Veteran Spotlight
by Richard D. L. Fulton
Cpl. Kenneth H. McGrew
Saved by a Harmonica
Kenneth McGrew (pictured right) of Woodsboro was born on October 12, 1924, in Fairpoint, Ohio, to parents Pinkney Ellis and Etta Mae Hepner McGrew. He died at age 85 on October 20, 2009, at the Glade Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Walkersville.
McGrew had one brother, Harry Ellis, and one sister, Dorothy McGrew Jack.
McGrew was a student at the Adena High School, Ohio, and was 18 when he registered for the draft on December 18, 1942.
Following his induction into the Army, he was assigned in April 1943 to Company E, of the 101st Regiment, 26th Infantry Division of the Third Army Corps, which was under the high command of General George S. Patton, according to veteransofthebattleofthebulge.org, which further stated that McGrew was trained as an Army cook.
McGrew’s unit was deployed to the European Front in October 1944. Upon his having been deployed to the European Front, the May 1989 issue of The Bulge Bugle (veteransofthebattleofthebulge.org) had noted in an article, entitled “From Cook to Squad Leader,” that his unit had come to the realization that “they need infantrymen squad leaders more than they needed cooks… ” He had also, by that timeframe, achieved the rank of corporal.
Also in 1944, McGrew married his wife, Vivian, in Washington, D.C., on July 8. His wife had been employed there at that time as a secretary at the Army Map Service. He and his wife eventually had two daughters, Kathleen and Sharon Lee.
By December 1945, McGrew had been appointed as a squad leader and found himself and his squad acting on (unspecified) orders (possibly reconnaissance), apparently inside German-occupied Luxembourg, which resulted in the Germans having then managed to capture his squad.
In the May 1989 issue of The Bulge Bugle, it was stated that his squad had been captured on December 31, 1944, but that he and three other members of his squad had escaped from the Germans the following day and had reported back to their unit.
But a few days later, possibly on another reconnaissance mission conducted within German-held Luxembourg, he was seriously wounded when the enemy opened fire on his position.
According to an article published in The (Washington, D.C.) Sunday Star, McGrew “was wounded on January 3 in Luxembourg.” The newspaper further reported that, as a result of his injuries, he was then being treated at a hospital in England for two broken legs and a chest wound.
His wife, Vivian, had reportedly told the newspaper that her husband had written to her and had stated that “the harmonica he carried in his shirt pocket saved his life,” and that, “A bullet pierced the small instrument, and it lodged in his chest,” adding, “If it hadn’t been there, I’d have been killed.”
The “bullet” may actually have been a fragment of shrapnel from an artillery round, based on his hospital diagnoses, which had been noted in the U.S. World War II Hospital Admission Card Files: “Diagnosis: Fracture, compound, comminuted with nerve involvement only; Location: Femur, Shaft; Location: Abdomen, abdominal wall and pelvis: Abdominal thoracic region; Causative-Agent: Artillery Shell Fragments…”
In April 1945, McGrew was shipped back to the States, along with 210 other “sick and wounded” soldiers from various parts of the European Theater. They were all admitted to Haddon Hall of the Thomas M. England General Hospital in Atlantic City, according to the April 16, 1945, edition of the Press of Atlantic City.
McGrew was discharged from the Army in February 1946. He was a recipient of the Purple Heart, the EAME TO Ribbon with Silver and Bronze Battle Stars, and a Presidential Citation.
Following his military discharge, Mr. McGrew and his wife owned and operated several grocery stores in Rockville and Travilah, Maryland, and in Annandale, Virginia, according to his obituary.
He had also received his real estate license in 1954 and his broker’s license in 1956, selling real estate and insurance for over 30 years in Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Frederick, Maryland.
