Ol'Harry

AN UNLIKELY MORTAR-MAN

February, 1943 wasn’t an ideal time for Draft Board bargaining but it was something 19 year old Horace Alligood felt he had to do.  Two of his older brothers were already serving in the Army Air Forces overseas.  To keep the next oldest Alligood son, Heber, home to help with the family farm, Horace -- the youngest of the five sons -- asked the Draft Board to send him instead of Heber.

“We grew almost everything on our 100 acre farm in Creswell, NC and our father wasn’t in the best of health.  Heber ‘loved the dirt’ -- it was logical that I went and he stayed to help our parents,” says Horace Alligood. 

The Draft Board was very accommodating.  After basic training at Camp Davis, North Carolina, Alligood served with Coast Artillery at Norfolk, Virginia.  Later, he joined a 4.2 mortar battalion in Georgia.  A five-day troop train passage took him and hundreds more to Seattle, where they boarded a troopship.

HORACE ALLIGOOD -- WWII COAST ARTILLERMAN

Alligood remembers more about the ship than the train.  “Our commanding officer could not tell us where we were going, but we all suspected the Invasion of Japan was our mission.  He ordered us to look at the soldier on our right and on our left.  He said one of the three would not be coming back.”

The atomic bomb dropped while Alligood was at sea.  He was diverted to Okinawa for occupation duty for the remainder of his enlistment. 

While at Norfolk, Alligood had a chance meeting at Virginia Beach with a young lady from Rochester, New York.  After his 1946 Army discharge, he joined Eastman Kodak and married the young lady. 

Alligood’s second entry into the Army was not as negotiable as the first.  As an inactive reservist, his entire Rochester unit was activated.  “We were off to New Jersey, then to Ft. Hood, Texas, and in no time at all, flown to Korea.” 

His 24^th Infantry Division was the first to respond to the communist invasion of South Korea.  “I don’t recall where we landed, but we took a boat first, then a four-hour ride in the back of a truck to get to our unit.  It was bitter cold and snowing hard, I nearly froze!”

According to Alligood, “We seldom stayed in the same location very long.  The front lines moved often.  I was a forward observer for our mortar unit.  The closest call I had was when artillery fire kept getting closer and closer to my position.  At the last minute, I discovered it was friendly fire – it took a while to get word back to the guns to cease fire!  By the time they finally stopped, we were being sprayed with rocks and gravel from the blasts.”

Asked if he believes in foxhole conversions, Alligood replied, “I believe in mine!”  He went to church as a youngster, but until Korea, admits he did not fully and completely trust Jesus as his Savior.

His World War II training and experience helped ease Alligood up the ranks from corporal to master sergeant in Korea.  In addition to meritorious promotions, he was awarded a bronze star, “his devotion to duty, expert leadership and initiative contributed immeasurably to his unit’s missions.”  He also earned the combat infantryman’s badge and Korean Service Medal with three bronze service stars.

ALLIGOOD (SECOND FROM LEFT) & WW II BUDDIES

 While in Korea, he received a letter from Rochester announcing the arrival of his son, John.

Alligood was contacted by the Army shortly after his second discharge regarding additional awards and recognition.  “I thanked them but told them I was done with the Army – just let me get back to work and care for my family,” says Alligood.

After 37 years with Eastman Kodak, work he describes as the “best of times,” Alligood retired and moved his family to Winston-Salem in 1983.  His daughter, Susan, was there first, having graduated from Wake Forest University.  His wife of 40 years passed away in 1986. 

At Calvary Baptist Church, Alligood had another chance meeting with another young lady.  In 1989 they were married, and in 1992 Ellie and Horace Alligood built a new home in Greensboro.  They are active members of Lawndale Baptist Church and now reside in Friends Home West. 

The Alligood bothers from Creswell, NC (it’s near Plymouth) survived their wars unscathed, and another brother saved the family farm.  Horace Alligood is 93, Lewis is 98.  I.J. died at 96.  Their parents died at ages 88 and 96.  Horace Alligood insists, “I never looked at my brothers or me as doing anything exceptional.”