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455thaaa.com
455th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Mobile Battalion "RABBS" Memorial Website |
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455thaaa.com
455th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Mobile Battalion "RABBS" Memorial Website |
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ANDREW JAMES SCALF: A TRUE TENNESSEE VOLUNTEER |
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Andrew
James Scalf was born on April 7, 1921. He grew up in the beautiful East
Tennessee mountains. There were rolling fields of hay and cattle grazing
all around. The Scalf family resided in a typically large American-looking
white farmhouse. The family consisted in the father, (William), the
mother (Vesta), a sister (Mable) and a brother (Andrew). As a young
man, Andrew was called Andy. When he went into the army, his friends
called him Andrew. He was six feet two inches tall and weighed around
175 pounds. Andrew had brown-black hair and very dark brown eyes. Everyone
said he was so handsome that the girls stood in line for Andy just to
look their way. It is also said that he made everyone feel comfortable
around him.
Andrew grew up doing the typical things all boys did then. He played baseball, "ran around with the boys," had lots of girlfriends because he was extremely outgoing, teased everyone, and liked everyone he met. |
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He
attended the Liberty Church and the Liberty School, which were located
near the Scalf Farm. In 1930, Andrew’s sister became very sick.
His father had bought one of the few cars in the area at that time.
On the way to the doctor’s office to take his sick daughter,
the car had a flat tire and Andrew’s sister, Mable, died in the
car alongside the road. She was only twelve years old when she died.
After Mable’s death, Vesta (Andy’s mother) worried and watched
over him so very much... He was her last child and she was so careful
with him.
At a very young age, Andrew married Ruth Jones, who was a neighbor girl. A daughter, Brenda, was born in 1941. In October of 1942, Andrew decided that he was needed by his country and in the true Tennessee tradition, volunteered... to go into the army. The whole world was being threatened by Hitler, and he wanted to do what he could to help. |
| Ft.
Stewart, Georgia was the site of Andrew Scalf’s induction into the
Army and his basic training. He was stationed at Ft. Stewart until the
entire 455th Anti Aircraft Artillery, Automatic Weapons group
"shipped out" for Glasgow, Scotland in September of 1943. During
this journey, their transport ship, the USS General George Simmonds,
had to detour to Hailfax, Nova Scotia because of mechanical problems.
At Nova Scotia, the entire 455th boarded the luxury liner,
HMS Queen Elizabeth, and steamed into Glasgow, Scotland.
From Scotland, the 455th AAA boarded trains and traveled to installations in Watton, England. There, they would establish AAA around the airbases in East Anglia.
Andrew Scalf fought with the 455th until General George Patton requested additional front-line infantrymen. For the second time, Andrew volunteered for this hazardous duty. Andrew Scalf wrote to his wife and mother stating that he wouldn’t want to live in a world that wasn’t free and he wouldn’t want his family to have to live in one like that either. He was going to do his best to defeat the "madman" Hitler.
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In
November of 1944, Andrew Scalf joined the 137th Infantry,
35th Division. The battles were extremely rough, especially
in THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE. He was with his group in February in the woods in Gerderath,
Germany (close to Aachen, Germany and Margraten, Holland) when he was
struck with mortar shrapnel and killed instantly. We
found the place where this happened! His good friend, Roy Clark,
was also injured, but not fatally. Roy Clark had a severe leg injury
and remained in a Paris Hospital until the end of the war. When the
war was over, Roy returned to Kansas. Andrew’s body was buried
in the beautiful American
Cemetery in Margraten, Holland.
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| Andrew’s
mother died in the year following his death. It is said that she mourned
herself to death after the deaths of her two children. William Scalf married
again, and had two more children... another son and another daughter.
William lived until he was 93 years old.
Andrew’s half sister visited Margraten in the mid 1980s. Andrew's name is also on a memorial in Kansas to the 137th Inf. Div., but his grave is in Holland. On June 15, 1998, Andrew’s daughter, Brenda Scalf-Burchfield and her family boarded a train in Amsterdam and traveled to Maastricht, Holland. They were just awed by the quiet beauty of The American Cemetery in the Netherlands. Andrew James Scalf is buried in C 15 30. For some unknown reason Brenda Scalf-Burchfield walked straight to her father’s grave...with no direction from anyone. Since that day in 1998, and her wonderful encounter with her father, she has devoted a large part of her life searching out his life and trying to "walk in his footsteps." |
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