Naomi Almero (P1)
Chermelle Go (P2)
Sarah E. Lee (P4)
Fred Whitaker
On July 1925, Fred Whitaker, one of our honorable veterans was born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Whitaker lived in Somerville, Massachusetts and later, Whitaker and his family
moved to Hamilton, Ohio after his father was promoted to manager and field training supervisor.
In his teenage years, Whitaker was active in his high school’s speech and debate competitions.
He also took part in his school’s track and field team. His favorite subject is History and out of
his magnificent seven American leaders (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore
Roosevelt, James Polk, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan), George
Washington is his favorite because “there was no other man to unite the colonies” and Whitaker
believed he is the foundation of our country.
Whitaker is a tenth generation American whose first direct ancestor, John Maynard,
arrived in the Plymouth colony in 1637. Whitaker’s great-grandfather, Lewis R. Whitaker,
fought in the Civil War and his father, Sidney Whitaker, served in France with the 26th Yankee
Division in World War I. Following in his family's footsteps, Fred Whitaker enlisted to join the
army when he was seventeen years old and was called to active duty after his 18th birthday.
In 1944 and 1945, Fred Whitaker fought in Europe with the 87th Infantry Division and
was part of General George S. Patton’s 3rd army. Whitaker served four campaigns (Saar,
Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe) in Europe during World War II. He did basic training
for thirteen weeks at Fort Benning, Georgia and trained to be a rifleman. He and his company
completed obstacle courses, which included them having to crawl through fields of barbed wire.
In order for them to experience real combat, they would be shot at, while explosions were going
off. To test their ability as a rifleman to join the infantry, they had to shoot over 70% of their
targets. Shooting 70% ranks them as a marksman, shooting 80% ranks them as a sharpshooter,
and shooting 90% ranks them as an expert. Fred Whitaker shot 183 out of 200, which is 91.5%,
making him one of the top three expert riflemen in his company.
His first combat experience was during the Saar Campaign, which he endured a night
bayonet attack and German fighter planes strafing a column of trucks. He survived an artillery
shell attack that atomized eight to ten of his men. Their flesh and clothing covered what once
was a beautiful tree, resulting in most of the men being labeled as “Missing In Action.”
Whitaker’s company also encountered a 2 a.m. German attack with no warning because the
German soldiers garroted the American scouts. In order for artillery to know where to attack, the
regiment commander would communicate with a field officer using grid maps to drive the enemy
away. Ten days later, eight hundred out of a thousand men were killed, wounded, captured or
missing in action.
The next campaign was the Ardennes Campaign, which included the 40-day-long Battle
of the Bulge, one of the largest land battles in U.S. history. It demanded crucial survival skills of
Whitaker and his men, such as having a cat-like mentality. Since their company could not afford
to become the prey, they had to do whatever it took to be the predator. Their thoughts were
clouded with countless questions about their well-being, such as food, sleep, and protection.
They were especially worried about the condition of their feet because their feet meant
everything. To keep his feet warm, Whitaker would always carry three pairs of socks: a pair
under his helmet, on his stomach, and the pair on his feet. The brutal conditions during winter
would have cost men their limbs and, evidently, their lives.
Whitaker’s last two campaigns were the Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns.
During the Rhineland Campaign, the Americans would send their troops in waves because if
they were sent all at once, it would have been like “shooting fish in a barrel.” In 1946, Fred
Whitaker wrote a letter to his battalion commander asking about the losses on the Rhine River.
On the first wave, they lost 80%. The second wave, they lost 40%. And the third wave, they had
lost 20% of their men. In Germany, when the American troops had taken over the town of
Oelsnitz, Whitaker and another soldier roamed around downtown and decided to get their photo
taken by a very reluctant “fotografinmeister.” Whitaker and two other men occupied a family’s
house to have as their billet. Although they were concerned about kicking out 3 mothers, 9
children, and 2 elderly men. Whitaker felt that it was adequate because he finally had a
comfortable place to sleep in. After joining a session in a church, Whitaker reflected whether his
actions were immoral under the eyes of Christ. When the Germans had surrendered, the
Americans felt weary, but relieved because thing could easily change in times of war.
Whitaker had come into realization that families, especially the women, were the ones
that suffered the most, that the real pain of the war was in the families. An example would be
during the Ardennes Campaign, when he encountered a dead man carrying a picture of his
family. He couldn’t bear the idea that the man’s daughters would have to grow up without a
father figure and the burden the wife would have to carry as a widow. When Whitaker came back
home, the grief about his mother’s death that he had pent-up during the war finally surfaced as
well. As a result, he strongly believed that one of the best ways to give back to the sacrifices that
soldiers made was to honor our families now with love and respect.
Subsequently, he represented Stanford University in debates and majored in American
History. He then proceeded to a career in insurance as an agent, broker, and consultant for over
50 years. He served his industry by serving on legislative committees at state and federal level.
Fred Whitaker currently holds five honor medals, four service medals, and five foreign
decorations including the French Legion of Honor, which is France’s highest honor. Up until
now, he is an active volunteer and is available to speak at schools, service clubs, and churches to
share his war experiences.