Benjamin Franklin Cauley

October 28, 1943

FRANKLIN CAULEY and Bill Dunson have entered service through Blanding. Cauley went into the army; Dunson into the navy. Peter Trad went to Blanding with them but was rejected because of asthma from which he has suffered all his life. Also rejected was C. C. Long of Flagler Beach.

December 9, 1943

Pvt. FRANKLIN CAULEY recently inducted into the army has been sent to Camp Wolters, Texas. He writes his parents here that he is working hard but likes it fine.

March 30, 1944

Pvt. FRANKLIN CAULEY was here a few days visiting his relatives.

June 29, 1944

We also learned this week that BENJAMIN CAULEY is in Italy. So far as the editor knows he and Dale Brown are the only two from here in that sector. Incidentally, because we had Dale's address wrong for many weeks he is just now beginning to get The Tribune.

September 28, 1944

FRANKLIN CAULEY WOUNDED IN ITALY

BENJAMIN F. CAULEY, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Cauley, was recently wounded in action in Italy with the army, he has written to his mother here.

Benjamin, who is better known to his friends and classmates as "Franklin," was serving with his infantry outfit when he stepped on a mine, receiving a foot wound serious enough to require partial amputation, he told his mother. He has been awarded the Purple Heart.

He is now in a hospital section in that area and is recovering satisfactorily.

December 14, 1944

Pvt. FRANKLIN CAULEY, wounded in Italy by a land mine, losing a part of one foot, is now in McCloskey General Hospital at Temple, Texas. He wrote his folks here that the doctors are doing additional work on his foot and that he will be home on a furlough as soon as they get through with it. Also said that he is now up on crutches.

January 4, 1945

From public relations officer at Mitchell Field, N. Y., we have received the following:

“Pvt. BENJAMIN F. CAULEY, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Cauley of Bunnell, arrived here by army transport plane from a base hospital in England and has been flown on to another army base hospital.

Awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in action on September 11, in Italy, Cauley, who is only 19 years old, can look back on more than a year of eventful army experience. He is making an excellent recovery now.

He was inducted into the army in October, 1943, and had his basic infantry training at Camp
Wolter, Texas. He went overseas in April of 1944 directly to Italy, and before his unit went into front line action had a pass to see Rome and other points of interest in Italy. He reports that he was most impressed by Rome, which showed few scars of war and whose churches were the most beautiful buildings he had ever seen.

Cauley was flown back across the Atlantic by way of the Azores and Bermuda and he spoke with enthusiasm of the comfort of that trip in the big army hospital transport plane. Said Cauley, ‘There is no jarring and almost no vibration and the trip on the whole is so quick and so comfortable that you are back in the U. S. A before you can believe such a thing is possible.’

He is now at McCloskey general hospital at Temple, Texas.”

February 1, 1945

Pvt. FRANKLIN CAULEY, wounded by a personnel mine in Italy last year and who has been a patient in an army hospital in Temple, Texas, telephoned his sister, Mrs. Gene Barber, here this week that he expects to come home on a furlough soon. Franklin, who lost about all of one foot, told his sister that the doctors expect to put a "walking cast" on it in a few days and that he then can get around pretty well.

May 10, 1945

FRANK CAULEY, who lost a foot from a mine explosion in Italy a year ago and who has is a patient at McCloskey general hospital in Texas, is spending a 30day furlough here with his relatives.

August 9, 1945

FRANKLIN CAULEY is here now and has been released from the service. He stepped on a land mine in Italy and lost part of his foot. He has been receiving medical treatment in an Army hospital at Temple, Texas.

October 11, 1945

...... the following men perhaps well known to you - are now just plain Mister Civilian. They have been given honorable discharges from Uncle Sam’s fighting forces ..... BENJAMIN F. CAULEY