Dan S. Ray
36th Reconnaissance Unit

The day started out as a routine mission, as we had been on many since the landing at Southern France. It was always hurry, hurry, but as everybody knew their job and did it like clockwork, we figured that we had a better chance of a successful mission even though we knew that we had to go all of the way to Germany if we didn't find out where the Germans were hiding in ambush for us.

That is what a mission of reconnaissance is all about. We were called the eyes and ears of the Army. Our Lt. was Edward Morales, one of the most compassionate leaders we had since the start of the war. He had respect for all of the men regardless of rating or rank. Our Sergeant was Elmer Goodson, a Texan all of the way and a cowboy to boot. Both of these men were respected by all of the men under their command. There was Forrest Jahn riding shotgun on the Lt.'s jeep and there was one other jeep between our armored car and the Lt.'s jeep. It had a driver and two men in it.

My armored car had Gordon Finders as driver; I was the radio operator; Phillip Joanisse was the assistant radio operator and assistant gunner. Alvin Diener was the gunner and the toughest and best man I ever called my friend. He should have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor many times over for his heroic deeds.

We had a 37mm cannon and a 30 caliber air-cooled machine gun and a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on the gun turret. We had liberated this gun from a B-24 Bomber that was shot down near us in Italy. It fired faster than our regular 50's and we liked it for that reason.

We mounted up and moved out of the area where we had spent the night which was on the right or northeast slope of the mountain ridge near the village of Rault, France. The village was located in the pass at the top of the mountain ridge at about 6000 ft. above sea level.

We would move for awhile and then stop and use our glasses to see if we could spot anything in front of us. Even though nothing was spotted that looked like the enemy, it took the greater part of the morning to reach Rault. When we reached the village all hell broke loose—the good kind. The girls swarmed all over the vehicles, hugging, kissing and giving us drinks of all description. They even had flowers for the occasion, which not too many of us noticed at first. We stayed there as long as we thought acceptable under the circumstances, which was really only a half hour. We would surely have gotten into trouble if we had stayed there longer.

We then pulled out and went through the pass and started down the left or descending side of the mountain ridge. We hugged the inside of the mountain road, as we had been trained to do, so as to not be seen from the valley below. We did not see any sign of the enemy. When we reached the bottom of the mountain where the road flattened out, the Germans were there waiting for us in AMBUSH!

They opened up with a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and I really think that the first shot hit our Lt. Morales in the right chest area. I saw the projectile exit his body and saw him slump in his seat. I just knew that he was dead and it made me mad as hell. I was literally heartbroken from the thought of losing my Lieutenant and friend. I remember seeing Sergeant Goodson and Joe Kirkpatrick running through a hail of gunfire to get the Lieutenant out of his jeep which was also knocked out of action. The other jeep managed to get turned around on this narrow mountain road. It all worked like clockwork. They were all in the jeep that was undamaged and passed us going back up the mountain road in the direction of Rault.

Finders managed to get our armored car turned around and we followed the jeep up the mountain road. The armored car could not go over 15 miles an hour up the steep road, so we got further and further behind. I reported the whole episode to Headquarters and found myself literally crying at the loss of Lt. Morales. I thought he was dead. As we were nearing the halfway mark back up the mountain, my grief turned to anger and I told Finders to stop. I then explained to him that we were going to go against our training and engage the enemy on our terms. I had him pull over to the edge of the road just enough to be able to see over the rim with the 37mm gun. When we were in position, I told Joanisse to get out and get up in my position, and I instructed Diener to move over to the other side of the gun turret and act as my assistant gunner.

I wanted to do the aiming and avenge the death of my Lieutenant. The first shot hit the Lieutenant's jeep in the transmission area. The Germans had swarmed all over the jeep getting the personal belongings of the Lieutenant, and I don't have to tell you what happened to them. It looked like a John Wayne movie scene. Diener and I fired every round that was in the turret and there was nothing moving at the road block when we finished.

I was so proud of Alvin Diener, Phillip Joanisse and Gordon Finders. I reported this to our Captain and he seemed pleased that we had done a halfway decent job on this mission. I also found out that we were about five days out in front of Division forces.

I found out in 1987 that Lieutenant Morales was not killed and was living in San Antonio on the same street that he lived on before going in the service. I called him upon finding this out, and I couldn't keep the tears from my eyes from being so happy. He sounded so good on the telephone, and when I saw him at the '88 reunion in San Antonio, I was so happy. He is the same nice guy that he was way back then. I saw Joe Kirkpatrick too, and lots of my old buddies. We all spend a lot of time writing to each other now and can't wait for the next reunion.

I still get the shakes when I come to a curve in the road at times. It seems that the Lieutenant had been blaming himself all of these years for leading us into the roadblock. I assured him that was definitely not the case. He also seemed pleased to learn that we knocked out the roadblock after he was wounded. Diener is dead; can't find out anything on Finders; Joanisse has retired from the railroad and enjoying life; Forrest Jahn is married to the sweetest lady and enjoying life; I am married to Jeanette and we have five grandchildren to show for our forty-three years together. Goodson is still a cowboy and comes by Joe's place in El Paso about once a year.