The late Frank Fulbrook, a Purple Heart Recipient, was honored by the ROMEO’s on the 72nd Anniversary of D-Day. (Provided Photos)
Dr. Jim Raftis Jr. thanks the late Frank Fulbrook, a Purple Heart Recipient.
Daniel Raftis thanks the late Frank Fulbrook, a Purple Heart Recipient.
A group called the ROMEO’s (Retired Old Men Eating Out), remembered the late Purple Heart Recipient Frank Fulbrook on the 72nd Anniversary of D-Day. Frank was on the first wave at Omaha Beach.
And although Fulbrook passed away in 2011, he was remembered by his friends, family, and by the veteran community.
Waverly’s Joe Schmieg wrote Frank’s recollections, and the Memorial Day Chairman, Jim Raftis Sr., recovered it. Let us remember.
Francis George Fulbrook from Williamstown, N.J., joined the U.S. Army on May 3, 1943. He was sent to boot camp at Camp Shelby, Miss., and came out an infantryman.
On June 6, 1944 at Weymouth, England, PFC Fulbrook and thousands of G.I.’s boarded troop transports heading across the English Channel to France.
As the flotilla neared the Normandy Coast, Fulbrook with 29 other soldiers loaded on to a Landing Craft, Vehicle, and Personnel (LCVP) boat to storm Omaha Beach.
LCVPs could hold 36 troops and three crewmen.
He was part of F Company, 16th Infantry Regiment, First Infantry Division and their objective was Omaha Beach. These G.I.s were known as “The Big Red One.”
“I was in the first wave,” he recalled.
Asked if he saw the movie “Saving Private Ryan” he replied, “Yes, I did. That (movie) was pretty close to reality.”
Fulbrook was armed with a flamethrower, two tanks on his back, a 45 automatic, gas mask, two grenades and a change of socks and underwear.
Upon exiting the LCVP, he couldn’t touch bottom and, when he did, he was immediately shot through the left wrist. The bullet passed across his stomach and between the two grenades hanging from his belt. “It just ripped my uniform,” Frank said.
“I threw away the flamethrower and picked up a Browning Automatic Rifle from a G.I. who had his hand blown off from a mine,” recalled Fulbrook.
Thirty boats were supposed to hit Omaha Beach simultaneously, he said, but because of the rough Channel, only four boats could land at the same time.
“They (the Germans) slaughtered us. Our platoon commander, a lieutenant, was shot in the jugular and bled to death,” Fulbrook remarked.
He said he sought shelter beneath a cliff on the beach as the German 88’s, mortars, and machine gun fire zeroed in on the assaulting G.I.’s in the Channel. To the left of the cliff was a pillbox built inside the hill where a 57mm gun cut down G Company’s LCVP in half and picked off soldiers trying to reach shore.
Frank estimated of the150 men in his company about half were killed or wounded on Omaha Beach. “We lost 3,000 men in the first wave,” he said.
He was on Omaha Beach for two hours. Then, with other G.I.’s, he followed behind a Sherman tank and moved inland. Their objective was Saint Lo. Frank remembers they captured 20 German soldiers. “They were seasoned vets,” he added, “and young like me.”
His company hooked up with the Fifth Ranger Battalion and the 101st Airborne. It was D-Day plus four.
After four days his arm had swelled up and a medic put sulfa powder on the wound and sent him back to duty.
The Germans had stopped and pinned them down at Saint Lo, so they bypassed that town and headed for Mortagne. 3,000 Allied bombers saturated the area around Mortagne. The Germans seemed to have pulled back.
Then the sound of Rommel’s Panzer tanks could be heard. His Panzer Division was going to push us into the English Channel, Frank recalled.
The Amercians radioed for an air strike. About a half dozen P-47 Thunderbolts annihilated Rommel’s entire Panzer Division.
“Rommel was in Berlin at the time, celebrating his wife’s birthday. He (Rommel) felt guilty,” said Fulbrook.
It was then north to the outskirts of Paris, now liberated. “We marched 140 miles in seven days,” said Frank. “We cleaned out villages that were bypassed by our Armored Division.”
In most cases, the Germans surrendered, he added. Also, the French people were very nice.
“One French and one Polish soldier joined our outfit and fought along with us.” he said.
On Nov. 17, 1944, in a forward outpost on a hill of a rock quarry overlooking the entire Ruhr Valley, a 81mm mortar shell hit Frank. “It blew off both my big toes,” he explained. Another piece of the mortar shrapnel ricocheted from a tree going into Fulbrook’s side through his kidneys embedding in his liver.
His partner wasn’t so lucky.
PFC Gaspar Agnello of Detroit, he recalled, was hit in the head and paralyzed. He didn’t make it.
“I had to walk back to the front lines,” Frank remarked.
Later the Germans retook the hill in the Ruhr where he had been wounded.
He was taken to the 45th Evacuation Hospital-MASH Unit, where they amputated his left big toe to the joint and his right big toe to the main joint. He stayed there from Nov. 19 – Dec. 14.
Then, when he was strong enough to move, Fulbrook went to Paris by hospital train and then on to the coastal town of Cherbourg.
It was Christmastime there and a First Lieutenant by the name of Alan “Doc” Dimon of Waverly was the Administrative Officer with the 711 Medical Evacuation Company. Frank and Doc don’t remember running into each other, but they were both there at the time.
It was on to Liverpool, England, for PFC Fulbrook. “I was a PFC all through the war,” he said proudly.
From Liverpool to the states on the USS United States and to Camp Edward in Boston, and later to Camp Pickett for rehab. This was during January 1945.
He was honorably discharged on June 25, 1945 and returned to his truck farm in Williamstown, N.J.
In 1963, he and his wife Charlotte moved to Nichols, N.Y., where he worked as a machinist for Nichols Industrial and G.E. in Westover, N.Y. At G.E., he made stainless steel fuel injectors for jet engines.
Later, he did contract work for IBM, Sperry Rand and Singer-Link.
In 1969, Fulbrook opened a Western Auto store in Nichols. He had a heart attack in March 1989 and was at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre when his business burned down. “A three-year-old kid upstairs was playing with matches,” he said.
Fortunately, the family was okay.
He sold his business that same year and it became a True Value store.
Retired since 1989, he and Charlotte have been married 52 years. They now reside in Sayre, Pa.
They have seven children. Five boys and two girls. Four of their boys have been in the service – two in the Marines, one in the Navy and one in the Army. Plus, they have 18 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
His one son, then, Army Major James Fulbrook received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star while serving in Viet Nam. He and another pilot were flying Huey Helicopters and rescued South Vietnamese while under fire.
Frank is a member of the Nichols American Legion and belongs to the ROMEOS in Waverly.
He has been awarded European Theater of War Medal with “four or five” battle stars, Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster, Good Conduct Medal and the Combat Infantryman Medal.
Frank waxed nostalgic about a pleasant time during the madness of war.
He and a buddy were out in the field and nothing much was happening, when two French girls invited them to dinner. The girls had a table of fresh potatoes, carrots, meat and wine for them.
Meanwhile their company had moved out and they were AWOL.
So, their punishment for the next two weeks was to dig a sump hole for the garbage every night. “It was supposed to be 6 by 6 by 6 feet,” said Frank. “But the mess sergeant let us dig it 2 by 2 by 2 feet. And he was so appreciative, he gave us great meals.”
