St. George WWII veteran turns 100
Feb 14, 2022, 4:05 PM
(St. George)
ST. GEORGE, Utah—Today is a special day for Spencer Truman. The WWII veteran turns 100 years old today according to a facebook post by the city.
The post said that Truman may be the last surviving WWII veteran in St. George who entered military service from St. George pre-Pearl Harbor.
Truman served in the 876th Airborne Aviation Battalion, trained to enter combat in gliders. According to the post, “Scheduled to come in on a glider with the invasion force in both Operation Overlord (D-Day) and Operation Market Garden (Netherlands), Truman and his unit were fortunate to have that part canceled and instead arrive on a boat (Normandy) and truck (Netherlands) instead.”
“We ended up just behind the front lines, and did that all the way across France into Belgium, making new air strips and rebuilding the existing air fields,” Truman wrote in 2012.
He also served in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest facing freezing weather and terrible conditions.
“We didn’t worry as much about the Germans, as we did about freezing — and starving,” he wrote. “There was over a foot of snow and the temperature was around zero. All we had was summer clothing and very little food. I don’t know how, but we survived.”