Was prisoner of war

On Memorial Day I will be honoring my father, Chadd L. Durrett. He was born in February of 1911. At the age of 13 he was living on his own in Strong. He worked at odd jobs after school and in the summer. He graduated from Strong High School and went on to attend another senior year at El Dorado High School and graduated there when he was 19. He studied law while working as a fireman in El Dorado. He passed the bar exam and received a law license when he was 23 without attending law school or any other college.

When World War II began, he tried to enlist in the Army, but failed the physical twice due to having high blood pressure. He “took a dose of Epsom salt” which lowered his blood pressure and he finally passed a physical and entered the service in November 1943. He was a technical sergeant in the 9th Armored Division and, although he was not on the front lines, he was captured on Dec. 18, two days into the Battle of the Bulge, when he, a lieutenant and a private were traveling from St. Vith down to Bastogne seeking medical supplies.

As they traveled through the northern tip of Luxembourg, they ran right into a Panzer division in Troisvierges, Luxembourg. He was shipped back into Germany to Stalag IV B at Muhlberg-on-Elbe. En route to the prison camp, the box cars carrying the prisoners back into Germany were strafed by American planes. He and several others received shrapnel wounds and were later awarded a Purple Heart.

As a POW he lost 90 pounds; the Germans simply didn’t have enough food to feed their soldiers and the POWs. He was liberated by the Russians on April 23, 1945. He came home and served eight terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives.

CHADD L. DURRETT JR. West Memphis