 proudly we hail from New York City where the American stage begins here is another program with a cast of outstanding players public service time has been made available by this station for your army and your air force to bring you this story as proudly we hail the United States Army our story is entitled indestructible sergeant this is the story of an indestructible sergeant sergeant first-class Robert 40s of the US Army and all the men of the 82nd Airborne the 14th Armored and the 2nd Infantry Division today you're rapidly expanding United States Army needs intelligent young men with ability and ambition men intelligent enough to recognize the vital need for a strong armed force men with ability enough to be trained in a necessary job men with ambition enough to secure the future for themselves and their loved ones does this description fit you can you qualify for full information on how you can fit in with the finest check with your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station now and now your army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production indestructible sergeant Miss Foley yes I'm sergeant 40s the ROTC instructor here sergeant 40s are you sure the principal said you were running some kind of a qualification survey on teachers and staff if you aren't the one oh yes I'm the one doing it but well please sit down sergeant thank you well now in your case sergeant I'm not quite sure how to begin I see now that I do have your card here but what's matter the questions pretty personal no no not too personal the thing is the survey supposed to cover professional training and experience of a sample group of high school teachers from all over the state but well but you're the first ROTC instructor I've met and I'm not sure these stand in the army one way or another I've probably filled out enough forms to paper this room why don't we just try seeing how it goes well I suppose that's all we can do now by this card your name is Robert 40s that's right F-O-R-T-I-E-S that's right sergeant first class United States Army on detached service age 30 married one child oh oh dear now we get to us subject taught would that be basic military training yeah that's probably close enough and then it's first studies degrees extension I'm afraid you'll have to count me out on the degrees I was 17 when I went up to Canada to enlist and I haven't rightly had time to catch up since 17 you mean you started out with the Canadian army before we even got into World War two the British they were recruiting there and I was finally shipped out to the 8th Army Airborne Brigade you saw combat with the British pretty hard not to with the 8th so Brooke LL main anyway I don't think you need that I'm supposed to put down your different teachers in all places were my teachers Lieutenant Brister McCay or was it Rommel no probably Jamie Lance Corporal Jamie McCay what's up corporal look at it says the plumes added if we can't knock out that bleeding machine gun up ahead what's the matter can't they get mortars on it Jamie not in time to help we're supposed to be past the ravine by noon it's 1 1 bloody 5 oh now you want a volunteer I want grenades how many have you got left three I've got four that'll be margin enough let's have those three wait a minute Jamie you try working up to that position on your own and what well there ought to be somebody along to try and cover you once you get past those rocks I can't do anything for you from here for these you're a perishing lunatic to be asking for it but I'd be glad to have you backing me up only thing is well if you're coming you're coming let's get on with it wait a second Jamie look at your neck going on the block what am I doing wrong it's not your fault mate with that sharp eye you've got is no wonder you'd be trying to bracket fire when you're not getting my shots off fast enough there's no one can get it more fast enough Bob but up close this way when the Jerry's might be popping out at you from any way it has to be pulled up forced or Bob's your uncle you catch it I haven't been trying to do more than half aim at least when we're moving make it even faster if anything shows don't wait to get your piece up don't wait for anything yeah squeeze away before you start thinking you mean just start blasting off that's right hold in your rifle this way your body will do the aiming for you then with your man it anyway you'll have time for proper aim or for dealing with his mate see all right okay corporal get started and I'll see what I can do you know it'll have to be a run for it from here there's no cover up beyond how close after you do I can give me a bit of a stop then come weaving after me like Billy up but don't forget yet if any edge shows fire first and zero in after right luck to you Jamie we got a sweet gone Jamie sweet going up the eighth come on you're perishing bleeding beauties we're moving up Bob 40s didn't get to try the corporal snap shooting trick for a week but then when he needed it it saved his life and possibly two more that was in May 42 but you can't snap shoot against an 88 and that's what tagged Jamie and Bob the same day both caught shrapnel both landed in the same carl hospital on the day when Bob walked down on his own to be discharged did my orders come yet sister your orders soldier yes ma'am back to my outfit no I'm afraid not but I've been discharged haven't I the doctor said yes you've been discharged but Jamie I thought you cleared out a week ago I did but they've had me on supply for a few days getting the hang of these new bazookas well is that how you say yeah bazookas hey is that a ruddy red Indian never mind the bazookas Jamie how is it my orders haven't come through yet just what I was coming to tell you you haven't heard heard what pooled and you tried so well we're not taking you back young mr. 40s what you're out of a job through with a British Army well you probably find something to do here in carl polishing boots or maybe having a go at peddling stop tormenting the poor boy I should tell him I self-promise or no promise sister you you know about my orders and the corporal here got you got an army of your own these days Bob as of this week you and all these year wild yanks like you have been switched to American service the American Army Jamie you would you would not look you wouldn't be key and blotters for you young 40s and on with the K ration from this week out you're an American soldier and now I have that about you're being transferred to the American Army Sergeant and here where it says different schools I suppose I can well you can make it the US 82nd Airborne for the first one after North Africa and then 45 hours reassigned to the 14th armored but wait a minute sergeant yeah what's the 82nd Airborne dropped behind the lines in Normandy on D-day June 6 1944 Miss Foley if you couldn't get Bob 40s to confirm it for you those quiet apple orchards fishing ports and hedge line fields of Normandy had been locked up inside Hitler's Fortress Europe and marked out of bounds for free men but the young American soldiers from Kansas City Louisville and Bridgeport who went in along with the British and the free French that morning the youngsters from a thousand towns and farms they didn't always believe in signs that day they cracked Hitler's Fortress Europe wide open and for keeps and one of the first paratroopers of the 82nd who bailed out into the roaring slipstream in those early hours was chunky young Bob 40s hey Leo let you Leo no it's 40s who's that Lou Myers yeah yeah that's right hey you know Bob I thought for a minute there you were Leo Dubrusky sure tossed us out wide hey look sergeant all my life I've been hearing about these beautiful French babes here we finally get to France and what's on your mind all right come on no contact with anybody babes lieutenants or the crowds by my compass rid North on a split that apple tree over there we were dropped south of the assembly point road all right let's get over there and do some linking up okay which way we head after we form on the road west St. Marie de glace is about a mile over yeah what goes we get there we take and hold that's all I know what if the crowds have armor on the road we deal with it and keep on for the village we deal with it sure they're starting now that some of our stuff out in the road yeah Bob that is our stuff by the way it's house now this is one year you get your fourth of July a month ahead of time Lou come on let's get up to that road Bob 40s and the men of the 82nd Airborne wrote their own passports to France that day and made them good against all the murderous firepower Hitler's crack units tried to throw at them within weeks in the center and the south the once arrogant Nazi legions were being driven back toward the west wall of Germany itself to the north though in the lowlands of Holland stubborn fighting still lay ahead for the 82nd Bob 40s picked up some more shrapnel in Normandy this time in his right arm but he made a fast recovery and was dispatched on his second combat jump in September 44 okay all you guys we're over the tool of country start checking up Bob yeah this is my first combat drop come up but they say you jumped into Normandy on D-Day was it pretty rough not the jump after you get down yeah for a while you figure it'll be rough down at this bridge we're trying well I'll tell you one way to guarantee it skip hit down there hungry and don't have time to break out ration you can think about eating now we're gonna couple of those sandwiches down I'm telling you you're gonna be hungry as a wolf before tonight if you don't I've been concentrating on his this first couple of minutes when we hit whatever's down there here you are figuring I'm gonna be right along with you griping for a child in there there's no way you can do your fighting up here skip yeah these look like a beef and a ham all right take your pick a couple minutes ago I couldn't figure on anything beef for a ham skip make up your mind guess maybe I'll try the beef all right thanks Bob I I think I'll be okay now with just one sandwich just one guy next to me who's been through this before okay we're running in action stations and hook up action stations okay Bob see you in charline tonight okay she's open Jim's in and go with your cap ask him back yeah I got her buddy Bob Porties leaked into the ferocious Nazi ring around on him leading a patrol probing for gaps in the tightening ring about the bridges over the lower Rhine he was responsible for knocking out a Nazi tank single-handedly it was this kind of quick-thinking courage matched in unit after unit that enabled the Allied jumpers to fight their way out of a supposedly unbreakable trap transferred later to the 14th armored division Bob Forties was wounded in the left leg early in 45 but recovered in time to take part in the final victory drive into Germany sergeant 40s yes miss Foley it has to be all doesn't it they couldn't possibly have shipped you out into the Pacific after you've gone no no not them I didn't get to the Pacific until I'd reenlisted and shipped out for Korea you are listening to the proudly we hail production indestructible sergeant our story will continue in just a moment after this important message young man let's talk about your future and America's future they're important to each other you know today your United States Army is charged with a vital responsibility you need only to glance at your local newspaper to realize how vital and to meet this responsibility the Army is rapidly expanding its forces they have a job for you a job that must be done by men of courage you can get full details of how you may best serve your future and your country's future by a visit to your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station today you are listening to proudly we hail and now we present the second act of indestructible sergeant sergeant 40s I know I shouldn't be asking you all this but since we've started ahead miss Foley as I said before if you've got your survey form to fill out let's try to get through the question you say you re-enlisted in the Army in 47 that's right New Year's Day 47 I was assigned to the airborne school at Fort Benning as an instructor I guess I put in more than a year there and good that gives me an entry under previous teaching were you instructing in parachute jumping jumping weapons field problems and you stayed in airborne service until I was switched over to the second division at 49 and got into a heavy mortar company the second infantry division when the new enemies of the free world struck in Korea the second infantry division was one of the first American units shipped out with the ninth regiment of the second as a squad leader in a heavy mortar company when Bob 40s the indestructible sergeant on the troop transport as it plowed west through the Pacific hi sergeant hello Eddie you still counting those waves out there no I'm just working up ambition enough to fight that jawline how is it not too tough I got through it in half an hour maybe I better get down there not our time enough the line still thinner now a sergeant there's something I've been wanting to ask you you were you married aren't you yeah six years kids boy named Davey how old well he'll probably be four before I get back okay what do you mean what dealing me some advice see back at Fort Lewis there I met up with a girl just a couple of months before we shipped out nicest kid I ever met in my life not only that but she was crazy enough to think I was okay well good going no no not so good way we left it we were going to get married when I got back and now I I gotta finish a letter I started about eight times town loads no dice why you know the army life you never know what'll happen next what kind of a deal is that to tie a nice kid like Amy and wait a minute wait a minute is that what you want the advice on how to finish up this letter breaking it off with your girl well I ought to have it ready before we land and I just got to figure out some way of telling her without being too blunt about it you got any ideas you better hit somebody else Eddie I don't see why you have to break it off well not even well how did your wife take it when she heard you were going out this time my wife well Eddie Jones kind of a special case we were married in England back in March of 44 just about three months before the Normandy landing oh and we both knew I was booked to go over well neither you were ever sorry well this this would have to be a guess but if Joan were on board and you asked her about this chop it off letter I'd say she'd tell you to tear it up well maybe I will wait a minute Bobby you think I'm taking this Korean joint too big that it's just a soft pitch we got coming in well I gotta go down and hit that child line but I'll take one more guess though Eddie we'll get through the business coming up but it won't be a soft pitch as we know now it wasn't in those first bad months when a few thousand yanks stopped and threw back the waves of screaming communist fanatics who came clawing at the Busan perimeter heroism became standard operating procedure for nearly every man in combat oh get up some more cases of ammo for the BAR looks as if those lunatics are gonna try coming through again right hey pop yo you getting low on grenades Eddie no no I think I got enough doesn't it ever get you down what the way they keep coming well to look at you you'd think everything was number one and we've been in trouble for days don't you ever get scared Eddie I'm scared half the death right now with all those bugles and whistles and pans banging who wouldn't be here's your ammo side yeah one another case now you better get back in your grease gun Carlos now here comes the next New Year's Eve party now slow up a little Carlos the chief's fairly doing 30 sides well we're coming to that open stretch look I made the run before the way to play just keep bowing right through you haven't been slowing up you mean while you've still got covered to make sure how it is out there I'm telling you it's losing time for nothing and with the upgrade there it's hard to get rolling again the way we ought to all right all right all right play it your way if you think you know what you're doing but once you get out there boy keep pushing it just relax I'm an old hot rod okay you're driving see what I mean get yourself a good start you're halfway across Carlos yanker off the road pull up let's with you size just because one of our flyboys has to planes not one of ours Carlos is Russian built up pull up and die for it there wasn't time to hit the ditch when Bob Porties finally made it to a field aid station there was new lead to be taken from his ripped up left arm before the week was out Bob rejoined his squad in the summer of 1950 our troops were sticking in the lines until they were carried out and although Bob Porties didn't know it then he still had one final date to keep with those weird suicidal invaders throwing themselves south at the murderous whim of a few men in Moscow on August 31st hammered back by overwhelming numbers Bob's outfit was forced to pull out of a village near the Noctung River how's your squad sergeant all here but three men lieutenant they pretty bushed well we've been in better shape of most of them just caught about three hours sleep will be okay you're ready to move in 20 minutes Lieutenant we're not pulling back again no now we're heading back to retake that village sergeant and this time we're gonna hang on to it they retook it and did hang on for three days of 24-hour combat on the evening of September 5th Bob Forties and a single PFC were holding an outpost hill position against nearly two companies of North Koreans with a browning automatic rifle and a couple of m45 submachine gun fallen back again there's a pocket of them down behind those rocks about halfway up the hill maybe I could take them lucky for us they haven't got mortars down there Bob yeah they had mortars they could lay on us we'd be out of here now pieces popcorn size how are we for ammo still got a fair supply we could do with us about 18 more guys maybe a couple of flame throwers well if we can hang on here long enough maybe we'll get him yeah you figure this hill is really worth hanging on to with no one linked in the back is up well a lieutenant said hold it if we could Dave commies get enough men passed here and they can chew up Charlie company before we'd ever get any armor up how do we know Charlie company hasn't bugged out already they're still over there we would have gotten a double flare if they had a pullout all I know is we got about a regiment of maniacs leaning on us here and it can't be two companies day okay okay figure it alone two guys against two companies kind of odds of those I told you I'd cover you any time you want to pull out Dave I'm sticking along hey hey look down there by the brook coming across again I keep taking them on the left Dave I got the middle in this side well they do Bob dope a mop or what well I've heard they call it brainwashing Dave wash the brains right out and put in a time bomb that goes off when the top boys pull a switch laundry we're running right here with a lot less customers though we got more clips for the other grease gun Dave what about the B.A.R. we've had it on ammo used up the final rounds this last time wait a minute Bob we're down the last three clips on the M45s that won't be enough all right all right so we'll have to fake it if they try another climbing party maybe they'll just send a squad up after the losses they've been taking look Bob with only a clip and a half for each grease gun Dave they don't know that yet and we'll get relief here if we hold on long enough hey Bob they're laying artillery on here yeah it's worse than that Dave they got a heavy mortar up water fire we're not dug in enough to win this means we got to pull out or be blown up the next couple of minutes all right get started Dave I'll cover you crazy Bob we both have to pull out now before they start rushing all right all right all right let's get scrambling Dave come on let's get out of here all right you crazy murder and reg you've got your hill but you're gonna take one more clip along with it the communists didn't get the hill to keep the two men had held on long enough to allow reinforcements to be sent up and then they dragged their way to the bottom of the hill four new men were lugging an aircraft mounted 50-color machine gun into action and after them came more to throw the North Koreans out before they could dig in the hill was retaken and that village in the Busan perimeter was held in fact the whole perimeter was held then the forces of freedom mounted the counter attack that through the invading Reds back across the 38th parallel in shattered retreat Sergeant 40s yes Miss Foley all you've told me about Korea was that you were in combat there up to September 1950 and then the doctors ordered you back to the States because of a leg wound well you don't need any more than that do you no no not for this survey if you aren't qualified to help teach military training after being wounded in the action you've seen in North Africa Normandy Germany and Korea Miss Foley I'm not qualified you're not nobody's ever qualified all the way to teach a man all the soldiering may have to know but if I've picked up anything over in the ETO and out in Korea that can help these kids when they come up against trouble I'm glad to be able to be here and pass it along Sergeant 40s there's no place in this questionnaire for a comment from me but can I say we're glad to have you around proudly we hail Sergeant 1st Class Robert 40s of the US Army and all the men of the 82nd Airborne the 14th Armored and the 2nd Infantry Division here's a special message for the young men of our country the United States Army the senior service of our armed forces is expanding rapidly and needs your help by enlisting in the United States Army you'll not only get the finest training in the world but you'll have the special pride that goes with wearing a United States Army uniform why not get full details today visit your local United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station enlist now this has been another program on proudly we hail presented transcribed in cooperation with the station proudly we hail is produced by the Recruiting Publicity Center for the United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Service this is Kenneth Banghart speaking and inviting you to tune in the same station next week for another interesting story on proudly we hail