Published: October 25, 2008 01:12 pm      

Honored vet

Grand Marshal: Service is a way of life for Bob Sappington

San Marcos — Bob J. Sappington and his wife Sunny have had a couple of pretty good weeks in a row. First, the Sappingtons were recognized by the San Marcos Heritage Association as San Marcos' Community Volunteers of the Year at the organization's annual awards dinner Oct. 16. Then Bob was notified that he had been one of three local veterans chosen from eight nominees to serve as grand marshals of San Marcos' Veterans Day Parade Saturday, Nov. 8.

A native of Oklahoma, Sappington was raised by an aunt and uncle after his father died when he was five years old. World War II was raging, so he volunteered for the U.S. Army right after graduating from Oklahoma's Ponca City High School in 1943. His induction was at Fort Sill, Okla. From there, he went to Fort McClellan, Ala. for basic infantry training. Then he spent several months in the Army Specialized Training Program at Texas A&M, but the program was suddenly discontinued because the men were needed overseas.

The men enrolled in the specialized training program were all bright young men like Sappington with a tremendous potential for officer training and college. But they were needed to relieve the tired “dog faces” who had been battling too long.

Sappington was sent to the 409th Regiment of the 103rd Infantry Division at Camp Howze in Gainesville in 1944. It was known as the “Cactus” division because of the design of the patches members wore on their uniforms. The division was deployed from New York City on a troop ship headed for Marseilles, France.

Immediately upon their arrival, they were sent to the mountains north of Marseilles to relieve the 36th Division, which happened to be a Texas National Guard unit. From there on, Sappington was in the front line most of the time.

Time was spent, he says, “marching and being shot at and praying to stay alive.” They lived on K-rations, slept on – or under – the ground, with little contact with their home or families.

Sappington served in southern France, southern Germany and Austria for more than a year and was awarded the coveted Combat Infantryman's badge and the European Theatre Campaign badge with two battle stars.

He remembers the cold - his first glimpse of the Alps, his first view of skiers, chiseling through the frozen ground to make a fox hole – and he recalls his amazement that the Rock of Gibraltar looked just like the photos he had seen in magazines.

The loss was high for these infantrymen. There were 42 men who went overseas with the unit but only two came home together. The other 40 had been killed or wounded. About half the company was lost to German snipers, Sappington says.

When the war ended, those remaining in the division were sent to Innsbruck, Austria and on to Munich and Le Havre, France. The plan had been, he said, to return to the United States and then go to the South Pacific. But fortune smiled on Bob Sappington because Japan had been defeated and the war was over. He returned to the states and completed his service at a German POW camp in El Reno, Okla.

After his discharge from the Army, Sappington obtained a degree in business from Oklahoma State University and began a fruitful career in human relations in the oil industry, first with Continental Oil Company and then for Shell Oil. With Shell, he lived and worked in Tulsa, spent three years in New York City and then Houston, before spending two years in Saudi Arabia.

The Sappingtons enjoyed their time in Saudi Arabia because it gave them an opportunity to travel. When he retired from Shell in 1988, they moved to San Marcos which they had carefully chosen because of the hills, the location and the university.

Once they arrived here, they lost little time before becoming involved with the community. Bob was the first president of Texas State's Friends of Fine Arts and Communication and led that organization's travel program for 14 years. He remains on the Friends of Fine Arts and Communication Board. He was the very first volunteer at the San Marcos Tourist information Center, where he has served for more than 20 years. He is a past president and continues to serve on the board of the Friends of the San Marcos Cemetery and is a past present and active member of the Heritage Association of San Marcos.

Sappington was nominated for Veterans Day Parade grand marshal honors by Harry and Ellie Stewart.

They wrote in their nomination letter, “We feel that Bob would well represent our World War II veterans who gave so much to keep our country free.” The letter also noted, “He would be an excellent representative of the 'dog faces' and 'grunts' who served so faithfully in World War II.”

Obviously, the selection committee agreed because Sappington, along with fellow grand marshals Elston Golson and Charley Williams, will be leading San Marcos' Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 8.