[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 125 (Thursday, September 16, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1657-E1658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO PHIL GOLDING

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LATHAM

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 16, 2010

  Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize Phil Golding, a World 
War II Army veteran from Boone County, Iowa, and to express my 
appreciation for his dedication and commitment to his country.
  The Boone News Republican is currently running a series of articles 
that honors one Boone County veteran every Tuesday from Memorial Day to 
Veterans Day. Phil Golding was recognized on Tuesday, August 24. Below 
is the article in its entirety:

                  Boone County Veterans: Phil Golding

                        (By Alexander Hutchins)

       Not all military experiences are life-changing tales, 
     fraught with peril and excitement.
       For former Boone County resident Phil Golding, his 
     experiences in the military were rather mundane.
       He was never shot at, ``to my knowledge,'' he said. He 
     never received, nor wanted, a Purple Heart. A Boone resident 
     for nearly 50 years, Golding, however, recalls his times in 
     the United States Army with fond memories, with his three 
     most volatile army jobs being battery clerk, gas truck driver 
     and ammo truck driver.
       Golding was inducted into the U.S. Army at Camp Dodge from 
     Glidden, Iowa, in Carroll County, assigned to active duty on 
     July 3, 1943, ``policing the camp grounds for cigarette 
     butts'' prior to the crowds of visitors swarming into the 
     area.
       ``I was given a G.I. haircut, clothes and equipment, then 
     sent to a tank destroyer facility at Camp Hood, Texas, for 
     four months of infantry basic training before spending 4\1/2\ 
     months on campus at the University of Illinois in the Army 
     Specialized Training Program ostensibly to be an engineer,'' 
     Golding recalled. ``This changed when the war in Africa, 
     Italy and Europe called for fresh blood.''
       Golding, along with hundreds of other ``non-essentials,'' 
     as he referred to himself, were transported by troop train to 
     the Eighth Armored Division at Camp Polk, La.
       Before long, they would be replacing armored units in 
     combat zones, but first there were inspections.
       ``We spent the hot summer of 1944 being inspected to death 
     before the Germans got a shot at us,'' Golding said. ``We 
     boarded a troop ship in early fall. Somewhere, mid-Atlantic, 
     a couple hundred of us below deck playing cards, writing home 
     or reading, when something big banged hard against the 
     bulkhead only a few feet away! We never knew what, but one 
     officer didn't wait to panic, he went bananas, bounding up 
     the stairway shouting, `Don't panic . . . let me outta here! 
     Let me outta here!' ''

[[Page E1658]]

       It was a couple months later when the group ate their 
     Thanksgiving turkey in what Golding referred to as ``Jolly 
     ol' England.'' After next celebrating Christmas with an 
     English family, they finally received their equipment on New 
     Years Day: tanks, trucks, 105 mm howitzers, and more.
       The soldiers were rushed across the channel to Europe, but 
     the Battle of the Bulge was over by then, so the troops were 
     held behind the front lines, in reserve, freezing in France 
     for six long, cold weeks.
       Golding recalls an incident next that happened in a muddy 
     orchard.
       ``We then pulled our trucks, heavy with ammo, into a pretty 
     Dutch orchard, just before the frost left, leaving our trucks 
     axle-deep in sod, eight-wheelers spinning, wench cables 
     straining and shear pins shearing,'' he said. ``After the 
     tank-retriever drug us out one by one, the poor Dutchman's 
     grove looked like a plowed field. Even the road past his farm 
     looked plowed, ready to plant.''
       He also recalls a spectacular site during his time overseas 
     serving in the Army.
       ``Watching the bombers go east, then back west, with bomb 
     bays open and parachute cords trailing was thrilling--we knew 
     our paratroopers were on the other side of the river, waiting 
     for us to cross the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge,'' 
     Golding said. ``The day after on the far side of the river 
     was a different thrill when our captain circled our trucks on 
     a hill, visible for miles, and we took a few German artillery 
     rounds. Not much happened where we were, I hurried dressing 
     and moved from the 200 rounds of steel cased white phosphorus 
     105 mm artillery shells in our truck, which was my bed the 
     night before.''
       The end of World War II was a strange sight for Golding. He 
     recalls that he was near the Elbe River when he awoke to the 
     scene.
       ``I got up one morning and wandered out the back side of 
     our barracks and there was a whole battalion with rifles 
     stacked and lining up at a chow truck for breakfast, it took 
     me a minute to realize this was a German battalion getting 
     fed, with rifles stacked, apparently unconcerned that they 
     were in the backyard of a bunch of American G.I.s, who also 
     seemed unconcerned,'' he said. ``More curious than 
     concerned.''
       And so, the war ended, and Golding returned home to Boone, 
     happy for his military experience, and happy for his safe 
     return, albeit with a few more entertaining stories than when 
     he left.
       ``Compared to most, my experiences in the U.S. Army were 
     mundane, thank the Lord,'' Golding said.

  I commend Phil Golding for his many years of loyalty and service to 
our great Nation. It is an immense honor to represent him in the United 
States Congress, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

                          ____________________