Pvt. Pinegar, 19, Suffers Wound
Pvt. Richard L. Pinegar, 19, was wounded in action Dec. 18, in Germany, the War Department has notified his wife, Eunice.
Private Pinegar attended East High school and was employed by Capitol City Woolen Mills Inc., before entering the army in April, 1944. He was sent overseas with an infantry unit in October. Private Pinegar’s wife is living with his mother, Mrs. Myrtle Pinegar at 916 S. E. Twenty-eighth st.
Source: Des Moines Tribune, Tuesday, January 2, 1945
Out of Army, He’s Back in High School
Three years ago Richard L. Pinegar, at 16, quit his senior year studies at East High school to take a job in the grain laboratories of the Board of Trade here. He figured he had had about all the education he needed.
Several weeks ago he enrolled again at East High and was given credit for the first half of his senior year. He will be graduated in January. Even then, he figures now, his education will be just starting.
In the three intervening years, he has had some experiences which changed his mind about how much education a man needs. Many of those experiences were gained as an infantryman with the 309th regiment, 78th division, of the United States 1st army in Germany.
GRADES.
“Things are a little different now,” Pinegar said Wednesday, thumbing through a volume on physics. “When I was in school before, I wasn’t trying for anything but passing grades. NOW the grades don’t matter so much; it’s the education I want.
“I want to finish my high school this semester, so I can enter Drake for the second half and start toward a law course. The main handicap I feel is that my English has slipped a lot. Sitting around a barracks, the boys don’t exactly use the best English. I’ll have to polish up on that.
“The kids in school now seem a lot younger, even smaller, than when I was here before. I don’t have much chance to mix into any of the kid stuff though, because I’m working nights, and studying after I get home from work. It doesn’t leave much time even for sleeping, but I like it here and think I’ll get along all right.”
PLANT.
Pinegar, son of Mrs. Myrtle Pinegar, 916 S. E. Twenty-eighty st., has a sister, Wanda, 15, a freshman at East High. He is employed on a laboring job at the Spencer Kellogg plant, E. Thirtieth st., and Granger ave., from 3 to 11 p.m. and makes an average of $30 a week.
“I’m not having much trouble getting down to study, because I started on the books while was in the hospital at Camp Carson (Colorado). I just got my medical discharge from there Sept. 1,” Pinegar said.
Entering army service in March 1944, Pinegar took basic training at Camp Hood, Tex., and then was transferred to Camp Pickett, Va., and assigned to the 78th division.
AACHEN.
“We went overseas to Southampton, England, last October and were shifted over to France. We went up through France and Belgium into Germany, and I got my first taste of war just below Aachen,” said Pinegar.
“It was winter and cold, with plenty of snow, but it seemed pretty ‘hot’ to me. I was pretty shaky, and it was rugged.”
It was near the Rhine on Dec. 17, 1944, that a shell burst caught Pinegar. Shell fragments put flesh wounds in one arm and one leg, but his worst injury was concussion.
HOME.
“They took me back to England and I was hospitalized until February. Then they sent me to the 398th engineers in France, but a recurrence of the concussion put me back in the hospital from Mar. 17 to June 9. After that I was at Camp Carson.
“With a medical discharge, I can get rehabilitation schooling which will pay me $92 a month for four years. Under the G.I. rules, I’d only get $85 a month for three years. Naturally, I’ve applied for the four-year deal,” Pinegar said.
He is studying American history; problems, sciences, and business correspondence.
Source: Des Moines Tribune, Wednesday September 26, 1945 (photo included)
