MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2019 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Parks, Barnett, Blackwell, Dearing, DeBar, Frazier, Jackson (11th), Jackson (32nd), Seymour, Wilemon, Jolly
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION EXTENDING THE RECOGNITION OF THE MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE AND SALUTING THE GALLANT SERVICE OF DECORATED WORLD WAR II VETERAN CARL LEE NANCE OF RIPLEY, MISSISSIPPI, WHO SERVED AT THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE.
WHEREAS, the men and women who served in the military during the Great Conflict, World War II, are known as the "Greatest Generation" because of their monumental accomplishments for our country. We pause to pay tribute to a member of that generation, Carl Lee Nance, who served with the 94th United States Army Infantry Division at the Battle of the Bulge in Germany in December 1944; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Nance was born on October 2, 1924, and calls Tippah County home; and
WHEREAS, Carl was a graduate of Ripley High School. He attended Ole Miss for two years and was given a chance to be placed in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). When he got out of basic training, he was sent back to college as part of an Army unit, but the program was dropped and Carl was sent as a replacement to the 94th Infantry Division; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Nance's World War II military experience is as follows:
ˇ Left August 4, 1944, on the Queen Elizabeth, with over 18,000 troops on board. A very fast ship that went in "Z" fashion to avoid trouble;
ˇ Landed in Scotland due to the size of the boat. They finished training in England and then boarded a boat to cross the Channel into France. They landed on bloody Utah Beach. A little side note...the sister ship to the one Carl Lee was on was the Léopoldville, and a few weeks later, German U-Boats sank the ship, killing 2,200 troops;
ˇ Their job was to push across France to contain 60,000 German troops. Mr. Nance was wounded the first time in France when on a night patrol his point man found a booby-trap wire. While holding it, waiting for it to be deactivated, a stray cat ran through setting it off, killing the man. Later, Mr. Nance took the point and hit a wire himself which set off another booby trap and sending shrapnel into his legs and his eye. Carl was evacuated to the hospital. On October 2nd, his twentieth birthday, while he was still in the hospital, his company was hit, killing his Sergeant, Squad Leader, and many others;
ˇ Once he regained his health, he joined forces at "The Battle of the Bulge," formally known as the Battle of the Ardennes. This was in January 1945, and by January 8th, they had moved 350 miles in a boxcar in three days. Again they became engaged in the Saar Region where the cold winter saw temperatures in the 17-below zero range. This was part of the Siegfried Lines;
ˇ Mr. Nance said the mortar rounds came down like rain. It's a gut-wrenching feeling to be standing with explosive rounds falling all around you. The rounds that didn't hit the ground hit the trees and sent a shower of razor-sharp shrapnel screaming down on you. "You can tell when you're gonna be close", Nance stated, "and when they are, you dive for the first cover you can find. I was one step faster than another buddy and hit a fox hole first. He landed on top of me and took most of the shrapnel in his back. The shrapnel killed him. If I had been one step slower, I would have been the man on top";
ˇ Fighting was completed by June 1945. But let us not forget the cost that the 94th Infantry paid to the debt of World War II. The 94th lost over a thousand men killed in action, and had 4,789 wounded in action, and is listed as one of the most savagely hit and hardest fighting units in the Army. When you consider the average Army Division consisted of approximately 9,000 combat soldiers, this amounts to well over 60% casualties; and
WHEREAS, Carl is a good Christian, father, husband, family man, die-hard Ole Miss fan, a very good businessman who still opens his store every day, a fisherman and hunter, a true loyal American, and better yet, a Tippah Countian; and
WHEREAS, for his service Mr. Nance was awarded the European And Middle East Theatre of Operations Medal (EAMET), Good Conduct Medal and the Victory Medal. He received wounds in action in France on September 21, 1944, and was discharged January 10, 1946, at Camp Shelby, Mississippi; and
WHEREAS, we can never repay our debt to these veterans and their families, but we must do what we can, with all that we have, to live our lives in a way that pays tribute to their service. We should not pause and remember to thank our Veterans only on Veterans Memorial Day, we should do it every day:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That this resolution be presented to Mr. Carl Lee Nance and his family, forwarded to the Mississippi Veterans of Foreign Wars, and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.