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Submitted: 9/26/08 • Approved: 9/27/08 • Last Updated: 7/22/12 • R66421-G0-S3
Information from: www.crosscountybank.com/veterans/Veterans/Dunn, Godfrey E.htm
Godfrey E. Dunn
7008400 First Sergeant
Battery A 609th FA BN
United Stated Army
1940-1945
Field Artillery Enlisted Reserves
7008400 First Sergeant
1945-1947
U. S. Army National Guard of Arkansas
7008400 First Sergeant
Battery A 5/206th Artillery
1947-1968
Godfrey Ernest (Little Buck) Dunn was born 13 April 1917 at Wynne, Arkansas, the son of Ernest Preston and Mary Mahala Schumate Dunn. He had one brother, Forrest L. known as Big Buck, and three sisters: Opal, Anna Lou and Mary Ernestine. Little
Buck attended school at Levesque and Wynne and was employed at Fisher's Service Station before entering the service.
He volunteered for the Army 26 June 1940 and was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for basic training as a member of the 4th Field Artillery Battalion. This was a "pack mule" outfit that trained in all kinds of terrain, mountains, desert, etc. His next assignment was
at Fort Sill, Oklahoma where he trained "rookies" for one and one-half years.
Dunn spent two years in Central Europe and the Rhineland Battle Areas with General Pat ton' s Army. The heroic efforts of the men who served in these battles are summarized in General Orders No.20 written by W. G. Wyman, Major General, USA, Commanding, Headquarters 71st Infantry Division, APO 36, U.S. Army dated 9 May 1945:
"To All Members of the 71st Inf. Division and Attached Units -The war with Germany is ended. Before we turn to a new mission, I wish to express my heartfelt congratulations to the members of this Division for the splendid accomplishment of the many tasks that have been given it.
From the day you left your concentration area in Le Harve, in a period of 92 days, you have marched, fighting a large part of the way, a distance of 1,060 miles. You have captured over 80,000 prisoners of war, the bulk of them being captured the hard way.....You were cast through the Siegfried Line to capture Pirmasens, which you did without faltering. Your advance continued to the Rhine where the record of your valor was written in the blood of brave comrades at Speyer and Germersheim.
A sudden change in directive transferred the Division from the Seventh to the fast moving Third Army where you were thrown across the Rhine to cover the rear of the XII Corps. East of Hanou you were confronted with hard fighting elements of the 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord", which you destroyed........ On through Fulda and Meiningen constantly opposed by small fighting groups of the enemy which you did not permit to delay you, seizing Coburg and Bayreuth in your path.
A transfer to the XX Corps gave us new missions when we swept southeast to Velden, Sulzbach and Amberg. You crossed the Reagen river at Regenstauf, the Danube at Regensburg, the lzar at Landau, the Inn on dams east of Braunau which were secured only after vicious fighting and major labors of our Engineers. We stopped only on our objective, the River Enns, at Steyr, but with patrols thrusting deeply into enemy territory at Waidhofen and Amstetten, the eastern-most point reached by American Ground Forces of any U.S. Army in the European Theater.
You have refused to let fatigue, the physical obstacles of mountains and rivers, stop you. The enemy has only delayed you momentarily. You have written a glorious page in the military history of our beloved Country. You are veterans, proven in battle I salute you."
Dunn often said, "Anyone who served under Patton had to move and move fast."
After five years, four months of active duty, Dunn was discharged from the Army on 31 October 1945 at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He received two Bronze Service Stars and the Good Conduct Medal. Dunn's love of military life continued after his discharge when he signed up immediately for the Enlisted Reserves.
He returned to Wynne and married Mildred L. Jessen of Mountain View, Arkansas 14 August 1946 and they had two children: Ernest Preston and Peggy .Dunn went back to school under the G.I. Bill and was employed by the Murray Chevrolet Company as Assistant Service Manager, working with Service Manager, C.B. Jarvis. After 17 years, at Murray's, he worked nine years for the Arkansas Highway Department.
Dunn was instrumental in getting a National Guard Unit in Wynne. The Unit was organized 29 January 1947 as a Service Battery of the 445th Field Artillery Battalion. A total of 13 men initially enrolled including 1st Lieutenants Howard H. Ca11ahan and Floyd A. Hunter, First Sergeant Dunn, Staff Sergeant Warren L. Chowning and Privates Curtis G. Belford, Gene M. Chowning, Ralph E. Doss, George M. Dunn, Erskine B. Faulkner, William D. Gordon, John z. Hibbetts, David L. South and Wendell Wa11in. Dunn kept his rank of First Sergeant until his retirement 18 June 1968 with 28 years of continuous military service. His wife, Mildred, has a scrapbook of memoirs of these years.
The Wynne Unit was federalized in September 1955 and sent to Little Rock to serve in the Central High School integration.
Dunn died 13 June 1992 and was buried at Cogbill Cemetery in Wynne.
Contributed on 9/26/08 by rtsgrad
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Record #: 66421