James T. Lingg - WWII
Page 5 - Back in Sicily Again

Most of the people with me were going back to the Division. When I got to Division Headquarters on 10 September 1943, they assigned me to the 26^th Infantry Regiment, who assigned me down to 3^rd Battalion and on to "I" Company. I was put in the 3^rd Platoon, 2^nd Squad and I stayed with this unit all of my time in the First Infantry Division. The war in Sicily was over. At Arigento, we did a little policing; a little clean up and a lot of guard duty, watching the railroad yards, bridges and stopping people that were walking down the railroad tracks at night.

While we were in Sicily, we had a real good deal. We were given a three-day pass and went to Palermo. We were hauled by truck into Palermo every day for three days. On the first day in we were all pretty careful, so we didn't get into very much trouble. The second day in, some of the guys got into trouble and were locked up in the different places they lock people up in. On the third day, we all got plastered and they hauled us back in this GI truck. I can only remember I had some red wine and had eaten dry spaghetti. I can remember getting sick and that spaghetti coming up through my throat and nose¹. That was terrible.

From there, we went back into our camp area at Licata where we did a lot of soldering, a lot of parades and they presented a lot of awards to the people who had earned them during the Sicilian Campaign. My Assistant Squad Leader in the 2^nd Platoon, Cpl. Charles Roadman, was awarded a Silver Star for engaging enemy tanks with a 37mm gun that the crew had deserted. He helped disable 4 or 5 tanks during this engagement. I believe Chuck was loading and Col. C., our Battalion Commander, was aiming and firing.