JENKINS TWP. – At 99 years old, World War II veteran Hank Cordy looks back on a long, fulfilling life shaped, in part, by his military service.
Cordy, who was awarded a Purple Heart, was drafted into the Army at 19 and sent to Camp Blanding Training Center in Florida for three weeks for what he describes as the “worst time of my life.”
Because Cordy had been drafted, “regular” army men looked down on him and assigned him the most difficult task.
“First, I peeled potatoes until my hands bled, then I worked in the mess hall and then the boiler room,” he said. “It was soft coal and I would come out covered with coal dust.”
Still, Cordy, a member of the 1st Infantry Division, said those differences melted away as soldiers risked their life in combat.
He recalls leaving New York on the Queen Mary enoute to Scotland, with the entire ship filled with soldiers.
“They took out the furniture, everything,” he said. “The only thing left on the ship was what they needed to feed us.”
Cordy said soldiers slept on the steps and on the floor, making it to Europe in only three days.
And although much of Cordy’s memories of his experience as a soldier are filled with devastation and death, he credits Army leadership with providing support and encouragement to soldiers.
“I met Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. several times,” he said. “He had already fought in World War I and then served again in World War II — a wonderful man.”
Cordy has a sharp mind and many memories of his time in the military are crystal clear — except those from the invasion of France.
“I can’t remember a heck of a lot of the invasion because there was so much shooting and bombing, boys crying in the water for help and no one could help them,” he said, explaining that soldiers and equipment would get tangled in barbed wire and there was no way to get them out.
“We didn’t have anything to cut the wire to get through it,” he said. “That would have saved lives.”
Cordy served with the division “from first bullet to last bullet,” except for three weeks when he was wounded during the Battle of the Bulge, an act for which he was awarded the Purple Heart.
Cordy was bringing ammunition to soldiers on the front line when he was wounded in the back of the head.
“It was good that I had my helmet on or I would have been killed,” he said. “And I was never one for helmets.”
After spending three weeks in a military hospital, Cordy returned to his division for a few weeks before the war ended.
Shortly after hearing of the end of the war, his division headed back to Maine by plane, but instead ended up spending a few hours in the Ozarks because of fog.
Cordy met a fellow soldier there who “couldn’t hug us enough.”
“We went to the officers club and didn’t pay for anything,” he said. “Everything was on the house.”
The division eventually ended up in Fort Dix, New Jersey, for about a week and then was released.
“I took a Greyhound bus to Avoca,” he said. “And I walked home.”
Cordy was home for only a week before returning to work as a truck driver.
He also met and married his wife Nance, who had previously worked at the Pentagon, herself having been awarded the World War II Victory Medal for her efforts.
“She worked for the big boys,” he said.
Cordy met Nance while on a date with another girl.
“Someone called me into the kitchen and asked me to go to a party in Scranton with another girl,” he said, smiling. “We had a lovely time and it stuck.”
The couple’s love story did indeed “stick” for nearly 60 years until Nance passed away in 2010.
Together, the two went to an annual reunion of the 1st Infantry which took place all over the United States.
He kept in touch with those soldiers he fought beside until several years ago.
“They’re dwindling away,” he said.
Cordy will mark Memorial Day at Wesley’s Village Community Room with neighbors at the village’s Brooks Estates.
“It’s been a wonderful life,” he said.
