Page 2 - 2015 Veterans

2C – Wednesday, November 11, 2015 – El Dorado NEWS-TIMES
Higgs survived as POW, thankful for career
By Kelsey Womack kwomack@ eldoradonews.com
“You just had to trust the Lord. Pray. We did a lot of praying, and we had church services among all of us that were captured. It was bad, but the main thing that you would be thinking about would be food. You would hear grown peo- ple sitting around talking about food because you were so hungry. Some of them would play cards if they had them, some sat around and talked. It was a long, long nine months,” Herman Higgs recalled.
As a prisoner of war of one of the most tragic wars in history, Higgs has seen the truly evil side of hu- manity, which has fueled him to live his life dedicat- ed to serving and protect- ing his community.
Drafted in 1941, Higgs was sent to California at Camp Roberts for train- ing. “I hadn’t completed it when Japan attacked the United States on Dec. 7, 1941 — Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt said the United States was at war after the bombing,” he said.
Soon afterwards, Higgs was sent to San Francisco to guard ships coming in and out of the port until he was sent overseas to Ger- many.
“It was between July to September 1942 that they shipped us over. We hit France first and then went across. We went to so many places, and they finally attached me to the 106th Division,” he said.
At the Battle of the Bulge on Dec. 19, 1944, his unit was captured and trans- ported to Auschwitz.
“I was doing different things with different out- fits because I was in the military police. I was in the 524th MP Battalion, but was captured with the 106th Division. They got all of us,” he explained.
Though it is easy to find and read what happened to prisoners during WWII, there are few left who know what it is like to ac- tually live through the cru- el treatment of the Nazis.
“The first thing that hap- pened was they started interrogating you. They wanted to know all about it and all you are sup- posed to do is give them name, rank and serial number. They kept taking us out and putting us in the snow and wanting to know these things, it froze our feet. I have problems with it right now. That Battle of the Bulge was the worst one, the one we went through. They threw everything at us, took our artillery first, and we couldn’t advance because of that and they captured us,” he said.
In addition to freezing their prisoners, the men
would hear grown peo- ple sitting around talking about food because you were so hungry. Some of them would play cards if they had them, some sat around and talked. It was a long, long nine months,” he explained.
Just before Easter in 1945, help came.
“General Patton came through with his outfits and recaptured us. He said, ‘Stay put now, I’m go- ing to get Hitler!’ and they started coming in and bringing food to us. They kept us for two weeks and examined us before they could move us out to France. The boys that were around 125 pounds when we were captured suffered malnutrition and died. After that, they shipped us to Hot Springs
and kept us about a month and that’s where I was dis- charged, and I got out on points,” he said.
On Oct. 15, 1945, Higgs was discharged and moved to El Dorado shortly there- after. “When I came back home, I was so proud. You just couldn’t believe you were back home and free again,” he explained.
Unfortunately, many documents had been de- stroyed by the Nazis, re- sulting in Higgs being un- able to be discharged with his proper rank.
“They destroyed every- thing we had. My rank was staff sergeant and they lost all of it—destroyed it and when I got back, the Army went through and took us through interviews and we told them everything, and I was supposed to get the rank of master sergeant, but they had no record of it and couldn’t do it,” he said.
However, being back home and being able to start a family gave him something to look forward to. He and his wife wel- comed their only child, Charlotte, in 1948.
He worked briefly for Monsanto, known today as El Dorado Chemical Co., until O.E. Bishop ap- proached him about be- coming a jailer.
“Chief W.E. Hickman found out I was a traffic of- ficer in Germany and asked me to work at the police department. I worked for Bishop and finally decid- ed to work for Hickman doing traffic, taking care of funerals and all that. I told chief I would work through Christmas, which was two months away and I stayed there for 27 years,” he said.
Working his way up from private to senior captain, he retired from law en- forcement and made his way to working in the fed- eral court system for 24 years and retired — only to come back and work an additional four years as court security.
“I opened and closed the court for Judge Barnes and retired for the final time,” he said.
At 98 years old, Higgs remains sharp and enjoys spending time at Cham- pagnolle Landing and spending time with his family.
“I’m still clicking. I didn’t mess around. I went to work. I have enjoyed most of my jobs. I was lucky to get back home, and all I wanted was that ruptured duck — that’s what we were looking for,” he said.
“Ruptured duck” was a slang term for the insignia military personnel wore when they were about to be honorably discharged.
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