Hello Folk's,
being still without spares I added a new WW2 veteran profile to the veterans section of my homepage.
Here is the link (scroll down on the page, it's the last profile):
http://www.steel-toys.com/Veterans.html
Otherwise the text is in copy below for your information.
The pictures of the Just Collection can be found here:
http://www.steel-toys.com/Glen_Just/
Notice: click on "next image" on top to go to the next photo (65 photos overall).
Keep 'em Rolling,
Joakim
PS: I'm still looking for information's on the 92nd Replacement Battalion during World War II in Europe.
cc:
Glen E. Just - a WW2 soldiers life in a box
Many WW2 veterans returned home and tried to find their way back in to a civilian life. Uniforms and memorabilia disappeared in wardrobes or boxes - often untouched until the vetran passed away and someone found it. Sometimes in such cases the persons throw such items away - sometimes they go thru several hands and occure at eBay or local flea markets.
The Glen E. Just Collection is such a typical case: He passed away without any children or relatives, his farm was sold and under normal circumstances he would have been forgotten as so many other veterans that never gave witness of their role during WW2.
The small box that I bought via eBay in early 2015 from a trader located at Browning, Missouri contained the complete WW2 soldiers life with all informations on his military career, personal items, postcards from places in Iceland, England and Paris, a brand new XL pen from a chemical Company in Germany, parts of his Uniform, his Dog Tag etc. etc. A very rare and complete find. I have no idea at all how it ended up in Missouri?
The Glen Just Collection at a glance incl. photos of What Cheer, Iowa - hometown of Glen Just can be found here:
http://www.steel-toys.com/Glen_Just/
The Army file in the box stated that Mr. Just was with the 92nd Replacement Battalion during World War II in Europe and served as an Technician Third Grade (T/3 - often addressed as Staff Sergeant) as his shoulder insignia indicate. The listed battles have been:
Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe.
Glen Just was awarded with the Good Conduct Medal, six overseas service bars and the Silver Battle Star.
It was hard to find more details on his unit and up to now I found only this brief hint:
"...the 92nd Replacement Battalion saw heavy service across Europe, moving with Allied forces during some of the toughest fighting of the war: Normandy, the Rhineland, and the Ardennes Forest. The after-action review on the battle of the Hürtgen Forest (south of the City of Aachen, Germany) showed the historic, key role this battalion has played in the nations defense..."
The other hint was the info that the unit was involved in the heavy battle at Carentan, Normandy as well.
So a 28 years old Farmer (with a mother by the family name Ewald = with German roots) from What Cheer, Iowa joined the US-Army on Jan. the 28th 1942 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa and made it via the Quartermaster Replacement Training Center at "The Second Camp Lee", VA then to Iceland, the U.K. further to Normandy and the Ardennes and liberated Europe from the Nazi terror...
There is no information on how far he came, but the German pen indicates that he was somewhere in Germany at the end of WW2 in Europe.
- 3 years, 6 months and 20 days with the Army after all.
After his honorable discharge as a warrant officer on the 18th of August 1945 at Fort Sheridan, Illinois he returned to his hometown What Cheer and passed away at the age of 82 in 1996. His brother and sister (?) passed away only some years later and it seems that he has no living closer relatives today.
Due to the fact that this was in the "age before the internet revolution" I could not find any pictures of him in his later life or informations on his civilian career. So I was "stuck" with my research and Mr. Just as a person is still "reduced to a pile of figures".
So some of the items I found in the box are "indicators" for the "private Mr. Just": a picture of a white cat on his yard, dated 1942 and the name of the cat: "Fluff" that is written on the back of the photo. In the background you can see two more cats as well. Another photo is showing one more cat and a dog by the name "Mike". Then a picture of a corn picker and a tractor on his yard (the corn picker could be made by New Holland and the tractor could be a John Deere). - I guess he was taking the photo when the Just family bought it in November 1942. Not a big surprise because he was a farmer - with a heart for cats.
Another item: a small arctic flower glued to a sheet of paper that he collected at Iceland, in addition to an small Iceland Flag, four photos from Iceland (no postcards!) - all with a stamp on the back of the censor of the Iceland Base Command (IBC). The very rare IBC uniform patch of it in Glen Just's collection indicates that he was there for a while. A farmer from Iowa in the Arctic summer. He must been deeply impressed by the wild nature and steep mountains.
- So much, that he kept this small pressed flower thru the years and WW2 and brought it back home. Seeing this small fragile flower is touching my heart. I think Glen Just was a sensitive person, with an eye for the small things around us.
I could not find any details on his path across Europe during WW2. But some commercial postcards - maybe bought as a set - from the south coast of England must have been bought close to his port of embarkation to Normandy. I could find a similar set of postcards from Paris. - His next station after D-Day and the heavy battle in the North of France.
If he was involved in the battle at the Hürtgenwald Forrest (north of the Ardennes) he was involved in the hardest battle of the US Army in WW2. The losses there have been higher than the overall loss of soldiers in the complete Vietnam war. The US Army needed several months to clear the area from German Forces. But the only evidence, that Glen Just was in Germany is this pen from the Chemische Fabrik Grünau (close to Berlin) and his service record.
Another "untold story" is the Silver Battle Star of Glen Just. There is no background information about it except of the Army file. The insignia as well as the Medal of Good Conduct and the overseas service bars are missing. I think they have been in the box as well - but been sold seperately.
A small booklet published by the Army is indicating that he returned via Camp Kilmer, NJ in about July or early August 1945 to the USA. From there he was sent to the separation center at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.
- On the 18th of August 1945 ended WW2 for Glen E. Just at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.
And this is the end of the story, that this small box is telling us. It seems that Glen Just recieved a final payment of USD 100 at Fort Sheridan and returned by train home to What Cheer and putted all those items he collected from 1942 on together in this box, closed the lid of it and kept it in a hidden corner of his farm until he passed away. I think he kept his uniform too, but I guess the uniform was dumped lateron because of clothes moths. His Garrison Cap is indicating this because you can see several holes from the moths.
So my research ended with the documents in the box in the year 1945 and the www research was only stating the date when he passed away. So I contacted Bill Miller from the Library at What Cheer and tried to find out more about Glen Just and his life after he returned home. Bill was very surprised to get an e-mail from a collector in Germany, but I was lucky - he was old enough to remember Glen Just and to tell me a bit what he knewed about him:
"No, I did not expect an e-mail from Germany and what a pleasant surprise. I am semi-retired and the Director of our small local library. It happens that I knew Glen Just. I grew up on a farm about a mile from his home. He died a farmer and as I remember was known for his mechanical skills. I remember him and his brother Alvin exchanging work with my father once in a while. I also remember him coming to What Cheer to play cards in the local pool hall. His farm and his brothers farm were sold after their deaths.
Glen never married and had no children and left his farm to his niece and nephew who later sold it. As far as I know they are still alive but know nothing about their whereabouts. All of the structures on both farms that were in place at that time are now gone."
That Glen Just was a good mechanic was no surprise to me. He must have had practise from the machines on the farm - so the Army decided to give him a special training as a automotive mechanic and he ended up in a unit of the Army Service Forces, as his shoulder patch in the box indicates. But there is no evidence if he was working at the European Theatre behind the frontline as a automotive mechanic or if he has really has been under enemy fire.
There are only three photos showing him: One with him and a young girl sitting smiling on a bench at Williamsburg on the 5th of April 1942, one showing him on a picture with the complete Company "B" 10th QM Training Regiment at Camp Lee, VA before embarkation to Iceland and a last one is showing him at the ETO. I have the impression, that he looks much older on this photo with hard lines in his face. Looking again and again at this photo I have the impression that something has happened in between, that the pictures and documents don't tell us.
It is this picture that he choosed after the end of WW2 for the Service Record of his hometown - a sort of high school yearbook from about 1948 (?) with all WW2 veterans from What Cheer - sponsored by the American Legion No. 533 and What Cheer and community business men. So this is the latest document in the collection - a WW2 soldiers life in a box.
Hopefully this time capsule will tell future generations more about farmers like Glen Just that did their job in WW2 - liberated Europe from Nazi dictatorship - and made this world a better place. Veteran Glen Just is gone - but this way he is not forgotten.
This research is dedicated to the children of What Cheer, Iowa to help them to learn from the past.
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