SEPTEMBER 2019
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HERMAN GRANADOS POST 739
Doc McCandless Celebrates his 100th Birthday!
When you first meet Dean McCandless… you’d never know he was born the same year the Legion was founded! His bright blue eyes, ready smile, easy laugh and the fact that he still gets around on his own and drives a car, belie his true age … 100 on September 7th. From his humble beginnings on a Kansas farm where he had to walk a mile and a half just to get to school to fighting his way across Europe in WWII and becoming an M.D… Dean’s had quite a ride. After graduating from K-State University in 1941 with an Army commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and getting hitched a year later to a petite Army nurse named Polly, he joined the Airborne because, as he says, “it added an extra hundred bucks to my pay of $128 a month! Besides, it sounded adventurous and I
figured it sure the heck beat marching everywhere!”
Assigned as a Communications Officer with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, he participated in campaign jumps in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Holland… being awarded a Silver Star and Bronze Star for heroism in combat while receiving a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge. “In looking back on it,” he
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reflects, “I don’t think I was all that courageous. I was just doing a job for which I’d been hired. And sure, I was scared, but you really don’t have a whole lot of time to think about it, especially when jumping out of a plane. You just say to yourself, ’here goes nothing’ and the rest is just adrenaline, reflex, instinct, and an intense survival mode.” As for the latter, Dean readily admits to being lucky to have 1919 Trivia Wages: $1,125 per yr. New Car: $826 Gas: 25¢ per gal. 1st Class Stamp: 3¢ Loaf of Bread: 9¢ Dozen Eggs: 38¢ Cont’d. on Page 6
Editor: John Ellis, Ed.D. - (760) 534-0124 - americanlegion739@gmail.com Legion Post: 44-200 Sun Gold St., Indio, CA 92201 - (760) 347-4710
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