Mon, Nov 23 2009
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Published June 28, 2009 11:18 pm - At Random: John Avery By Johnna Pinholster For many veterans of World War II, time spent in service is a harsh memory better left to the past. Others share stories of their time in Europe with tears catching in the wrinkles surrounding their eyes, with gnarled fingers clinched tight. John Avery, 87, of Lanier County is almost wistful when speaking of the time spent as a member of the United States Army’s 104th Infantry Division. The pain of losing fellow soldiers still strains his face as he recalls his time in places like Belgium, Holland and Germany, but he is open with sharing his experiences. “I wasn’t scared a bit in the world while I was over there,” Avery said. He was still in high school when he was drafted into the military in 1942. As a private first class, Avery had a lifetime of experiences, including several brushes with death, throughout his relatively short military career. Avery was one of 34,000 soldiers who wore the Timberwolf insignia, the designation for the 104th, a division that is memorialized in a book called “Timberwolf Tracks.” Avery is immortalized on the pages, in a picture of troops walking through the rubble of Cologne, Germany. His apparent leadership of the soldiers, along with other instances during the war, could seem happenstance, unconnected coincidences. But Avery said it was the intervention of a higher power that guided and saved him quite a few times. “The Lord saved my life,” Avery said. The first time was during training in Colorado. Rattling down a road in a military jeep, rolling across the hilly landscape, the road become bumpy and the jeep started jumping, Avery said. The jeep flipped and Avery said he should have broken his neck but only received three stitches in his chin. With the exception of a broken arm of another passenger, everyone came out virtually unscathed, he said. They had been traveling to a site to work with grenades. “We were learning how to throw grenades,” Avery said. “We had to count to three and then throw them over the cliff.” 
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