South Alabamian

‘Nothing Can Compensate You For the Loss’





Dovie Etheredge

Dovie Etheredge

May 26 will be observed as Memorial Day in the United States, though May 30 is the actual holiday. Our nation lost nearly 500,000 soldiers in World War II. Now 63 years later, time is taking them from us at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 a day. All of them need to be appreciated and applauded for their service. Each of them, especially the combat veterans, has a unique story which needs to be recorded and preserved. For theirs is not history that we can get from a textbook; but it is history from an eyewitness who saw WW II up close and personal.

He was not old enough to be drafted; he was not even old enough to join; but Dovie Etheredge of Leroy kept begging his parents until they signed for him to enter the Army. “Dovie was determined to go,” his sister Bonnie Phillips recalls. “He cried and begged until Daddy and Mama signed for him.”

Young Etheredge became a part of Company L, 235th United States Infantry in France. In a letter to his sister Mrs. Ina Powell, dated Dec. 26, 1944, he wrote:

“Boy was I glad to get the mail! It being Christmas and all, I was thinking of you all. Ina, I am trying to write on my helmet and I am in my fox hole, so excuse my writing. What kind of Christmas did you have? I was in a fox hole that night and I thought of you all. ”

“How is Mom & Dad. Tell her not to worry. I can’t write so often so she might wonder a little. But I am alright. Write soon. Must close. Love, Dovie.

P.S. I visited Marialle, France. Look it up on the map.”

On March 27, 1945, Dovie’s mother received the following letter from Alabama Senator John.H. Bankhead: “Dear Mrs. Etheredge: I have recently learned with genuine regret that your son, Pfc. Dovie Etheredge, was killed in action in the European Area while nobly doing his part to help preserve our freedom. May I extend to you my sincere sympathy in your grief.”

Mrs. Etheredge also received a letter of condolence from Major General F. E. Uhl. In the last paragraph, the general wrote: “Nothing can compensate you for the loss of your son. Your sacrifice has, indeed been a great one. But you should take comfort from the fact that your loved one gave his life for his country and the ideals of freedom for which it stands. May that knowledge encourage you to deal courageously with the future.”

Captain Gordon C. Curry (chaplain) wrote Dovie’s mother the following:

“I have further ascertained that your son was instantly killed by a machine gun bullet through the chest. His body was removed from the battlefield on the same day. He is buried in the United States Military cemetery in Epinal, France.”

“Dovie was a good boy, as you know, and very popular with the men of his outfit. He made the highest sacrifice possible for our righteous cause, and praise God, he did not die in vain.”

Tom Yeargin was a buddy of Dovie Etheredge. He wrote a long letter to Dovie’s brother Ray, dated 14 July, 1946. Yeargin relates a long, detailed account of he and Dovie crossing the Saar River at Saarguemines, France, right across from Hanweiler, Germany. All day long, the Americans had kept up a shelling of houses across the river known to be places where German soldiers were hiding.

Yeargin writes, “All that day we shelled hell out of those houses. To have heard the noise and steel flying, one would have thought the world was coming to an end. We couldn’t tell whether we had killed them or not, so that night our company was ordered to send a night patrol over to see what the score was. They selected mine and Dovie’s platoon which at that time consisted of thirty-five men and one officer. The snow was waist deep in places and cold as it gets.”

Yeargin tells that the Germans had destroyed the bridges across the river, but there remained one small steel rail about four inches wide submerged below the surface. “This beam was our only way across. We were ordered to cross the river at 2:00 a.m. We didn’t sleep at all. No, it wasn’t the excitement that kept us awake; we were scared stiff.”

“We began to cross; one man about every two min- utes would move to the steel beam. All the while the others were stretched out on their bellies in the snow with guns ready in the event the boys were fired on while crossing. By three o’ clock we were all across.”

Yeargin describes the shootout with the Germans hiding in the building. When ammunition ran low, the GIs used grenades. Though there were no casualties, one soldier lost a leg in a land mine and another who ran to help him also lost a foot. “While we were pretty well banged-up, we didn’t have a man killed or one that died from the result of that action,” Yeargin wrote.

In the last paragraph, Yeargin says, “The thing that will always be uppermost in my mind about my buddy Dovie was the fact that regardless of time and place, he always read a passage from his little Bible before going to sleep. This was done every night and I have already heard many of the boys remark what a fine Christian boy he was.”

Gene Etheredge, a nephew of Dovie Etheredge said his grandmother told him the following account: one day after Dovie had enlisted, and before he reported to duty, he and his mother were walking along a dirt road. A dove hovered in the air and flew down and sat on a fence post. Dovie turned to his mother and asked, “Mama, do you know what the dove represents? In the Bible, it represents ‘peace.’ I’m going to war, but whatever happens, however it turns out, it’s going to be all right, Mama.”

Gene Etheredge said his grandmother always told him that after she lost her son, she took comfort in remembering that incident with the dove.

Dovie Etheredge was born Jan. 5, 1926. He was killed in action Feb. 25, 1945. He had just turned 19 years old. The Etheredge family had Dovie’s body brought back home and he is buried in the Old Leroy Cemetery beside his parents, Mr. William J. and Jannie Elizabeth Etheredge.

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