Battle of the Bulge survivor shares his story

“What was the serial number on your gun?”

With the preciseness of a trained accountant, World War II veteran and Battle of the Bugle survivor, Keath Morgan quickly replied, “39909552.” It drew laughter and applause from the audience of Houston County residents that gathered at Green Acres Baptist Church in Warner Robins to hear him speak.

The question regarding his gun’s serial number had been posed by Karen Sisk, founder of the War Time Story Time gatherings. Every month since February 2019, Ms. Sisk has honored the county’s surviving World War II veterans by feeding them lunch and giving them the opportunity to share their stories with one another and anyone else who joins them in the scheduled meetings to listen and to learn.

When asked what the inspiration was behind the program, she gave credit where credit was due. “It started with my dad, a World War II veteran. I never told the man, ‘Thank you for your service,’” Sisk said. “I love history, and I saw where we had a huge amount of World War II veterans here, and I hated to think of all the years that we’ve let their stories go unheard.” She explained that her monthly assembly was not only a way for the community to be made aware of the stories surrounding the experiences of local war heroes, but also for the surviving vets to get to know one another and build bonds with the military brothers that they didn’t even know they had.

At each gathering, all those who served are celebrated for their selfless heroism, but one is singled out to be the spotlight veteran of the month. January marks the 75th anniversary of the ending of the Battle of the Bulge (which was a part of World War II), and Morgan is believed to be the last living Houston County resident who served in what is known as World War II’s deadliest combat between the United States and Germany, Sisk saw him as the perfect selection to kick off 2020.

Rusty Simpson, a Vietnam veteran who has been a close friend of Morgan’s family for the past eighteen months, took the stage as well to assist him in telling his story. Simpson informed listeners that because personnel records of those who served were destroyed by fire in 1973, he had to use a contact who taught military history at West Point Academy to pull the needed information from unit records that were still intact.

Born in Utah in February of 1922, Morgan was barely an adult when he entered the service in 1943. In that day and time, he earned fifty dollars per month for his service. To double his pay, he took the offer to be assigned to Fort Benning where he could become a trained paratrooper. As a Machine Gunner with the 101st Airborne, he found himself as one of thousands who were sent to take part in the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The Battle of the Bulge lasted from December 16, 1944 until January 25, 1945. Morgan said he couldn’t even recall getting a break on Christmas Day.

“We just about lived in fox holes,” he recalled. “The fox holes were covered in snow and ice. We near ‘bout froze to death.” Morgan said they wore helmets and had to keep their heads down at all times. “If we lifted our heads out of the fox holes we got shot at.”

During that combat, he recalled traveling the White Cliffs of Dover, crossing the English Channel, and ending up in Europe where boxcars were waiting. Those boxcars were known as “the forty and eight” because each one had the capacity to hold forty men and eight horses. Morgan said those boxcars were also used by Adolf Hitler to transport thousands of Jews to their slaughter. Many of the lifeless bodies of those murdered, he had the misfortune of seeing lying around the tracks when he and others in his infantry were transported by railway. He saw Hitler’s concentration camps too, but he never had to go inside. Morgan did, however, go inside of the Nazi leader’s home once, and he admits taking Hitler’s kitchen curtains which he still has today.

Simpson told the crowd that by the time the war ended, Morgan had been transferred from the 101st to the 82nd Airborne, and he was one of about twenty thousand soldiers who piled onto the Queen Mary (which was only designed to hold about half as many people) and traveled back to the United States. Finally after a total of three years of being separated from his family, they were reunited, and their return home was celebrated with a parade.

Though Morgan survived the Battle of the Bulge, he didn’t do so without memories and scars that would forever be reminders. He never mentioned being shot, but he did tell the story of being hit by shrapnel in his leg that occasionally still causes him discomfort. He never reported the incident; instead he wrapped it up and kept on fighting.

“I’m going to keep doing these monthly meetings for as long as I can,” Sisk said. “This is open to the public. I encourage schools to let students come and meet these amazing men. I try to invite a school’s ROTC troop to come and take part in this every month. Parents with homeschooled kids should come too. There is so much to learn.”

Once Sisk has finished highlighting World War II veterans, she said she will begin spotlighting Houston County veterans who served in other wars. Ultimately she will open the doors for children of deceased veterans to come and share their secondhand stories as well. Sisk wants all of Houston County and beyond to know these meetings, which start at 1:00 p.m. on the second Monday of each month, are open to the general public. She strongly encourages individuals and organizations to assist her by volunteering in supplying the food as well as serving them during these lunch gatherings.

“They deserve this,” Sisk said.