THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406030266
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: Medium
His memories are vivid, but the Chesapeake resident will not attend any of the 50th anniversary ceremonies honoring D-Day, the amphibious assault that paved the way for the Allies' liberation of Nazi-held Europe. And he won't fly to Normandy to relive the time he and his platoon buddies of the 941st Field Artillery Battalion attached to V Corps of the 1st Army stormed Omaha Beach on that rainy June day 50 years ago.
{REST} Though he sees the significance of the official official events and memorials for others, for him, they aren't necessary. His personal memories of the event are enough.
``Every June 6 I remember the day and feel as though it's my birthday,'' Yeatts said, looking at a 1944 photo of platoon mates assembled near that memorable apple tree.
The photo shows the smiling faces of young soldiers trained to fire special field guns that could ``knock the hell out of a tank at 100 yards or drop a shell on one six miles away.''
Yeatts doesn't remember the first names of the men, but their surnames are etched in his mind: There's Calderone and Pelechio from Pennsylvania; Michael, Day and Saunders from New Hampshire; Strawa and James from Illinois; Studstill from Georgia; Caldwell from Tennessee; and Frankein from New York.
The 941st not only saw action at D-Day but also in Northern France, the Ardennes in Belgium, at the bloody winter Battle of the Bulge, in the Rhineland and in Central Europe. In fact, Yeatts and his platoon were some of the first GIs to witness the horrors of Nazi Germany's brutality when it stumbled upon the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.
After one of Yeatt's grandsons, Clay Yeatts, kept asking him, ``Papa, could you tell me a war story?'' Yeatts began to write them down, not only for Clay but for all of his grandchildren. ``I wrote them down out of love for them,'' he said.
The narratives grew and grew until Yeatts found he had enough material for a book, which he hopes to publish.
Yeatts was drafted into the Army in 1943 after finishing high school in Danville, leaving behind a young wife and a 9-month-old son. After the war, he returned home and went through a two-year auto parts specialist apprenticeship, paid for by Ford Motor Co. and the Veterans' Administration.
His first wife died a year after he returned, and he later remarried, eventually raising three sons and two daughters.
He moved to Patnor Drive in the Olive Branch section of Portsmouth and lived there for 27 years before moving to Chesapeake.
Along with a successful career as auto parts manager at several Portsmouth dealerships, he has been active in his community. He was president of the Olive Branch Pony League from 1966 to 1968, secretary of the Olive Branch Football Association and president of the Tidewater Spare Parts and Service Managers Association from 1971 to 1972.
For all his accomplishments and experiences, Yeatts is most proud of his family.
``I think I did a damn good job raising my family,'' he said.
But every June 6, his mind goes to Omaha Beach. ``I always think about where I was on that day,'' he said. ``You don't ever forget it.''
by CNB