• Shopher, James Vertice, 1922 - 2002 US Army- submitted by Debbie Cregar

James Vertice Shopher served under General Patton's third army in the 11th Armored Division, 81st Medical Battalion, Company C.   Their nickname was the Thunderbolts.   He participated in the Battle of the Bulge.  When they fought at Ardennes and Rhineland in Central Europe the climate was very cold and they did not have adequate attire to protect them from this extreme climate.  Many got extreme frost bite.  My dad later lost his leg due to the damage that was inflicted from this cold.  He received many awards including two purple hearts.  He was also a prisoner of war.

The 81st Medical Battalion was organized at Camp Polk, Louisiana on August 15,1942, as part of the 11th Armored Division. Officer and enlisted cadres were drawn from other armored units. Draftees and enlistments brought the battalion up to its combat strength of 400 men, including 27 doctors. The 81st Battalion was designed to provide essential medical services to the division. It was to collect and treat wounded soldiers from the front, then pass them on to larger field hospitals. The battalion consisted of a headquarters and Headquarters Company plus companies A, B and C.

Commanded by Colonel Sanford W. French III of San Antonio, Texas, the
battalion trained at Camp Polk and participated in Third Army's
Louisiana-Texas maneuvers in June-August, 1943. In September, the division moved to Camp Barkeley, Texas, in October, the 11th Armored was in the middle of the Mojave Desert at Camp Ibis near Needles, California.  In Feb of 1944 the Battalion moved to Camp Cooke, California.  Camp Cooke was the division home until September 1944,  They were ordered back east to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey until the 27th of September.  They were on the U.S.S. Hermitage in route for Europe.  Dad took very seasick and said he had never been so glad to see land.  I got a lot of this information from http://www.geocities.com/the11thada/index.html

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