Submitted photo Recovering from an injury during a battle in World War II, Howard “Howdy” Friend was visited by two Youngstown buddies, Eddie Oakar and Bob Joyce, pictured. Friend was in the hospital for a year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This series is published every Monday between Memorial Day and Veterans Day honoring local veterans.

POLAND — Howard “Howdy” Friend was traveling down a road in with fellow World War II soldiers in Luxembourg, in the area of Bastogne, when he felt a sensation in his knee.

He had been hit by shrapnel on his way to the 191st Airborne.

“My sergeant dragged me to a ditch and said, ‘We can’t stay with you,'” Friend, then 19, recalled.

Losing track of time and floating around consciousness, Friend still isn’t sure how long it was before a medic arrived.

He survived, perhaps because luck was on his side.

The medic applied a tourniquet and gave Friend morphine, once again telling the young soldier he would have to brave the ditch alone, teetering between lucidity and unconsciousness.

Finally, sometime later, an Army jeep came and took him to company headquarters, taking anything from him that other soldiers could use.

“They cut my clothes off and tossed my dog tags and wallet on my stretcher and left me there” in a white hospital tent, still dancing in and out of consciousness.

Friend spent about 18 months in the hospital, with 12 months confined to a bed.

This is one memory among many that the 94-year-old can recount about his time with the 90th Division of the Third Army during World War II.

Friend graduated on June 6, 1944, from Woodrow Wilson High School in Youngstown — also known as D-Day. He was drafted at 18 years old, leaving for boot camp at Camp Blanding in Florida eight days after graduation, training as an infantry machine gunner.

As timing — or luck, perhaps — would have it, Friend served under Gen. George S. Patton in the Battle of the Bulge, which is how he got wounded.

He was honorably discharged on May 26, 1946, receiving a Purple Heart and later a Bronze Star.

Once he returned to Youngstown, Friend attended Camp Fitch YMCA in North Springfield, Pa., for rehabilitation on his knee. It was there that he “met a little girl with a big heart,” Ellen Gertrude “Gert” Williams, who would later become his wife.

Married for 63 years, Friend and his gal had three children, Howard, David and Judith; nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Friend attended Mount Union College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education and later a master’s degree from Westminster College, also in education. Friend was appointed as the first superintendent of what is previously known as the Mahoning County Joint Vocational School in Canfield.

In 1981, he retired from the educational field after 34 years, during which time he was also a high school teacher and principal.

The following year, Friend began working at Home Savings and Loan, working in the student loan department, retiring from his second career in 1990.

His resume includes chairman of celebrations throughout Poland and Youngstown. Friend was even inducted into halls of fame for his baseball athleticism and coaching.

“I always figured I was so lucky. I did have a second chance. I was able to come back home after being wounded,” Friend said.

In 2017, Friend went back overseas with friends, retracing his steps through the war.

The first stop of the trip was Luxembourg, where the troupe visited Patton’s resting place.

“I felt it was a real honor to serve under him and acknowledge his achievements, even after 70 years,” Friend stated about the four-star general.

During the “trip of a lifetime,” Friend even found the ditch he laid in 73 years prior.

“It was something else, really,” he recalled. “It was unbelievable.”

afox@tribtoday.com