Just A Boy Like Me...: Tennessee Boys of the 3rd and 45th Divisions in World War II

My uncle had written scores of letters to his family in Crossville from the day he reached Fort Oglethorpe to the last letter he wrote in the Replacement Depot in Italy. He was killed in a small town just outside of Rome during the Allied push from Anzio. A year earlier, he met Beecher Seegraves and Artis Winningham on the bus to basic training in June 1943 and they became instant friends. They all three had a lot in common. They were farm boys, they loved their country, and they all had the same burning desire to be back home. Two of the three would make it back to fall in love, marry, and raise a family back in Tennessee. This book is the story about these three boys sent miles away from the comfort of home to fight for the way of life that we enjoy today. Beecher and Artis give us first-hand accounts about what life was like in the war in Europe. My Uncle Andrew s story had to come from the recollections of Beecher and Artis, the 3rd Division after action reports and his letters home. We will never know exactly what happened to Andrew, but we know what was on his mind he s just a boy like me always thinking of home.