As a young man, Colie Bryan Arnold enlisted in the Army in October 1938 and underwent Basic Training at Ft. Moultrie in Charleston, SC and was assigned to the 8th Infantry.  He moved on to Ft. Bragg and later transferred to Camp Croft in Spartanburg where he was discharged in 1941.  He re-enlisted the same year and served at Camp Pope, LA and Camp Shelby MS and Ft. McCellan, AL.  From there he was sent to Florida for overseas training and later to port of embarkation at San Francisco, CA. He first landed in the Hawaiian Islands and was later sent to New Guinea.

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In 1942 the Japanese attacked the Philippine Islands and with superior numbers defeated the American and Philippine forces taking 80,000 prisoners.  Following this battle Japan occupied the country.  On October 20, 1944 the Allied Forces, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, landed on the island of Leyte to retake the Philippines.

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Staff Sergeant Colie Arnold went into combat on December 5, 1944, where he participated in the liberation of Leyte Island as part of the 152nd Infantry Regiment of the 38th Division.   In January of 1945 he was redeployed to the Bataan Peninsula on the island of Luzon and fought in the battle of “Zig-Zag Pass”.  Staff Sargent Arnold was platoon leader in the light machine gun company.  While leading his platoon on an enemy strong point he was shot down by machine gun fire taking his life on February 12, 1945.  After forcing their way through a seeming impregnable gauntlet, the American captured Zig Zag Pass on February 14.   By February 21, 1945, the Allied Forces had secured Bataan but with a cost of 338 Americans lives and 668 being wounded. Of the 2800 Japanese forces defending the pass, 2400 were killed and 75 more wounded.

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Colie Arnold was a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. He was the son of John Henry and Anna Rauch Arnold and had five sisters: Bessie Frick, Agnes Posey, Nezzie Harmon, Theora Holt, Emma Porth and five brothers: Arthur, Ernest, Lloyd, Virgil and Cecil.  Funeral services for Staff Sergeant Colie B. Arnold were held at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on October 15, 1948.  Following the service, he was laid to rest in the Church Cemetery, more than three years after his death.

George Bell Hendrix was born on October 16, 1917 in Lexington, South Carolina. He was the son of Harry C. & Willie R Hendrix and had four brothers & three sisters.  His mother died when was one year old and he was reared by his aunt, Miss Minnie Hendrix. Sergeant Hendrix graduated from Lexington High School & attended Clemson for the 1938-39 academic year. Then he entered the mercantile business. George Bell volunteered to join the Army Air Corps a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor and he was sent to Fort Jackson. After receiving basic training in Savannah, GA and McDill Field, FL he was assigned to the 97th Bomb Group of 414th Squadron.  On June 4, 1942, he sailed for foreign service & arrived in England on June 9.  He was stationed there until November when he was transferred to Tunisia.

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The 414th Bomb Squadron operated in the Mediterranean Theater as part of the Twelfth Air Force.  The 414th flew the B-17 Flying Fortress and was headquartered at the Depienne Airfield, a former German Luftwaffe base in northern Tunisia.  The Squadron flew missions against enemy shipping in the Mediterranean and targeted airfields, docks, harbors, and railroad marshalling yards in North Africa, southern France, Sardinia, Sicily and part of Italy.  Before each mission, bombs along with the aircraft’s machine guns and ammunition had to be loaded aboard the B-17.  In addition, sufficient fuel to feed the four 1200 horsepower engines had to be pumped into the wing tanks.

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On Tuesday, August 26, 1943, during the loading process for one of the squadron aircraft, Sergeant Hendrix &five of his comrades were killed when a bomb exploded.  George Bell Hendrix answered the call to duty during one of his country’s darkest months &he made the ultimate sacrifice just as the tide of battle was turning in its favor.

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Sergeant Hendrix was a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.  Upon the arrival of his remains to Lexington, a private committal service was conducted by his pastor, the Rev. Edgar D. Chrisemer, in the St. Peter’s Church Cemetery.  In 2002 Clemson created the Scroll of Honor to recognize and honor former students who died in service to their country.  Sargeant George Bell Hendrix has been inscribed in the Clemson Scroll of Honor as part of the Class of 1943.

Command Sergeant Major Franklin D. Rowell was born in Ruthven, AL on January 29, 1933 & grew up in Greenville, AL. He married Ann Harmon Rowell and was the father of their son, Mike. He was a member of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Columbia, SC.

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Franklin Rowell joined the United States Army on January 16, 1951, prior to his 18th birthday. During his eighteen-year military career he rose to the rank of Command Sergeant Major and at the age of only nineteen, he was the youngest first sergeant in the US Army. Command Sergeant Major Rowell served tours of duty in both the Korean War & the Vietnam War. He was assigned to the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Headquarters Company. He began his last tour in Vietnam on June 3, 1969, & experienced a traumatic event which ultimately resulted in the loss of his life on August 19, 1969. Army records attribute his death to hostile enemy action causing an air crash (helicopter) in Quang Tin Province of South Vietnam.

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Command Sergeant Major Franklin D. Rowell was awarded the Purple Heart and is honored on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC. He is buried in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Cemetery in Lexington, SC. Although he was not a member, his wife Ann and Son Mike have been lifelong members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.

Quinton Eugene Lindler was born on October 17, 1919, in Lexington, SC. He was the son of Frederick Lee Lindler and Annie Belle Kaminer Lindler. Quinton had eight brothers and four sisters & was a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.

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Quinton E. Lindler enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the 2nd Platoon at Camp Toccoa, GA. He re-enlisted following WWII & eventually attained the rank of Master Sergeant. As a member of the 187th Airborne Infantry Regimental Combat Team he was deployed to Korea where he fought in the Battle at Chosin Reservoir. This was a decisive battle in the Korean War. On November 27, 1950, the Chinese Army surprised UN Forces at the Chosin Reservoir area and a brutal 17-day battle in freezing weather and rough terrain soon followed. In the period between November 27th and December 13th, 30,000 United Nations troops were encircled and attacked by approximately 120,000 Chinese troops. The cold weather was accompanied by frozen ground, resulting in frostbite casualties, icy roads, and weapon malfunctions. In the end over 17,000 UN forces were either killed, wounded or were missing in action. The Chinese suffered 3 times the number of casualties as the UN Forces. During this battle, Quinton Lindler was seriously wounded by the enemy and died of those wounds five days later on December 9, 1950.

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Master Sergeant Quinton E. Lindler was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean President Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal. He is also remembered at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.  Quinton Lindler was laid to rest in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Cemetery in Lexington, SC.

Horace Ira Shumpert, Jr was born November 17, 1931, in Lexington, SC. He was the son of Horace Ira Shumpert, Sr. and Carrie Belle Shumpert. He had three sisters: Connie, Lois, & Shirley in addition to brothers Raymond, Donald and Wyman.  He was a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Lexington, SC.

 

Horace Ira Shumpert, Jr. enlisted in the United States Marine Corps &was promoted to the rank of Private First Class. He went into combat in the Korean War as part of the 34th Infantry of the 24th Infantry Division of the Marine Corps. On July 20, 1950, PFC Shumpert was killed in the line of duty at the young age of nineteen. He is buried in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Cemetery.

Simeon Lepoleon Hendrix, Jr. was born in Lexington County in 1916. He was the son of Simeon L. Hendrix Sr. and Florrie Louise Hendrix. He had five brothers: Herbert, W.F., Ed, Voight, Marion and sisters Eula Mae George & Rosabelle Wingard. He was a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Lexington, SC.

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S.L. Hendrix, Jr. enlisted in the Army on January 27, 1941. He was eventually promoted to the rank of Technical Sargeant and assigned to the II Corps Artillery Division and was stationed in Tebessa, Algeria. In 1943 he was serving as an MP monitoring the movement of an army convoy under the cover of darkness. Technical Sergeant Hendrix was a passenger in a motorcycle sidecar during this patrol. Due to the darkness during this advance, an accident occurred involved the motorcycle & a large truck resulting in the death of S. L. Hendrix, Jr. on May 25, 1943.

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Technical Sergeant Simeon L. Hendrix, Jr. was laid to rest in Plot A, Row 9, Grave 6 in Tebessa, Algeria. While he is buried in Algeria, there is a marker in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church Cemetery as a tribute to his sacrifice.