Ed Ball in the Army
We have thousands of letters in the Minnetrista Heritage Collection. Some are momentous, with news of births, marriages, deaths, or important business deals. Others are the stuff of everyday life—requests for money from students away at school, reports on the day’s mundane activities, or a little bit of gossip. One of my favorites hovers somewhere in between. It’s a letter from Edmund F. Ball to his uncles Frank and George, written in September 1942, while he served overseas in the U.S. Army.
While a student at Yale, Ed noted in his book Staff Officer With the Fifth Army, “. . . it was fashionable to do what your friends did, whether it was to drive a Model T Ford, drink bootleg whiskey, or learn to fly an airplane,” thus, Ed joined the Infantry Reserve along with some of his friends. After receiving training and a commission as Second Lieutenant, Ed thought that his military career had ended. Not so. In June 1941, he received special order #146 ordering him to report to active duty with the Army Air Corps. At age 36, Ed Ball was in the Army.
Edmund F. Ball’s U.S. Army footlocker
Ed said good-bye to his wife Isabel and young son, Frank, and headed to Fort Harrison, near Indianapolis. He thought his Army service would be temporary. It wasn’t. The adventure included twenty-two months overseas, and didn’t officially end until the conclusion of his terminal leave on April 17, 1945.
In the casual, newsy letter to his uncles, Ed described his Atlantic crossing as crowded and mildly exciting. He was “. . . glad to be a Captain . . . and not a private, because the troops were really jammed in. . . Officers had considerable freedom, and if we hadn’t have been six in a stateroom built for two, had hot water instead of cold salt water to shave in, and steam heat in the cabins instead of having to go to bed to get warm, it would have been a rather pleasant trip.” The excitement came when radio detectors picked up the approach of an aircraft. Luckily, it was a British flying boat come to check on the convoy. “Needless to say, we were much relieved to see the bull’s eye insignia on that plane instead of the swastika which might have been there.”
Edmund F. Ball’s World War II U.S. Army Aide to Lieutenant General pin
Even though he couldn’t give his exact location in England to his uncles, Ed managed to drop a number of hints about the headquarters where he was an Assistant Air Officer. He noted that “We went ashore on a lighter which had been in the Dunkirque affair, and the sailors seemed to delight in telling us their experiences and pointing out the scars of battle still showing on the boat.” After that, a twenty-four hour train ride took Ed to headquarters located in “. . . an old castle which dates back in the 1500’s somewhere.” His quarters were in one of the attending houses of the castle. He noted that “We have bathing facilities with hot water, and if my roommates didn’t snore quite so loudly it wouldn’t be bad at all.”
Ed, of course, couldn’t write a letter to George and Frank without mentioning the factory. He said that the weekly reports that he received “. . . have been most interesting and help to remind me that there are other things and troubles outside of war.”
Eventually Ed became a staff officer to General Mark Clark, and served in both North Africa and Italy. He attended a review of a native Spahi regiment in Marrakech, observed a demonstration of firearms for Brazilian Army representatives, and participated in the Sicilian Campaign. When he finally returned to Muncie, Ed rejoined Ball Brothers Company, where he was sorely needed to help retool and rebuild after the War.
