[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 111 (Thursday, July 25, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1379-E1380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO CAPT. INGLIS P. MANGUM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FLOYD SPENCE

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 25, 1996

  Mr. SPENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Capt. Inglis P. 
Mangum, of Walterboro, SC. Captain Mangum is an outstanding American, 
who has demonstrated great courage and sacrificed much for the cause of 
freedom. I would like to enter in the Congressional Record an article 
that appeared in the Press and Standard, of Walterboro, SC, describing 
the valiant service of Captain Mangum in World War II. He is a true 
patriot.

               [From the Press and Standard, May 2, 1995]

                     Mangum Was Honored With Medals

                            (By Dan Johnson)

       I.P. Mangum was in Walter Reed Medical Center for a year 
     and a half recovering from World War II wounds when the 
     medals started coming. And coming. And coming.
       He received: the Combat Infantry Badge for exemplary 
     conduct in combat; the Silver Star With Oak Leaf Cluster for 
     gallantry in combat; the Bronze Star, with V for victory with 
     three Oak Leaf Clusters, for heroic or meritorious 
     achievement in combat; the Army Commendation for Outstanding 
     Achievement (given by a Major General or higher); the Good 
     Conduct Medal; and medals and ribbons for the American 
     Theater; the European Theater of Operations with two battle 
     stars; the Victory Medal; the Asiatic Pacific Medal; the Army 
     of Occupation, Japan; the Army of Occupation, Germany; and 
     American Defense.
       ``In the heat of battle you didn't think too much about 
     things like that,''Mangum recalled. ``I did it because I love 
     my country.''
       As an example of the emphasis Mangum puts on the medals, he 
     commented, ``After I'd been wounded three times, I gave two 
     purple hearts back.''
       Two of Mangum's wounds were inflicted by German prisoners 
     of war. ``We took 77,000 prisoners from the day we crossed 
     the Rhine until the day they ordered us not to fire more 
     weapons.'' Mangum recalled.
       One wound was inflicted when 13 German prisoners tried to 
     escape. The prisoners took weapons from Americans and opened 
     fire. ``I heard a bullet hit my helmet,'' Mangum said, ``My 
     helmet flew off my head. Blood was gushing. I had the worst 
     headache.''
       On another occasion. ``I went in a German barracks. There 
     was a Luftwaffe boy with a bayonet held up high. When he came 
     down with it, I hit it with my arm. It took a slice out of my 
     arm. I was given a Purple Heart but I gave it back. I wasn't 
     really hurt.
       Another wound was inflicted after he thought he was out of 
     danger. German soldiers had focused on him because he was an 
     officer. ``They had picked me out,'' he remembered. ``I lay 
     down on my back and put my helmet up to draw fire. They shot 
     15 times.''
       When the firing stopped, he stood up. An artillery shell 
     then exploded near him. ``I heard it hit my lower stomach,'' 
     he remembered. I got in the woods and pulled my britches 
     down. It didn't look bad to me. I figure I'd have it looked 
     at later. I got some mercurochrome and doctored it. It healed 
     from the outside but not the inside.''
       After the war, a piece of shrapnel ``no bigger than my 
     little finger'' was removed. The surgeon also ``took four of 
     five inches of my intestine.''
       He had to be asked about the times he was wounded, but he 
     spontaneously said, ``I helped deliver a baby. We took an 
     airfield in Czechoslovakia in February or March of 1945. I 
     lost 65 wounded and 19 killed taking that airport. We pounded 
     it with artillery and air force all day, all night, all the 
     next day and went in that night. They were hiding civilians 
     in tunnels. They took our medical officer prisoner. We shot 
     up the aid station and he escaped. They had done him dirt and 
     he wouldn't deliver the baby for a woman on a bed in a room 
     in the tunnel. I said, `I ain't never delivered a baby but 
     you and me are gonna deliver one.' Two or three hours after 
     that the baby was born.''
       In that same battle, Mangum recalled, ``My carbine got hit 
     by a bullet while I was in a ditch. The bullet went through 
     the front of my helmet and fell on my chest.''
       A native of Chesterfield County, Mangum moved to Walterboro 
     in 1940 and joined Company C. A week after Magnum got 
     married, the company left Walterboro for Fort Jackson. 
     ``Sidney Key and I are the only ones living of 150 who left 
     September 15, 1940, to go to Fort Jackson,'' Mangum said.
       Magnum rose from private to staff sergeant, and by 1942 was 
     training new recruits. Two of his children were born while he 
     was in the Army in the United States.
       When he was stationed at Fort Benning, he became acquainted 
     with Casper Weinberger, who decades later became Secretary of 
     Defense. ``Cap Weinberger said I was the meanest little 
     fellow he'd ever met,'' said Mangum, who stood five-feet, 
     six-inches tall and weighed 125 pounds.
       He was a first lieutenant with the 97th Infantry Division 
     when he went ashore at Normandy. An earlier wave of allies 
     had already taken the beach, but hazards still abounded. 
     ``After we landed, I hadn't taken ten steps

[[Page E1380]]

     before my first sergeant knocked me flat on the ground,'' 
     Mangum remembered. ``There was a spider mine I was fixing to 
     put my foot on.''
       They advanced on foot into Germany, ``We thought they'd 
     sold all the trucks,'' Mangum said.
       After entering Germany, Mangum was promoted to Captain. He 
     commanded a heavy weapons (machine guns and mortars) company 
     assigned to a rifle company commanded by Captain Bob Weir.
       In one engagement, Mangum recalled, ``We traveled 60 miles 
     on foot in one day and two nights. We'd go up and got fired 
     on and go back to where we started from, get organized and go 
     back. Every time we started to move they'd shower us with 
     artillery, screaming meamies, they'd make you shiver all 
     over. Shrapnel tore the blade off the shovel I was wearing on 
     my belt; five boys of Captain Weir's were killed by that 
     shell.''
       Another time, ``I was running to help Colonel Weir's men, 
     where they were pinned down. I stretched out when I heard the 
     shell. I felt the shrapnel hit my leg. I hated to look. It 
     was nasty. When I went to the aid station, the doctor wanted 
     to take the metal out. I said I wanted to get some men to go 
     get Bob Weir's men out. The leg wasn't hurting. I got a 
     bandage off the table and put it in my pocket. More wounded 
     came in. One's arm was about to fall off. When the doctor 
     worked on them, I went out the door. The leg hurt when I 
     walked on it.''
       He bandaged the 8-inch gash in his leg himself and kept 
     fighting. After the war, doctors discovered that the shrapnel 
     in the wound was forcing his leg bone to bend out of shape.
       As the Americans approached Berlin, Mangum was assigned to 
     a motorized patrol with a Russian interpreter to make contact 
     with Russian troops also approaching Berlin. ``Imagine what a 
     feeling it was to know you might be the first person to hit 
     Berlin,'' Mangum said. ``If I could just get in there and 
     kill Hitler, I'd be satisfied. Had they not put the brakes 
     on, I could have gone in. We held up that night. My driver 
     and the Russian interpreter was killed, I don't know how. The 
     civilians had cut people to pieces. There were wagons full of 
     bodies.''
       When victory was won in Europe, Mangum was re-deployed to 
     the Southwest Pacific, where the war was still being waged 
     against Japan. While Mangum was at sea for 30 days, Japan 
     surrendered. Mangum was among the Americans who went into 
     Japan and set up a military government. He returned by ship 
     to the United States. Then he joined occupation forces in 
     Germany. After a medical examination in Dusseldorf, he was 
     set back to the United States on a hospital ship to be 
     treated for wounds that had never healed. He had shrapnel in 
     his intestine and in his leg, and a head injury causing 
     pressure on his brain.
       He was honorably discharged with a physical disability on 
     Oct. 20, 1947.
       Mangum and his wife, Trudy, have four children, 10 
     grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. He is an active 
     member of Bethel United Methodist Church and belongs to the 
     American Legion and other veterans associations. After 
     leaving the Army, he worked seven years as a Highway Patrol 
     dispatcher and 35 years with the U.S. Postal Service.

                          ____________________