Robert E. Foster was born on a farm in northeastern Iowa. He walked a mile to a one room school through the eighth grade. The high school was a further three miles. His father wanted him to farm. Foster talked his father into signing papers so he could join the Navy. He went to the Naval Training Station at San Diego, California. He was on the heavy cruiser the Northampton [Annotator's Note: USS Northampton (CA-26)]. He visited the Hawaiian Islands twice. He ate pineapple on a stick there. He went to Alaska and visited the area that was the setting for Rex Beach's book, "The Silver Horde" [Annotator's Note: published 1909] about the salmon runs. They stopped at Seward [Annotator's Note: Seward, Alaska]. In 1936, Anchorage's [Annotator's Note: Anchorage, Alaska] main street was about 3 blocks long. He climbed Mount Juneau. He went to Midway Island and ran into a storm. They would sit on the deck during mealtime and hold their plates with both hands. The Navy developed language that was not exactly words you would use in your family. Many sailors had tattoos. Foster did not. Chief Boatswain's Mate Anderson [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] had an oath for tough situations that was "sweet suffering shades of sacred sheep shit." Foster left the Navy, returned to Iowa and went to school in Cedar Rapids [Annotator's Note: Cedar Rapids, Iowa]. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had gone into Poland [Annotator's Note: German Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939]. The United States started the draft. He showed the draft board his Navy papers and was put in the Army as a Private. He went to Camp Roberts, California and decided to apply to be an officer. He was sent to Columbus, Georgia to Infantry School [Annotator's Note: infantry officer candidate school at Fort Benning, Georgia] and became a second lieutenant.

Robert E. Foster's first assignment was at Camp Phillips in Kansas [Annotator's Note: in Salina, Kansas]. The 94th Division [Annotator's Note: 94th Infantry Division] was being activated [Annotator's Note: 16 November 1942] and training. The temperature could be 50 degrees in the morning, but it could drop down to zero if the wind began to blow. He remembers taking troops out on a warm day and the rattlesnakes would be out. One particular day they killed about a dozen. Each individual had a shelter half. Two of them put together made a pup tent for two men. Officers had their own tents. One day, Foster crawled into his tent and crawled into his bedroll. He felt something hard on this left side and was afraid it was a snake. He heard some giggling outside of his tent. He got his flashlight and saw it was a snake whose head had been crushed. He told the men he would get even in the morning. [Annotator's Note: Foster loses his train of thought.] The Division decided to send an officer and a sergeant from each battalion to the 2nd Army Ranger School in Tullahoma, Camp Forrest, Tennessee [Annotator's Note: Camp Forrest, in Tullahoma, Tennessee]. Foster was chosen. While there, they would have reveille [Annotator's Note: a signal sounded to wake personnel] at five o'clock, don a field pack, and go on a fast, 25 mile hike. One morning there were four women playing golf. Somebody whistled. A General was there, did not like that and added another ten miles. When they returned, they were asked to demonstrate what they had learned in Ranger School to the battalion. They demonstrated tumbling and breaking holds. A soldier challenged Foster to break his hold. Foster could not shake him loose and thought that was not good. He then told the men that if he had surprised that soldier by putting a knee in his crotch, he could have broken the hold. The soldier thanked him for not surprising him. [Annotator's Note: Foster smiles at this.]

Robert E. Foster went on maneuvers [Annotator's Note: with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division] in Tennessee [Annotator's Note: 2nd Army No. 3 Tennessee Maneuvers, a series of seven large scale training exercises in Middle Tennessee] and then to Camp McCain, Mississippi [Annotator's Note: in Grenada County, Mississippi]. He then went to New York and overseas on the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth]. They were losing a lot of ships in the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean] to German submarines. The Queen Elizabeth had no escorts because her cruise speed was high, and it took only three days to get to Scotland. He then went to the Salisbury Plains area, south of London [Annotator's Note: London, England] on a train. There was an English sailor wobbling along the sidewalk. Foster said it looked like he had been drinking beer. The sailor told Foster "you do not drink it, you sip it." They were there a couple of weeks and went into town at night. He and Lieutenant Klutsch [Annotator's Note: later United States Army Captain Joseph H. Klutsch] rented a tandem bike from a farmer. Everything was blacked out and they hit a man walking. They gave the farmer ten dollars for the damage. They crossed the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel, 8 September 1944] at Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France] after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. There was still a lot of debris at Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France]. The Germans were pretty well encased in the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] in the French fields. At Avranches [Annotator's Note: Avranches, France, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] broke out and headed towards Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] with his tanks. The 94th turned west to contain about 60,000 troops in the Brittany peninsula [Annotator's Note: Brittany, France]. Communications were not good. Colonel Thurston [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Benjamin E. Thurston] told Lieutenant Klutsch to go into Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France] where supplies were coming in. They had no authority, so they were stealing phones from a sergeant they convinced to hand them over. A Black [Annotator's Note: African-American], shiny, MP [Annotator's Note: military police] stopped them and asked them for their trip ticket. They faked their way out. The phones came in handy. They were stretched out several miles between their strong points. The Germans were trying to break out using mortars and 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. They ate mostly C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] and K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. They sometimes managed to get hot food. He went with Landis to take food to the 1st Platoon. They saw someone run across the road and Foster said to get out of there. An 88 round went over their heads. The second one landed behind them. The third landed where they had been one second before.

In December [Annotator's Note: December 1945], the Germans made their last effort to break through the Allied lines in the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Foster and his men were put in boxcars and sent towards the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. The 3rd Army cut up from the South into the Bulge. The main elements of the military that were hurt the worst were the 1st Army and 2nd Army. They took the brunt. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had the Line [Annotator's Note: the Siegfried Line; a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s] built and felt no enemy could ever break through. The Americans did not know that and they were getting through. It was tough going. One evening at dusk, Foster was in a crest area on a road looking down at Wies [Annotator's Note: Wies, Germany]. Artillery was coming in and going over him. They heard some coming and he and some others hit the deck. He and Colonel Thurston [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Benjamin E. Thurston] landed in the same spot. Thurston's coat was in shreds afterwards. There were a lot of Schu-mines [Annotator's Note: Schü-mine 42, Schützenmine 42, English: rifleman's mine model 1942] in the snow. A lot of men were being lost. They got to the Saar River. The Germans were on the other side and giving them small arms fire. Captain Brightman got a stray round right in the chest and died right away. They crossed the river that night. Two nights later, they were three miles out in the German country. They could hear their voices all around them. Artillery came in and Foster got shrapnel in his left thigh. It hit a nerve and he could not use his leg. He made it back to the aid station and was flown to a military hospital in Belgium. He was then flown to the Cherbourg Hospital [Annotator's Note: in Cherbourg, France] for a couple of weeks. He returned to his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division] which was now at Cologne [Annotator's Note: Cologne (Köln), Germany] which had been pulverized without touching the church. They were in a town called Wuppertal [Annotator's Note: Wuppertal, Germany]. The war was over, and they were trying to control the displaced people and feeding them. There was a commotion in one of the camps. They had killed a Belgian horse and were barbecuing it. Foster then went to Czechoslovakia. The Czech people lived in little villages. They had flocks of geese. The Czech people had a saying that the Americans would say "please”, and the Russians would say "give me."The Russians were ornery with the Czechs. There was a house fire one day. An older woman wanted to go back in. A Russian soldier pushed her down. An American soldier floored him. General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] flew in to thank them. Foster was in charge of the Honor Guard. Patton shook hands with him. A month and a half later, Patton was killed in his vehicle [Annotator's Note: a vehicle accident that occurred on 8 December 1945; Patton died o his injuries on 21 December 1945]. Because of his 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], Foster went home in November 1945.

Robert E. Foster entered the Navy in November 1934. He was drafted [Annotator's Note: into the Army] in 1942. Foster had started to work at the Woolworth Company in Burlington, Iowa. When he turned on the radio one morning, he heard of the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. When he was on the Northampton [Annotator's Note: USS Northampton (CA-26)], they visited Pearl Harbor several times. They jokingly would say that if they ever got caught there, they would be in trouble due to the channel going in. They would have to anchor right in the middle like the Arizona [Annotator's Note: the USS Arizona (BB-39)]. It was a narrow bottleneck. Foster was commissioned [Annotator's Note: as an Army officer] on 12 November 1942 and assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division. They left the United States for England about 30 June 1944. They landed at Omaha Beach, France [Annotator's Note: 8 September 1944]. When he was drafted and sent to Camp Roberts [Annotator's Note: Camp Roberts, California] for basic training, he was given the job of guard. He halted a man on the street. It was Colonel McClune [Annotator's Note: Colonel Harold H. McClune; Commanding Officer of the 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division] and he let him pass. The next morning he was promoted to sergeant because the Colonel was so impressed. [Annotator's Note: Foster laughs.] [Annotator's Note: Someone knocks on the door and the tape is paused.] Foster does not feel his Navy training helped that much with his Army training other being more familiar with small arms and rifles. The troops at Camp Phillips [Annotator's Note: in Salina, Kansas] were using the Garand rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. One of Foster's first assignments was to explain the disassembly and assembly of that to about 100 new troops. He had entered the Navy because he knew a man who had been in Roosevelt's White Fleet [Annotator's Note: Great White Fleet, nickname for group of Navy battleships that journeyed around the globe 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of United States President Theodore Roosevelt] that had been sent around. The man had a book of pictures that he loaned to Foster. When Foster knew he wanted off the farm, he wanted to join the Navy to see the world and travel.

The first time somebody shoots at you, the bullet pops when it goes past your head. Robert E. Foster remembers that well. He just kept his head down. If you could see the enemy, you shot at them. If you needed help, you asked for artillery. The Germans were really dug in in the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation]. The troops bottled up in the Brittany peninsula [Annotator's Note: Brittany, France] had mortars and 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. When the war started, the American tanks had a 75mm gun [Annotator's Note: 75mm gun M3]. The German tanks had 88s. He remembers seeing five American tanks all shot up. The Americans finally got a 90mm [Annotator's Note: M26 Pershing heavy tank] that could blast the 88s out of the ground. [Annotator's Note: A phone rings at 0:35:38.000.] Every time he got near real combat, Foster was afraid, but he was trained to do certain things and kept his head own as much as he could. [Annotator's Note: There is a tape break at 0:36:17.000.] He had a Sergeant Smith [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] who was an intelligent man when it came to phones and wire. [Annotator's Note: Someone interrupts off-camera at 0: 36:55.000.] His mess sergeant was a capable individual. His First Sergeant never went into combat with them. By the time they got into France, he left, and they got another. Sergeant Perlmutter [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] was a platoon sergeant. They had 60mm mortars [Annotator's Note: M2 60mm lightweight mortar] and 60 caliber machine guns [Annotator’s Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun]. Each platoon had one squad armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle]. It was heavy. Foster has kept in touch with some of them. Lieutenant Klutsch [Annotator's Note: later US Army Captain Joseph H. Klutsch] lost his left foot. He married his nurse. [Annotator's Note: A phone rings at 0:39:18.000.] He had one young fellow who came as a replacement who wrote letters home to his parents that are now in a book that Foster has. In one situation, they were in a wooded area and the Germans were hitting the trees with bursts. That man was lost there in that attack. Foster's most terrifying moment in combat was when they were stuck near Wies [Annotator's Note: Wies, Germany] and rations were running short. He took a platoon at night to get rations from battalion. There was a lot of artillery and rockets. The Germans had a truck with screaming mimis [Annotator's Note: nebelwerfer; German multiple rocket launcher]. When those landed, you could not hear them. About halfway to get the rations, they heard artillery coming in and dove for cover. When they got up, one of the fellows on his side thought the men on their other side were enemy and killed one of his fellow soldiers. Foster was so sorry about that. He cannot think of any particular time when he was more afraid than others. Cutting up towards the southern edge of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] there was a lot of enemy fire and snow but that is about it.

Robert E. Foster was in a particular spot where he was in the same hole as another man. Foster had to relieve himself. Just as he squatted down, an 88mm round [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] hit a tree right by him. He went back in the hole and took care of himself there. That was about the most comical situation he was in. He was in Czechoslovakia when he got word that FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died. Everybody was unhappy because he was respected, and they thought he had done a great job with the war. Nobody knew much about Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States], but it turns out that Truman was a great President. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Foster about Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day, 8 May 1945.] Foster was on the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River] at Cologne [Annotator's Note: Cologne (Köln), Germany]. Some of the troops had continued on and met the Russians. It was great that the war was over. They still did not like the Germans. They were taking the weapons from their homes and not letting them wear their uniforms. Wuppertal [Annotator's Note: Wuppertal, Germany] was called the cutlery capital of the world before the war. His interpreter gave him a knife from there. He often carries it. Foster went to a couple of reunions, but they are not really his thing. They did have a newsletter. Gene Weiss [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] lives in Stone Mountain [Annotator's Note: Stone Mountain, Georgia] and produces a quarterly letter now. There is also a 94th [Annotator's Note: 94th Infantry Division] letter. The men are gradually dying off.

Robert E. Foster was a Captain at the end of the war after his company commander was shot and he took over. He became a Major in the Reserve. He had made First Lieutenant back when he left Camp Phillips [Annotator's Note: in Salina, Kansas] for maneuvers. He was executive officer for L Company [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division]. He literally knew the name of every man in the Company. Reunions were never his thing. He went to a few and had a good time. The war made Foster more mature and gave him a better understanding. It helped him be a more experienced individual. He has a great son and daughter. He thinks that it is important to study World War 2 because it was such a large period of time. The whole world was involved. So many young people today have no conception of what it was like or what their parents went through. He also thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is a good part of it. Even a President has a museum after he retires.