May 7, 2004
Oroville Mercury Register April 30, 1945
CARL HOWELL HOME HE SAW PARIS
Sgt. Carlos W. Howell has been granted 45 days leave after
seeing plenty of action in the European area. He recently arrived
at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sofis Howell of Park Avenue.
Fighting with the artillery of the 9th Army, a mechanic
and driver of heavy equipment, he was decorated by Col. Reynolds
with the Silver Star. He was one of five drivers hauling ammunition
to the front lines while shells were falling all around them. He
received the Purple Heart for a wound received during the fighting
in Belgium. He said he was standing in a street when a flying V-1
bomb hit the building across the way. The concussion injured his
eardrum. The flying bombs are one of the worst things he has encountered,
he said. Sgt. Howell wears three battle stars representing action
in Normandy, northern France and Germany. He was overseas for seventeen
months. At one time, he spent five months in a hospital in England
when he had a double dose of pneumonia and a throat ailment. When
he recovered, he was assigned to another outfit in France and was
there until the middle of March when he was allowed to come home.
When Paris was liberated, Sgt. Howell was one of the GIs entering
the city. He said he could not see that the city had been damaged.
The air force did a good job and hit its objectives, the railroads
and airfields. The people received the soldiers with open arms and
gave them everything they had. But when he returned there last February,
he found things had changed and the soldiers were being charged
for everything they wanted. Howell said that the country areas of
France reminded him of the Sacramento Valley. Crops cared for by
the women and older men, were growing. Sugar beets and garden products
were the principal crops. A graduate of Oroville high school and
Heald’s Business College of Sacramento, Howell was employed as a
bookkeeper for a drug concern in Sacramento for several years. When
war was declared, he went into defense work and was employed as
a welder at Pearl Harbor. After his return, he worked as a welder
in Stockton until he entered the army in April 1943. A brother,
S-Sgt. Larry Howell is with the infantry of the 7th
Army in Germany
.
Stu’s Note:
Sgt. Deborah J. Shaner is home, in her house in
Oroville. We are so proud of her and all our brave soldiers. She
will be in the Feather Fiesta Days parade this Saturday along with
many other veterans. For 15 months I have been babysitting her family.
Now I will have another hour a day to work on the Veterans Memorial
and do a few long forgotten things for Lynn. Tonight, Friday, May
7th we will have a Spaghetti Dinner at the Veterans Memorial
Hall from 5 to 8pm followed by a dance. The dinner is $5. For adults
and free for children under 12. The Dance will be $3 more with dinner.
Stan Rinehart will cook along with Skip Robertson, Ron Scharbor
and Dean Roundy. Many are wondering about our Tile wall in the Memorial.
Our Tile Committee has finished their design. Ted Grainger, Doug
Krause, Bill Fox, Ed Ewalt, Bob Jackson and Dick Ferguson have been
working hard on this for a long time. Soon we will have the order
forms. The tiles will be polished black granite 6’’ X 12” and will
be sold for $50.00 each. Each tile will represent one service man
or woman who served in the Armed Forces of the United States of
America and who served in time of war or in time of peace, since
the Revolutionary War. These tiles can be used to honor a living
Veteran, a man or woman currently in the service or those that have
served our country long ago. Now is the time to search your family
tree, like me, you will find many that deserve this honor.