull back to even the front line. As they got back into the town, Crews saw the townspeople take down the American flags and put back the German flags. He figured the people did not know who would be running them. The first German Crews encountered was a dead man. He disliked how the Germans would injure or kill an American, but then easily give up hoping he would be treated well. For Crews, it was difficult to "turn off the switch" from being a fighter to being diplomatic with the surrendered Germans. Crews was often put on combat and reconnaissance patrols. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview to change tapes at 0:57:30.000.] In late November 1944, his unit was in Division Reserve and they were able to get clean clothes, take showers, and having a Thanksgiving dinner. Crews thought the cooks did a great job making meals and getting food to the front lines. There were only a few times he had to eat k-ration [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] or c-rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] because the cooks would somehow get the troops a hot meal. Crews also though his company commander, Ulysses Grant [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Ulysses J. Grant], was a good commander.

Lorenzo Dow Crews and his unit, 397th Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: Crews was a squad leader in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division], was detached from the 100th Infantry Division and attached to the 45th Infantry Division. Crews did not know any difference in the change. He recalls that his unit had a friendly fire incident with the 3rd Division [Annotator's Note: 3rd Infantry Division] that did not recognize them. Luckily, no one was hurt. Crews lost several of the men in his squad throughout his experience in Europe but cannot think of a specific event. Most of the time it happened during small skirmishes. He never wrote very much during his combat experience. [Annotator's Note: Crews talks about how his grandson emails from Iraq and the interviewer shares a personal story from 0:05:28.000 to 0:07:43.000.] When Crews advanced to the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s], they came across many Germans disguised as American troops and were captured as prisoners. He remembered that during this time, clothing became rare. He did not have gloves or enough socks during the wintry weather. Crews did not think the Germans had protected the Maginot Line very well at this point but thought that the Germans were set up for defense well because they had been there for years. Because of the Battle of Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], the American troops in this area had become sparse. General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] had diverted his actions towards supporting the fight in Bastogne, France.

Lorenzo Dow Crews and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division] hit a counterattack of Germans around Christmas 1944 and New Year 1945. He was out on a patrol and saw the Germans advancing toward their line. The Germans would use flood lights that would brighten the sky. Around 9 January 1945, the Germans led one more attack against Crews and his unit, but the Americans were able to push the Germans back. Crews did not notice any changes in the way the Germans fought as they neared the German line. Crews thought that fighting in towns was more difficult because it was harder to locate the enemy and there was more of a concentration of fire. After their fight in early January, Crews' unit was pulled off the line and given some down time. Crews does not recall any Red Cross people while he was off the line, even thought they were around. When the unit was back in action, they crossed the Rhine River in Manheim [Annotator's Note: Manheim, Germany]. Crews recalls that they had to pull back a little because of an order by General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. The last combat experience his unit was involved in was in Germany and they were fighting not only soldiers, but civilians. Crews had been in the hospital during this time and missed most of the combat. He had come down with hepatitis. He spent about a week in the hospital. He had heard about FDR's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] death not too long after he returned to his unit. He did not have much time to think about it. Crews was near Stuttgart, Germany when he heard the Germans had surrendered. He was stationed in Stuttgart for occupation duty. The city was torn up because it was an industrial city. He lived in an old German barracks. The German people did not want confrontation, so they treated the Americans well. Crews also remembers that many of the German locals took no blame for what happened during the war. He was instructed to never be by himself on the street at night.

Lorenzo Dow Crews was transferred out of his unit [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division] in June 1945 to the military government in Castle, Germany. As an NCO [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officer], he did not do much but drive around in a German car. Crews was sent to La Havre [Annotator's Note: La Havre, France] and returned home in June 1945. He boarded a crowded Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] and recalls that the sea was rough. They landed in New Jersey and he was immediately sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky where he was discharged from the service as a tech sergeant [Annotator's Note: Technical Sergeant; E-7]. He signed up for the Reserves for two years and was discharged from the military in 1948. Crews used the G.I. Bill and attended the University of Tennessee [Annotator's Note: Knoxville, Tennessee]. He thought the G.I. Bill was a great government program offered to the servicemen. To this day, Crews jumps when he hears a loud noise, but does not suffer from post traumatic stress or bad dreams.

Lorenzo Dow Crews fought in World War 2 because "it was the thing to do." He was ready to go after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He felt like the war had matured him faster than most teenagers. He had to make decisions that may cost the lives of people. World War 2 did not change his values but he learned to make decisions and be responsible for the choices he made in the future. Crews was glad that he was able to participate in the war and would have been disappointed if he could not have. He is proud of his combat service. He believes that the Americans that know about the events of World War 2 are happy that we won the war. He thinks not many Americans thinks about the war. He believes that this world cannot have any conflict. It will always exist. Crews' most vivid memory was seeing the devastation of the German cities and contemplating how the people lived through that. He also saw the destruction in London [Annotator's Note: London, England] and wondered how the civilians lived through the bombings without any kind of protection. Crews believes its important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and to continue to teach to future generations. He believes you learn from history and many students are not taught enough history.