MY DAD – WWII COMBAT MEDIC, POW & HERO
by Dick Moyer, US Army LRRP Ranger, Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, and More
A number of years ago, a rail car from the World War II era, was on display at the Green Valley Ranch Resort. I went to view this railcar which was on display to remember the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht “Night of Crystal” or “Night of Broken Glass”. The railcar was the type used to transport Jews to camps during the Holocaust.
I remember several things that a man told me years ago about the WWII. He was like most men who from that era that didn’t readily talk about the war. But with the right questions and the right approach, you could get him to talk. He was a medic, “Nothing is more courageous and heroic than someone unarmed wading into battle to care for the wounded and dying, regardless of what uniform you were wearing.
He got his draft notice the day after he turned 18. He was sent to a base outside of Chicago for 15 weeks of medical training. Upon completing that training, he was given a short furlough to visit his wife and newborn son before being sent by train to New York to be transported overseas. His first stop was in North Africa where he would get his first gut wrenching taste of war. He was a witness to the horrendous tank battles. The horror that he saw was just a foretaste of what was to come.
From North Africa, he would be part of the invasion forces heading for Italy and the beaches of Anzio. It took several months before the Allied Forces could break out of the beachhead and attack the German Gustav Line.
During the heavy fighting, this medic and several other medical personnel moved over two hundred wounded soldiers into a large stone structure and proceeded to set it up as a field hospital. It was not long after
moving the wounded into this building that all hell broke loose. German tanks came from several directions and started blasting down this makeshift hospital. After very intense shelling of the building, the medical officer in charge told the surviving men that he was going to surrender, or no one would come out alive.
Of the over 200 wounded soldiers and medical personnel only 17 of them would survive the brutal attack on the makeshift hospital. This medic was one of the 17 to survive. Allied Forces were only a few hundred yards away and could not help them. These surviving 17 men were soon put on a train heading for Germany. The railcar that was displayed at the Green Valley Ranch Resort was probably very similar to the one he rode in heading to Germany.
Upon arriving in Germany he was put in a forced labor group, repairing, and replacing railroad tracks that the Allied bombings were blowing up. After a brief time he was sent to an Axis or German prisoner of war (POW) camp. The camp was close to Ampfing, a large sub camp of the Dachau concentration camp. While being held prisoner he would be exposed to such inhumanity, forced to work at or near the camps. I will not describe what horrors this 19 year old medic witnessed, nor the forced labor conditions put upon him, but they were totally inhumane.
On April 30, 1945, this medic would be one of 110,000 POW’s liberated. The name of the camp was Stalag 7A located in Moosburg, Bavaria. This was Germany’s largest prisoner of war camp. When this medic was captured, he weighed about 150 lbs. When he was liberated, he weighed about 70 lbs. He returned to the United States to recover and was eventually honorably discharged. He would go on to father two more sons and adopt another son. He died February 9th, 1973, from complications of bypass surgery. He never really recovered from the war. I think he may have died from a broken heart.
I met this man on January 10th, 1947 at about 5am. I would never hear of any of this until some 21 years later when he told me after I returned from a war of my own – Vietnam. Yep, that medic was my father, Pvt. Raymond Arthur Moyer Sr. and this is just one way I can honor his life and service to our country.
Love you Dad!
I would also like to share a picture of me standing behind three American ex-prisoners of war from WWII.
These men seated from left to right are Vincent Shank, Carroll Knutson, and Dean Whitker. These men were liberated on April 30, 1945, from Stalag 7a at Moosburg, Bavaria. This camp was one of the first to be liberated by American forces.
The Allies didn’t know this camp even existed until April 29, 1945, when American forces were advancing to the bridge leading into Moosburg. When the camp was liberated, there were over 110,000 prisoners from 37 nations, simply amazing!
My father was one of the POW’s liberated that day with the men in the picture. My father’s name is Raymond Moyer, Sr. I did not know until a few years ago that there were men who were imprisoned at the same POW camp as my father that lived here in Las Vegas. I was able to connect with them and get to know them a little better.
These are Great and Brave Men.
