by Sgt. Rick Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team
Photo by Sgt. Rick Rzepka | 1st BCT Veteran George K. Mullins examines several Old Abe patches made during World War II in the Pratt Museum Saturday. Mullins donated several artifacts to the museum, including a German helmet and bayonet.
Sergeant George K. Mullins was a collector of sorts during his time in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, Mullins always found a souvenir or two on the battlefield to send back home to his kid brothers Harlis and Harold.
Every day, Mullins’ two brothers would make the long trek down to their mailbox, eagerly anticipating another box filled with mementos of adventure and combat from the European Theatre of conflict.
Today, some of those mementos are now artifacts in Pratt Museum on Fort Campbell. Along with his two brothers, Mullins donated several WWII era items to the museum Saturday.
No Slack Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment were on-hand to meet and greet the man who had served as a Glider Infantryman in that unit nearly 65 years ago. The Screaming Eagle Soldiers accompanied Mullins through the museum as he told his tales of combat and gave new life to relics.
“We went out looking for trouble after Bastogne” said Mullins as he gazed at the Museum’s display of the famous battle. “Those Germans didn’t want anything to do with us.”
Mullins, who is now 84 years old, amused Soldiers with his story of the time his unit captured a schnapps factory near Dusseldorf, Germany.
“The first lieutenant took all of the schnapps away from us,” he said.
“I don’t know how drunk he got, but we sure didn’t get any,” he said with a grin. “I was a buck sergeant then, I didn’t know much, but I knew my machine gun.”
As Mullins neared the full scale glider in Pratt Museum, his eyes lit up as he pointed to a nearby weapon. “That’s what I spent my days with!” he exclaimed. “That’s a .30 caliber machine gun, Model 1918; weighs 48 pounds and the tripod weighs 13 pounds.”
Mullins’ exploits in combat with the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment are chronicled in the books Rendezvous with Destiny and Hell’s Highway. Mullins and his unit spent 72 days in combat in Holland during Operation Market Garden, which was the longest duration of combat without relief that American Forces saw until that point, he said.
Mullins recounted a particularly close call with German armor during those 72 days.
“We dug in near a windmill and that night I heard a bunch of clanging around that sounded like cats to me,” he said. “I didn’t know that they were that close and the next morning they made an attack.”
As German armor advanced, Mullin said he and his buddy jumped into a trench and began digging. “I decided we needed to make that thing a little bit deeper,” he said. “I was digging there when two German tanks came up and you talk about all hell breaking loose!”
Mullins soon found himself in the middle of a tank battle as a Sherman tank rolled over Mullins’ trench and stopped.
“If you’ve read the book Rendezvous with Destiny, I’m the guy under that tank,” he said proudly.
Among the items Mullins donated to Pratt Museum are a set of British binoculars, the American Flag patch he wore in combat, a field telephone, a German helmet, a German bayonet and a swastika arm band he picked up during the Normandy invasion.
“A British officer held these in his hands, up to his eyes, when the mine went off,” said Mullins. “This one has a sad, terrible story.”
“There are so many items like this that get lost or end up in private collections,” said Pratt Museum Director Daniel Peterson. Typically, these things end up on E-bay or in a garage and the history and story behind them are lost, he said.
Peterson hopes that Mullins will return to Pratt Museum to record his story and an oral history of the items he donated.
“He really has some wonderful items,” said Peterson. “When something like these artifacts come into the Army collection it is important to get the story attached to these items.”
For Mullins the best part is to be able to share his story with younger Screaming Eagles. “I’m really happy to be here and meet the young Soldiers and to do this,” he said. “We know that in time if we kept the items, a piece here and a piece there would be lost, so why not bring it down here to call home.”