The “Greatest Generation” is very well represented in the Texas Hill Country. In the past, I’ve interviewed members of the Fry and Kroeger families here in my hometown of Burnet, who sent six sons each to fight the armies of tyranny in World War II. I’ve met and heard of many others. For this Winter 2007 issue, I had the distinct honor of visiting with several World War II veterans; they had vastly different life stories, but some striking attributes in common. It is a pleasure to (very briefly) tell their stories.

Cecil Partin wasn’t trying to be a hero. The newly-married son of a Mills County cotton farmer had just rented a piece of land east of Priddy, when he was drafted in September of 1944. “We had the field all planted, but the army came and got me,” Cecil says. For the next two years, his wife, Nita, stayed with his parents, while Cecil went halfway around the world to fight the Japanese.

After completing his basic training at Camp Roberts, in California, Cecil shipped out for Okinawa on March 5, 1945. He and others joined the 77th Infantry Division as replacements for those killed and wounded during five months of combat. The 77th Infantry was sent to relieve the 96th Infantry, which had spearheaded the invasion of the main island, and which had encountered a fierce Japanese resistance on the ridges surrounding Shuri Castle on the southern end of the island.

When the soldiers of the 77th Infantry took their places in the foxholes at the front line, they expected to fight a few days, then to be relieved by fresh troops coming in behind them. It didn’t work that way.

The Japanese had been preparing for the American attack on Okinawa for almost a year, and thousands of soldiers (along with thousands of Okinawan laborers) had been digging, tunneling and building to make the southern third of the island into an almost impregnable fortress. Progress was slow and painful, with thousands of American casualties ...

Read the entirety of this article in the print edition.

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