William Irving (Ranger) Davison

 

May 14, 1942

Flagler County has 74 men in the various branches of the armed forces at this time ..... the list up to date is as follows: WILLIAM IRVING DAVISON

December 24, 1942

IRVING (RANGER) DAVISON is home to spend the holidays with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ranger, at Flagler Beach. Irving is now a technical sergeant and stationed at Tyndall Field, Panama City, Fla.

February 25, 1943

This column heard this week that IRVING (RANGER) DAVISON is married. He is still at Tyndall Field, Panama City, Fla. (Come on Irving, tell us the details)

June 24, 1943

T/Sgt. IRVING DAVISON and Mrs. Davison of Tyndall Field, Panama City, Florida, were here a few days this week, visiting with Sgt. Davison’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Ranger of Flagler Beach.

October 7, 1943

S/Sgt. WILLIAM I. DAVISON, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Ranger of Flagler Beach, recently transferred out of the medical department to the air corps and has been sent to Peabody college at Nashville for five months training to become an air cadet. Davison has been in the service for a number of months and, was until his transfer, stationed at Tyndall Field, Panama City, Florida.

December 16, 1943

Whaddayouknow! Another soldier from Flagler county is a brand-new papa - A/S IRVING DAVISON, now located at Nashville and Mrs. Davison announced the arrival of Sharon Ann last week. Congratulations, Irving and Mrs. Davison.

October 11, 1945

And here's a part of a letter written by IRVING RANGER to his parents at Flagler Beach. He says:

“Dijon, France, Sept. 26, 1945

It is quite cool here and has been raining a lot. To top it all off I have a bad cold so all I do is sit around and do nothing.

Since they don’t censor letters, perhaps I should tell you a little more about what I have done since I’ve been over here.

Guess you knew that I landed in Scotland, after being chased all over the North Atlantic by submarines. I never wanted to put my foot on dry land so much in all my life. It was a very nice trip except for that.

We spent a very nice month at Glasgow, Scotland and then moved to Southampton, England. From there we went to Le Havre, France. Landed at midnight and had to walk 18 miles to some old open field that was knee deep in mud to put up our tents. The officers had straw so we politely stole it from them. They raised h--- but we at least didn't sleep in mud.

We moved to several other places that were about the same way but we made out OK.

Finally we got orders to move up into Belgium, so we packed up and started on our way but the Germans had the same destination in mind. So who were we, a little hospital, to argue with a couple of German divisions. We took off but fast. Lost all our records and for a couple of months we were, as far as headquarters was concerned, destroyed. While they were trying to figure out why we got back and set up near Dieppe, France. We stayed there until all went to Germany.

In Paris now if you ask anyone (that is supposed to know) and they will tell you the 62nd Field Hospital was completely destroyed and not a man got away. It is very nice for someone to tell you that you were killed, several months ago. The truth is not a soul got a scratch but several, including myself, have a few more grey hairs than they did when they started.

Had a nice time trying to explain why we got in a German town before anyone else did. Just thank God the Germans were glad to give up, even to a medic instead of fighting.

What we did for the next few months were not exciting - just taking care of POWs. We lost five of our boys when a mine, planted in one of the houses, blew up, but that is all.

Now here we sit. So I can think back and consider myself very lucky to be here.”

December 27, 1945

Discharged from the armed services this week ..... WILLIAM I. DAVISON