World War II Honoree

Ivan Homer Wallace, Jr.

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Gainesville, Florida

Honored By

William David Wilson, American Legion Post 68

He entered the U.S. ARMY at Camp Blanding, Florida on 11 September 1943. He was sent to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma to join the Medical Detachment, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd (Rainbow) Infantry Division and had basic and advanced training with this unit. He was shipped to Europe and landed at Marseilles, France on 9 December 1944 and was assigned to the 2nd Platoon, Company B of the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division as a company aid man. He was sent to staging area to await transportation to the combat area. The Battle of the Bulge began and he was sent to the front. On Christmas Day 1944, he was sent to the Maginot Line in the Alsace area of France. On 31 January 1945, he was on the banks of the Rhine River east of Strasbourg across from the Germany Army. The German Army launched Operation Nordwind to retake Strasbourg and the Alsace area of France. The Battle lasted twenty five days in freezing snow and cold. After the battle, his unit broke through the Siegfried line, capturing Wurzburg, Furth, Dachau, and Munich. On 29 April 1945, he and his unit helped liberate the prison camp at Dachau. At the end of the war, his unit was approaching the Austrian border. He spent four months in Vienna on occupation duty before being sent home for discharge. While in service, he earned the Combat Medical Badge along with Expert Rating in the 30 cal. Rifle. He participated in the Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, and Central Europe Campaigns in the Europe Theater of Operations. He received the American Theater Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Medal with three Bronze Stars, WWII Victory Medal, Occupation Germany Medal, and the Bronze Star Medal (Valor) and Oak Leaf Cluster. In January 1946, he was returned to the United States and discharged on 26 March 1946.