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MCC/CARL CUNNINGHAM, JRTop photo: World War II veteran Talmadge D. Lively of Nederland with his war medals and a collection of war-time photos. Bottom photo: Lively as a soldier on leave in 1942. Lively was a Staff Sergeant with the Army's 96th. ‘Deadeye’ Division.Veterans recall war daysBy CARL CUN NINON AM, JR.Staff writerFilm critics are calling Steven Spielberg's new fact-based war movie “Saving Private Ryan” the most realistic and powerful war film ever made.While it may go down in movie history as the best representation of the second World War, some Mid County veterans say they have no need to see any war movie. They lived it.“All war movies are overblown and a work of fantasy,” said Nederland’s Talmadge Lively, a Staff Sergeant with the U.S. Army’s 96th. Infantry Division in World War II. “There’s nothing in a movie like what we went through, no glory or love stories. We were losing Americans in war.”Lively, a Neches Butane retiree, was drafted into the Army in 1942. After basic training at three U.S. bases, Lively’s first campaign wasthe invasion of Leyte in the Philippines. He was wounded one hour into the invasion by an artillery shell from a Japanese machine gun.Lively went on to the invasion of Okinawa, Japan, what he calls, “One bloody battle.” He was shot five times in Okinawa.One bullet tore through his steel helmet but was slowed so that it only scraped his scalp, removing a patch of his hair. Another bullet caught him in his back and another pierced a metal covered Bible in his shirt pocket and ricocheted off a metal spoon tucked in behind the Bible.At 128 pounds, he once carried a 210 pound wounded buddy across 100 yards of open field under a barrage of enemy fire. Lively was awarded the Bronze Star and several Purple Heart medals for his bravery and injuries on the battle field.The deepest wounds he received, he says, were psychological. Lively once caught aJapanese soldier attempting to cross battle lines with his family. The enemy soldier had killed his wife by cutting her throat and tried to do the same to his children believing that they would be tortured by the Americans if they were caught.Lively and his fellow soldiers took the man prisoner and nursed his children’s non-fa tal wounds. The man preferred to kill his family than allow them to be captured.“I killed some enemy soldiers at night trying to make it into my fox hole,” Lively said. “I killed about 35 enemy soldiers. I wondered if I could do it before I saw what I saw, but killing never did bother me when I was there because it was my job.”Bonnie Lively, his wife of 18 years, says her husband has blocked out his worst war experiences but says they can sometimes come back to him.“He woke up for years withVETERAN*, page 2A
Newspaper Details
Port Neches Midcounty Chronicle
Port Neches, Texas, US
Wed, Aug 05, 1998
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Victoria K.
NA, 02 Jan 2019
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