VFW program to honor Red Ball Express

Nearly 75 percent of the Red Ball Express drivers were black.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Continuing its tradition of raising awareness about the contributions of blacks to the nation’s military, VFW Donald Lockett Post 6488’s 2007 Veterans Day program highlights World War II’s famous Red Ball Express.

James D. Rookard of Cleveland, a Red Ball Express driver, is the honored guest at Post 6488’s Veterans Day service at 11 a.m. Monday at the post at 2065 Coitsville-Hubbard Road.

The featured speaker for the program is Brig. Gen. Matthew L. Kambic, assistant adjutant general for the Army, Joint Force Headquarters-Ohio, Ohio Army National Guard.

Kambic, born and raised in Girard, enlisted in the Army in 1974. When he returned to Ohio, he joined the Ohio Army National Guard and attended Youngstown State University, where he was commissioned as an armor officer through the Army ROTC program.

Rookard was drafted into the Army in March 1943 at age 18, and was 19 when he was assigned to the Red Ball Express, the Army code name for a truck convoy system in France that carried supplies at first from St. Lo in Normandy to Paris, and eventually to the front lines along France’s northeastern border.

Like the Pony Express, the Red Ball Express was short-lived, beginning Aug. 21, 1944, and ending 82 days later. But despite its short existence, it is given much of the credit for winning the war in Europe.

It was called the Red Ball Express because the route was marked with signs with red balls on them.

On an average day, 900 fully loaded vehicles were on the Red Ball route round-the-clock, with drivers officially ordered to observe 60-yard intervals and a top speed of 25 miles per hour, according to a 2006 story written for the American Forces Press Service.

Nearly 75 percent of the Red Ball Express drivers were, like Rookard, black.

At the time, blacks were not considered brave enough for combat and were primarily assigned to service and supply units. Rookard was a member of the 514th Quartermaster Regiment.

The performance of blacks in the Red Ball Express, in combat as pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen, and with the 761st Rank Battalion, the first black tankers to fight in WWII, began changing the perception that blacks would not make good soldiers.

In a telephone interview, Rookard said he knows that prejudice existed, particularly among white American troops, but that his unit did not encounter much.

However, when he was in England with another black soldier, a young lady asked his friend where “it was at.” The soldier said “what are you looking for.” And the woman replied, “Your tail.”

It seems white American soldiers were spreading the story that black soldiers had tails, Rookard said.

Rookard said he was 19 years old, 4,000 miles from home and scared — but had to produce. Quoted in an American Forces Press Service story, he said: “When Gen. Patton said for you to be there, you were there if you had to drive all day and all night.”

Rookard had nothing but praise for Patton.

“He was true and straight with everybody. If you were right, Patton was in your corner,” he said.

“It was dangerous going to the front line. Even when we went to bed, which wasn’t often, we had to have our rifles with us,” he said.

Rookard, now 83, said he was glad to get home, but looks back with pride on doing his part to defend his country and being part of the Red Ball Express. For years, he hosted a reunion of Red Ball Express drivers at his home in Cleveland.

He was a technician 5th grade when he got out of the Army in 1946. He became a Cleveland city truck driver, having retired in 1986, and will celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary in January 2008. He has two sons.

alcorn@vindy.com