Bronze Star recipient rode first Allied tank ashore at Normandy

Ralph Painter talks about his tank pulling up on the beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day during an interview Monday, October 15, 2018 at his home in East Brainerd, Tennessee. Painter claims to have been on one of the first tanks to land at Utah Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day.
Ralph Painter talks about his tank pulling up on the beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day during an interview Monday, October 15, 2018 at his home in East Brainerd, Tennessee. Painter claims to have been on one of the first tanks to land at Utah Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day.

BIO

Name: Ralph PainterAge: 96 (turns 97 on Nov. 13)Branch of military: U.S. ArmyYears of service: February 1941-September 1945

Ralph Painter talks easily about 1944 and the hell that was WWII. He eagerly talks about the men, their love of country and their courage under fire. Like many veterans, Painter grows more somber when the specifics of soldiers dying comes up. Somewhere between sitting on the back of the first tank to land at Utah Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day in June and the Battle of the Bulge in December, Painter stops as if reflecting on a specific moment from 74 years ago.

"You really need to come see the old Jeep I just finished rebuilding," Painter said, who turns 97 Tuesday. "It's not near as tough as working on tanks."

And so it goes with the Bronze Star for Valor recipient as he moves hands-free toward the garage in his home in East Brainerd. The Battle of the Bulge, called by many the greatest battle in American military history, will have to wait as Painter looks under the hood on the Jeep. Showing off his latest project is more important today than the fact that he suffered debilitating and disabling frostbite in his feet in December 1944 that left him with only 20 percent circulation in his legs for 70 years.

"I worked for TVA on those feet for a lot of years," Painter said. "But the thing is that I found a doctor in Dunlap after I was 90, and the miracle he did now has me at 45-50 percent circulation. Sure made it easier to work on the Jeep."

In the age of brevity, history books could tell the story of the American solider in WWII with one page on Staff Sgt. Ralph Painter of Battery B in the 87th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. In the span of 12 months in 1944, the 23-year-old Painter:

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' Was present when 1,000 soldiers were killed by the Germans and mistaken friendly fire from Britain as they were training for the Normandy invasion. It was called Operation Tiger, and the devastating loss of lives was withheld from Americans by the military for more than four decades.

"We didn't know anything about the invasion," Painter said. "I didn't know what had happened or why. It was confusing, but I just did the only thing I knew to do and just went back to work on our tanks."

* Was in the back of the first tank that went ashore at Utah Beach in Normandy, France, as the America entered the greatest war in U.S. history.

"We hit a land mine hole and the dang thing filled up with water," Painter said. "But it kept running. We manage to get to the beach and I managed to get around open the engine door and let all the water out. I got seasick all the time, but I didn't that day on the landing craft tank. I was too dang scared. It was bad."

* Survived the Battle of the Bulge, the deadliest single battle in U.S. history, where the Allied forces rebuffed the final offensive by Adolf Hitler and the Germans. The famous battle in the Ardennes, a forest-filled region in southeast Belgium, was fought for weeks in zero-degree temperatures on snow-covered ground. Records show days of minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit and gloves were in short supply.

"People froze, friends froze to death," said Painter, who spent 395 days in combat and 393 nights sleeping on the ground. "We just had to finish the Germans. I just had to think about nothing but keeping the tanks running. I just don't know how you explain what it was really like to kids now, I just don't know."

Painter moved to Polk County when he was 3, and he started working for TVA at the Appalachia Dam project the day after Pearl Harbor in 1941. He made 50 cents an hour. After a few months, Painter was promoted and made 85 cents an hour.

"I had the best job in TVA," he says.

Seven years after leaving the military, Painter entered a training program at TVA, became a shift engineer and eventually a duty specialist in Chattanooga. He helped bring online TVA coal-fired plants all over the South before retiring from TVA in 1986. Whether it was power plants, military tanks and artillery or the Jeep in the garage, Painter's specialty is keeping things running.

Today, Painter is one of approximately 550,000 veterans of WWII still alive out of 16 million who served.

While no exact calculation exists, the Department of Veteran Affairs believes the number of WWII veterans over the age of 95 is a fraction of the total. Painter is an ever-rarer repository of a significant historical event that grows dimmer with every new smartphone release.

"I had no idea what I was in store for when I was drafted," said Painter, "but I do know the Lord has blessed me every day of my life."

Contact Davis Lundy at news@timesfreepress.com.

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