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T/4 (Sgt) David L. Mudge, Jr.
Looking very cold during the winter of 1944/45, David Mudge is at the wheel of one of the 202nd's jeeps in eastern
David Lewis Mudge, Jr. (ASN 37158319) was born 28 October 1919 in David was drafted and inducted into the U.S. Army on
David reported to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center at
 
After graduation from basic training in July 1942, David was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 202nd Field Artillery at Camp Barkeley, Texas. The Battalion had moved there a year earlier, on 6 March 1941, from Fort Sill. David’s Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was Survey and Instrument Man ( On In the latter part of 1942, David was promoted to Technician Fifth Grade (Corporal).
On
David L. Mudge, Jr. (left), and two unidentified GI's pose with a most-definitely David L. Mudge, Jr. and an unidentified officer take in the view non-GI woman at the United States Riviera Recreation Area, located in somewhere in the ETO. Nice,
In March 1945, during combat in
David was promoted to Technician Fourth Grade/Sergeant on 6 September 1945. At the conclusion of World War II, he was temporarily assigned to the 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion for the trip home. On 13 November 1945, he embarked from His awards included the American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver service star (in lieu of five bronze service stars) for the battles of He also received the Good Conduct Medal, Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, World War II Victory Medal, and a Certificate of Merit for meritorius and outstanding performance of military duty.
This jeep of the 202nd is driven by T/5 David L. Mudge, Jr. of HQ Battery.
David L. Mudge, Jr., possibly in Austria, 1945
David's "receipt" for a German K98 Mauser rifle and bayonet that he mailed home to the States, signed by Lt. Samuel S. Giannetto on VE Day.
After the war, David was employed by Ford Motor Company at the He died on 5 September 1985 in
David's biography provided by Mark Mudge.
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First Sergeant Merle Jones
Merle Jones (ASN 38023297) was born July 31, 1917 in Ochelata, Oklahoma, a very small country town in northeastern Oklahoma, north of Tulsa, south of Bartlesville. His parents were James LeRoy Jones and Zena Maude Evans. Merle was the 5th of 12 children in this rural farm home, so whenever Merle could shoot a rabbit or squirrel, it did not go to waste. After his father died when Merle was 15, and then his mother died the following year, Merle went to live with his uncle who lived close to the high school. Merle slept in the garage the first year he was with them.
Merle was the baseball pitcher for the Ochelata baseball team ever since little league when he was very young. He was the starting pitcher for the high school team every year and they won the conference every year he pitched for them. He was invited by a baseball scout to attend spring training with the Joplin Miners in the Western Association. However, the Depression era Civilian Conservation Corps was paying $45 per month for a First Sergeant, $36 for a corporal, and the ball team was only paying $45/month for the highest paid player on the team, so Merle went with the CCC.
He left his uncle’s house to take that job with the CCC in Colorado. The CCC would always keep $5 out of his check and send it home to his uncle. He would work a year at the CCC camp in Colorado, saving his money, then go back to Ochelata to attend high school for a year. He went back to work at the CCC camps 3 times during the Depression to fund his high school years, and finally graduated when he was about 21. He has fond memories of going to dances and hitchhiking around Oklahoma when bootlegging and white lightening we common topics. He scraped up enough money to buy a 34 Ford, V8, coupe which he would load up with friends to go to weekend dances. He received a draft notice from Bartlesville, county seat of Washington County in the Cherokee Nation. He trained at Ft Sill as a telephone lineman of the artillery unit. From there he went to Abilene for training, home of the 45th Division. They lived in tents at Ft Sill and at Camp Barkley in Abilene. Each squad had a leader and his was a corporal who had been in the CCC camp with Merle at Durango, Colorado; Merle had been the First Sergeant over him in the CCC camp. Merle had learned to type well at the CCC camp and had done the record keeping, so he moved up quickly in the Army.
Private Merle Jones November 1941
Merle and Betty Lou Powell, of Ocheleta, were married in 1943 when he was 25. When Merle shipped out to Europe, Betty was pregnant with their son, who was born in 1944, while Merle was in Ireland. Merle’s movements with the 202nd are well chronicled in John Niesel’s book, Howitzers, Grasshoppers, and the Holy Right Hand.
1942 or 1943 Europe 1944 or 1945
After the end of the war, soldiers were scheduled for movement back to the US based on a point system calculated from time in service and battles fought. Merle had about 110 points, so moved quickly from near Salzburg to the Nuremburg Transportation Depot with the ”high point battalion”. From there, there were trains to the docks for shipping out. As a First Sergeant, Merle was detained at the Depot to help process soldiers through there, managing work rosters.
First Sergeant Merle Jones and command vehicle of Lt. Colonel Tom Lewis in Europe 1944 or 1945
All the units had baseball teams and sent teams to what they called the “Little World Series” at Nuremburg. The 202nd fielded their own team, with Merle as a pitcher. He recalls that they lost in the final game 3-2 to the team from the 3rd Infantry division which had several professional baseball players in their lineup, and pulled from a much larger population, but the 202nd “gave them a good game. “ After returning from the war, Merle met his son who was then 2 years old, and got a job with Phillips Petroleum Company in Goldsmith, Texas. He earned $1.02 an hour working at a pump station for the oil and LNG pipeline from the oil field there to the refinery at Borger, in the Texas panhandle. He was promoted eventually there to chief engineer at the pumping station, then moved to a better job as a “Gauger” at the new Sprayberry oilfield east of Midland, Tx. While living there, his daughter, Merlene, was born. Merle was promoted in the pipeline organization and moved his family to Bartlesville, OK, in 1964. He continued with the pipeline organization of Phillips there until his retirement in 1980. After traveling around the country for while, he and Betty settled in their travel trailer at the Apache Wells golf community in Mesa, AZ, about 1981; and moved into their golf course home in 1985, where they continue to live today. Merle joined the Shrine in Ponca City, Ok, and has been a active member of the local Shrine clubs in Bartlesville and Apache Wells. He owned and drove a Shrine “Little Car” in parades all around the Southwest, and was the leader of that team for several years. He was an accomplished golfer until his retirement from the game a few years ago. Merle and Betty attended many 202nd reunions over the years at the Muskogee, OK, Holiday Inn, and had kept in contact with Harold Brown and Morris Tucker and many others over the years. Harold and his wife came to Mesa to visit Merle and Betty, which was the last time that they saw him. Merle recalls that Harold had the cement company in Pueblo, Colorado in those years, and had done very well in his cement business. After Harold moved to Ft Collins, Merle and Betty lost contact with them. Merle’s daughter recalls having frequently heard Merle having nightmares about the war when she was little. Merle has kept pretty quiet about the more painful memories from the War until recent years. The networking with John Niesel and Mark Mudge has reopened this history to be recorded and written, for which we are thankful. Merle's biography provided by George Lynch. ******************************************************************************* Staff Sergeant Russell Whitman
Pfc. Russell Whitman home on first furlough in 1943 Russell Marcus Whitman (ASN 33494470) was born on Anticipating the approaching war and considering that he might enjoy working in the Air Corps, Russell attended the Pennsylvania State School of Aeronautics at Russell was drafted and inducted into the U.S. Army on 15 December 1942 at After completion of basic training at Russell was assigned to the 1st Gun Section of “A” Battery, and after one week, was made recorder in the Battalion Survey Section, charged with the accurate positioning of the guns. He was promoted to Private First Class in September 1943. Pfc. Whitman was awarded a Good Conduct Medal on His combat duty with the Deuce-O-Deuce began on
S/Sgt Russell Whitman with one of the 202nd's 155mm Howitzers in 1945 In July 1945, when the Battalion was billeted in At the conclusion of the War, Russell was sent to the staging area at Camp Twenty Grand, a tent city near Henouville/Duclair,  S/Sgt Russell Whitman in Russell was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of Staff Sergeant at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, PA on In 1946, Russell married Mary Lou Yeagley, and over the next twenty years, they became the parents of three children. Russell worked for forty-four years as a sheet metal mechanic for the Bressler Metal Works, a metal fabricating company. He currently lives in retirement in Submitted By Russell M. Whitman ******************************************************************************* Lt. Colonel Tom Lewis
Tom Lewis (ASN O-221566) was born in Tom served in the U.S. Navy from After his Navy service, Tom worked as a blacksmith in Cherokee, The 2nd Battalion, 189th Field Artillery was inducted into Federal service at Lt. Colonel Tom Lewis assumed command of the Battalion on Lt. Colonel Lewis was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service on The 202nd was inactivated on He died on 6 October 1972 at the age of *****************************************************************************************
Master Sergeant Francis M. Jennison
Francis Milburn Jennison (ASN 20833347) was born in Master Sergeant Jennison was awarded a Good Conduct Medal on Frank later served in the United States Air Force in Frank died on
Master Sergeant Frank Jennison with uniforn patch of the Seventh Army
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Staff Sergeant John M. Krantosky
John M. Krantosky (ASN 33083195) was born in John enlisted in the Army on
John M. Krantosky with M1903 Springfield Rifle
Corporal Krantosky was awarded a Certificate of Merit on John was promoted to staff sergeant on Staff Sergeant Krantosky was awarded the American Defense Service Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four bronze service stars for the battles of
Corporal John M. Krantosky holding his M1 Carbine and standing in front of one of the 202nd's 155mm howitzers in the ETO circa 1944 or 1945
After the War, John went to work for Fierst Distributing Company, a flooring distributor. He married and had three children. He continued to enjoy sports, coached his son’s little league baseball team, and enjoyed gardening. The family always had a yearly vacation no matter how hard things were financially. John M. Krantosky died in
Biography and photographs courtesy of John (Jack) Krantosky, Jr.
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