He remembers when a beer distillery was discovered in the center of the town. The thirsty soldiers poured the brew into anything that would hold it, until an Army chaplain who feared it might have been poisoned, drained the vats and ended the celebration.
Shortly thereafter, in the Hurtgen Forest, Ward earned the first of three Purple Hearts. Hit by shrapnel in both arms, a field hospital patched him up, and he was quickly back on the front.
Just six weeks later, a shrapnel hit in the back of the head knocked Ward senseless.
“I just woke up in the hospital; that was a surprise,” he says. “I don’t know how they got me out of there—a shell went off overhead and a piece went through my helmet.”
The Windbreaker Told the Story
At war’s end, Ward was one of only five of the original 260 soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach still alive.
“When we landed on D-Day, we had little black windbreakers with slash pockets. As time went on, you could tell the replacements because they had longer jackets with big pockets on the sides,” says Ward.
“We held on to those windbreakers. That’s how you could tell the survivors from the replacements.”
A Nurse Back Home
Back from the war and studying at Rice University, Ward met wife Betty, then a 17 year-old member of the Cadet Nurses Corps at Hermann Hospital.
“Some of the boys from Rice got dates with nurses,” says Betty. “His date stood him up and the head nurse asked if I wanted to go. She said he looked like a clean boy, and after I peeked at him around the corner, I went.”
At that time, neither Betty nor Joe were interested in marriage. Joe had just dodged a former girlfriend, and Betty had just been named the Best All Around Nurse in the city, winning a college scholarship she planned to accept.
But true love is an irresistible force, and the two were married in six months.
Keep ’Em Rolling
Another member of The Greatest Generation now living at Eagle’s Trace is Tom Stephens. In the ROTC at the University of Wisconsin, he left college after his junior year to enter officer’s training school near New Orleans.
Originally slated for the infantry, Stephens got caught in an army personnel redeployment sweep, and was assigned to a port company, responsible for transportation. Sent overseas in the spring of 1944, his company was sent to Utah Beach after D-Day.
As the war progressed, the port battalion was unloading cargo supply ships on the Brest Peninsula, near the town of Morlaix.
As word about the war was hard to come by, Stephens and friends did some of their own fact gathering from incoming troops. “It was pretty quiet for a while, except for our own bedevilments,” chuckles Stephens.
Le Grande Général
“We were coming off the ships at six o’clock one morning and I saw a tremendous amount of activity among all the small boats lined up in the harbor,” remembers Stephens, “and French gunboats running about. We didn’t know what was going on, but suddenly, there was ‘the grand Charlie’—Charles de Gaulle—who was coming in or going out or something.”
After the war ended, First Lieutenant Stephens drew work in prisoner-of-war camps in France. His last assignment was near Aix-en- Provence at POW 404, a facility that housed about 200,000 Germans. He became the Club Officer, in charge of the officers’ club on the edge of the POW camp, which was run with an abundance of free help, courtesy of the German prisoners.
“It was like a country club, except it was on the edge of a prisoner of war camp,” Stephens says. “I remember one time we heard that a boatload of nurses was coming to Marseilles. So, we had our German printer make up invitations with directions of how to get to POW 404, and that we would be having parties and welcoming them. Then, we got a light aircraft, flew out over their boat, and dropped the leaflets.”
More Moves in His Future
In France until August of 1946, Stephens returned to the United States to complete his studies at the University of Wisconsin. After a brief start in New York City, he signed on with Greyhound Lines in Chicago, and began a long and varied career in the transportation industry that would put him in charge of anything that “moved, walked, or needed to be stored.”
Stephens met wife Mary while the two were students at the University of Wisconsin. The couple has two sons, both of whom live in Houston, and four grandchildren. Stephens says they chose Eagle’s Trace after considering another community here in the city.
“We signed up for another place, apartment #1402,” he says. “We never moved in. It was so long in developing that we eventually built a house instead. But we kept passing by here, and wondering what was going on. A friend told us to take a look, and we liked it.
“We wanted an apartment home overlooking the lake, but they were all taken. Then luckily, someone changed their mind, and our Priority List position gave us the opportunity to reserve it.”
After 47 Years in Briar Grove
Joe and Betty Ward made the move to Eagle’s Trace from their longtime home in Briar Grove. “It was time to make a move,” said Betty. “At first we were disappointed that a larger plan we liked was sold out, but it worked out just fine. And, now we can use the extra money to travel!”
Enjoy the Easy-Care Lifestyle—and the Neighbors
Along with a host of convenient on-site amenities, people who choose Eagle’s Trace enjoy the company of neighbors— ike the Wards and Stephens—who quickly become friends.
You’re invited to find out more. Call 281-496-7676 or 1-800-210-4347 and request a free Information Kit. Then schedule a tour, and share the experiences of some of the people who now call Eagle’s Trace home.