WWII veteran kept Silver Star and 7 Bronze Stars a secret

Family unearths veteran's secrets
Lancaster native who kept WWII stories to himself has many awards
The Eagle-Gazette
Written by
Carl Burnett Jr
staff
July 14, 2014

George Davis stands in front of his tank lined up for a military review during WWII. / Submitted by Chris Anderson

LANCASTER — When former Lancaster native George William Davis was asked about his World War II military service, he would change the subject or just say no one wanted to hear about it.

“He used to say he saw things over there that he didn’t think other people should know about,” said his son-in-law, Chris Anderson.

But that wasn’t the case for Anderson, or the Davis family. They were interested.

Davis died in 1996 before he opened up about his military service and before Anderson started digging into his military history.

“I was trying to do research for a book I was trying to write about my family’s military history,” Anderson, a Vietnam War Navy veteran, said.

Anderson said he contacted the military records department through Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office to obtain Davis’ military records.

What they found out was that all of Davis’ military files had been destroyed in a fire in 1973. But there was one more place they could look for information — the Hocking County Recorder’s Office.

He entered the Army three days after Pearl Harbor and served for nearly four years in battles against the Axis powers in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium and Germany.

He received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in battle, as well as Campaign Stars for Algeria-French Morocco (North Africa), Sicily, Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe (Germany).

He was granted an honorable discharge and received the Good Conduct Medal, a special Belgian award (the Belgian Fouraguri) and he also received a Silver Star for gallantry, seven Bronze Stars and a Bronze Arrowhead.

He had an amazing military history and saw most of the battles in Europe that included the Americans.
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