Memorial service today for Robert Lee Vannatter Jr., 91, WWII paratrooper

Airborne!

Mike

It was my great privilege to work with “Van” in the 1980’s. We were in the same group and his desk was just around the corner from mine. He was a fine, fine engineer with tremendous, unshakable integrity. He would regularly embarrass us “young guys” by dropping down and doing a set of 20 one-handed pushups! Amazing! Van did not often speak of himself or his family, or the war. However, he did tell us one day how his unit had parachuted into France (I’m assuming on D-Day). Van was what Jerry Seinfeld would have called “a slow talker.” Van said that after he (as jumpmaster) got all of his guys out of the airplane, he paused to wish the pilots luck getting home. But that conversation took long enough that when Van jumped he was no longer over the drop zone. Instead, he came down in German-held territory. And worse yet, his ‘chute hung up on some tree branches, leaving Van hanging high off the ground. He was worried that if a German solder saw him he was an easy target. And sure enough, along came a German soldier….and just at that point the branch broke and Van dropped toward the ground….only to have the chute hang up again leaving him dangling 3 feet in the air. As the German was turning toward him, Van got his rifle aimed (holding his hand over the empty magazine well so the German wouldn’t realize it was unloaded. Paratroopers never jumped with loaded firearms.) Still hanging from the tree, Van took the German prisoner and made him disarm himself. Then Van calmly loaded his rifle. The German shook his head and smiled a rueful smile. But then the release button on Van’s parachute harness became jammed and he could not get down. Eventually, with much sign language, Van had the German use his bayonet to cut him free, all the time keeping his rifle on him as best he could. Because the Americans had been told to destroy enemy weapons, Van picked up the German’s rifle and prepared to smash the buttstock against a tree. But the German stopped him, took the rifle, and removed the cartridge from the chamber, then handed it back to Van. With the rifle loaded and cocked, given the way Van was holding it, it probably would have fired and shot him when he smashed it. Van figured this German was actually a pretty decent guy.

Van began to march his prisoner back toward the American position, but the German kept stopping every dozen yards and looking back to Van for direction. Van found this frustrating and slow and eventually told the German “just follow me” and took off at a brisk clip. Every so often he looked back over his shoulder and every time the German was right behind him. When he reached his unit, one of the guys almost shot the “Jerry” he mistakenly thought was chasing Van, but Van called out “don’t shoot him, he’s MY German.” Van figured the fellow must have realized the war effort was doomed and that it was better to be a live POW than a dead warrior. We asked Van whatever happened to this German fellow and he told us that he left him in the custody of a US Army Captain who was lying in a shell hole with a broken ankle but that later in the day he’d seen the guy helping US troops load artillery ammunition.

If anyone should read this, I hope you enjoyed it and that it shed a little light on the sort of fellow Van was. For my own part, I’m sorry I fell out of touch with him decades ago but the company went through big changes and we were all scattered to the winds. Van, you richly deserved every award you received and a lot more you didn’t receive.