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VIDEO: VFW program honors WWII drivers
Video
COITSVILLE — “I can look back now and think, yes, I was on the Red Ball Express. But it was terrible. Where we were, I wouldn’t want anybody else to go,” said James D. Rookard, who was honored at a Veterans Day program at VFW Donald Lockett Post 6488.
“We were young and scared and 4,000 miles from home,” said Rookard, of Cleveland, a driver on the Army’s Red Ball Express during World War II.
The tribute to Rookard and the Red Ball Express is part of an ongoing effort by Post 6488 to raise awareness about the contributions of blacks in the nation’s military, and the adversity and racial prejudice they had to overcome in doing so. Herman Adams was chairman of Monday’s program.
The Red Ball Express was a supply line from Normandy in France to the front lines in Europe that is considered instrumental in the defeat of the German army. It was called the Red Ball Express because the route was marked with signs with red balls on them.
Some 75 percent of the drivers were black soldiers recruited from noncombat units. At the times, blacks were not permitted in combat units.
The Express began operation Aug. 21, 1944, and existed for 82 days. Rookard, then 19, and thousands of others like him, drove round-the-clock to deliver 412,000 tons of food, ammunition, fuel and other materials to the front lines.
For more, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com