GAIL WHITE Veteran: 'It's just nice when someone says thanks'

In June 1941, William Linkhorn of Boardman graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in ceramic engineering.
His father had died when Bill was 15. He had put himself through school by working and joining the ROTC.
"They gave you a good uniform that you had to wear three days a week," Bill says, recalling his motivation behind enlisting in ROTC. "That was three days I didn't have to worry about clothes. They also paid 25 cents a day. That bought my books."
"I was looking forward to getting out of school and using my degree to make some money," remembers Bill, now 83 years old.
The Army had different ideas.
"Not only did I get my diploma, but I got a greeting from the Army," Bill explains. "I had to report to the 3rd Armored Division at Camp Polk, Louisiana."
Bill immediately wrote to the Army asking for a six-month deferment. It was granted.
Bill's deferment lasted only one week.
What was next
With his college degree and ROTC experience, Bill arrived at Camp Polk in 1941 a second lieutenant.
"Every year, it became more obvious that there was going to be war," Bill remembers thinking.
By the time Bill was shipped overseas in 1944, he had risen to the rank of captain.
"I was the commanding officer of the 992 Engineer Company," he explains, showing me a tattered and worn flag with the company number. "I carried that banner all through the war."
Bill's company was stationed in central England for several months. When his unit was transferred to southern England, Bill knew they would be heading into battle.
"We were to leave England on the evening of Oct. 4th so we would be on the shore of Omaha Beach [France] on Oct. 5th," Bill recalls. "There was a storm over Omaha Beach that night, so the invasion was called off for a day."
"We returned Oct. 6th," Bill says quietly. "Invasion Day."
'I had a job to do'
"I tell you, and I think it's true of many people," Bill recalls. "I was never afraid. I had a job to do and I concentrated on that."
Bill's company was a bridge building division. They remained on their ship, five miles from shore throughout the fighting on Oct. 6.
"The battleships were behind us," Bill says as he envisions the day. "When the volleys went over your head, it sounded like boxcars going over top of you."
Bill watched most of the battle for Omaha Beach on D-Day through binoculars. "You never saw anything like it."
Late in the day, Bill and the ship's captain took a boat to shore.
"Wading up to the beach, I almost stepped on half a body" he recalls slowly, painfully. "The water was red."
Bill's unit came to shore on Oct. 7. "D-Day plus one," he says, referring to the day.
With fighting all around them, the 992 Engineer Company made its way into the hills above Omaha Beach.
They began building bridges throughout Europe.
"The Germans always blew up the bridges," Bill explains. His company was responsible for keeping the transportation routes open.
"France was a long struggle," Bill says as he recounts the many bridges he was in charge of building across that country.
From France, his company built bridges in Belgium, Holland and Germany.
"We were in Germany during The Battle of the Bulge," Bill recalls. "If the Germans had won, we would have been in trouble."
In Bill's memoirs are proclamations from presidents, letters from generals and unit commendations extolling the wonderful work of the 992 Engineer Company.
While he is proud of his service and the accomplishments of his men, Bill's true sense of honor lies in a more humble place.
"I don't want to be famous," he says shyly. "It's just nice when someone says, 'Thanks.'"
This Veterans Day, make sure you say "Thanks" to our nation's heroes.
gwhite@vindy.com