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Independence, MO —
Kenneth Holsworth served with the Army from 1954 to 1964.
DRAFTED
At age 22, while working as a printer with the Pictorial Shopper in Independence, Ken received his draft notice. He left his wife behind and went to Fort Bragg, N.C., for specialized schooling on a rocket that would travel 20 miles. After that training he was assigned to the 6th Field Artillery Battery to prepare to be sent overseas. He went to Germany on a troop ship, spending the next four years there. He remembers that trip very well; the men were sick and the bunks were stacked high. It was not fun. His group became part of the German Occupation Army and was the first atomic missile outfit in Germany. They made a firing mission for the rockets with the coordinates of the enemy, air pressure, and earth rotation and had both regular war heads and atomic war heads.
GERMANY
His first steps off the ship showed him very little change in Germany since the bombings of WWII. The buildings were still destroyed with the fronts blown away and people still living in them. The water system was no good and unless given good water to use, they drank nothing but beer. Ken remembers even the children drinking the beer due to lack of good drinking water. He tells a funny story of the beer hall being behind his barracks and after a good rain he walked back in the mud in his highly polished boots. The next morning it took him two hours to clean those boots, which told him not to drink so much in the future.
A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE
On one visit to a German friend’s apartment for dinner, his friend’s mother made a statement that has stayed with Ken to this day. She said that the people followed Hitler only because he fed them and gave them a place to live, even though they worked hard for it. She was neither pro or con for Hitler, but just a woman with a family trying to survive. On one occasion Ken spotted a field full of sweet potatoes and asked why no one was picking them to eat. He was told there was “too much honey wagon,” and the potatoes were poisonous, so they were taken out and burned.
BACK HOME
Ken’s wife would not leave her brothers in Independence to live in Germany, and he says a married man with a wife could rent an apartment for only $15 back then. He could not persuade her to come to Germany so she stayed home.
Once able to leave the Army, he found it a difficult transition to civilian life. It was an adjustment, leaving a secure environment with his buddies and coming back home to work in the printing business. However, he did adjust and worked several positions, one, including at the Herald House on Noland Road, retiring in 1976 as a production manager. He and his wife had five children and today he loves playing pool at Side Pockets in Blue Springs.
Ken says he enjoyed his time in the military due to the fact that he never went to Korea while many soldiers he knew did.
Kenneth Holsworth served with the Army from 1954 to 1964.
DRAFTED
At age 22, while working as a printer with the Pictorial Shopper in Independence, Ken received his draft notice. He left his wife behind and went to Fort Bragg, N.C., for specialized schooling on a rocket that would travel 20 miles. After that training he was assigned to the 6th Field Artillery Battery to prepare to be sent overseas. He went to Germany on a troop ship, spending the next four years there. He remembers that trip very well; the men were sick and the bunks were stacked high. It was not fun. His group became part of the German Occupation Army and was the first atomic missile outfit in Germany. They made a firing mission for the rockets with the coordinates of the enemy, air pressure, and earth rotation and had both regular war heads and atomic war heads.
GERMANY
His first steps off the ship showed him very little change in Germany since the bombings of WWII. The buildings were still destroyed with the fronts blown away and people still living in them. The water system was no good and unless given good water to use, they drank nothing but beer. Ken remembers even the children drinking the beer due to lack of good drinking water. He tells a funny story of the beer hall being behind his barracks and after a good rain he walked back in the mud in his highly polished boots. The next morning it took him two hours to clean those boots, which told him not to drink so much in the future.
A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE
On one visit to a German friend’s apartment for dinner, his friend’s mother made a statement that has stayed with Ken to this day. She said that the people followed Hitler only because he fed them and gave them a place to live, even though they worked hard for it. She was neither pro or con for Hitler, but just a woman with a family trying to survive. On one occasion Ken spotted a field full of sweet potatoes and asked why no one was picking them to eat. He was told there was “too much honey wagon,” and the potatoes were poisonous, so they were taken out and burned.
BACK HOME
Ken’s wife would not leave her brothers in Independence to live in Germany, and he says a married man with a wife could rent an apartment for only $15 back then. He could not persuade her to come to Germany so she stayed home.
Once able to leave the Army, he found it a difficult transition to civilian life. It was an adjustment, leaving a secure environment with his buddies and coming back home to work in the printing business. However, he did adjust and worked several positions, one, including at the Herald House on Noland Road, retiring in 1976 as a production manager. He and his wife had five children and today he loves playing pool at Side Pockets in Blue Springs.
Ken says he enjoyed his time in the military due to the fact that he never went to Korea while many soldiers he knew did.
