By The Honorable James E. Lockemy
For those of us who saw the movie, Saving Private Ryan, we are impressed by this regular citizen soldier played by Tom Hanks who bravely leads his men on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 and after surviving that horrendous experience that we call “D-Day” dies weeks later still fighting valiantly for his country. According to comments from the author of the works that inspired that film and many others, Hanks’ character was based on a South Carolinian and Citadel graduate, Thomas Dry Howie.
Howie was born and grew up in Abbeville, South Carolina. He chose the Citadel for college where he excelled as a student and on the football field. He graduated a Rhodes Scholar candidate and was chosen by his classmates as the “Most Popular” and “Best All Around”. After graduation in 1929 he began a distinguished teaching career at Staunton Military Academy in Virginia and was commissioned in the National Guard. In 1941, his unit was called up as America entered WWII. He was a Battalion Commander within the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. They were assigned to land at Omaha Beach on D-Day. His leadership was obvious all over the beach that day as with hundreds of soldiers being killed all around him he led his surviving men to a safe cover from German deadly fire. As the day and battle wore on the Americans gradually were victorious in establishing a beachhead.
Key to making sure the Germans did not drive the Americans back onto the beach and gain victory was moving further into France. There they found thousands of villagers begging for liberation from the Nazi occupation they had endured for four years. Major Howie volunteered his Battalion to liberate the village of St Lo after another battalion had failed because of fierce German resistance. Major General Gerhardt, Commander of the Division, asked Major Howie if he could lead his battalion to liberate the village. Major Howie replied, “See You in St Lo” and began the operation. He heroically led his men on the successful effort to free St Lo. Unfortunately, he was killed by mortar fire in the battle just before the victory. General Gerhardt ordered on the urging of Howie’s men that in honor of his commitment to free this little village that his body be draped with an American Flag placed on the front of a jeep and that he be the first to enter St Lo. After they entered, his body with the flag covering it was put next to a bombed out church as the soldiers finished the job.
His heroics spread through the village as the battle slowly ended. Villagers throughout the day brought flowers and other tributes to Howie’s body such that when the American soldiers returned that evening Howie’s body was completely surrounded by the tributes from the grateful and now liberated villagers.
After the war, for his heroics and in tribute to the man who generated their liberation, the people of St Lo erected a monument in Major Howie’s Honor. His widow along with General Omar Bradley attended the unveiling ceremony. They still pay tribute today in the village of St Lo to this American warrior and South Carolinian who gave his life for their liberation.
Shortly before his death and just as he received command to lead his men on Omaha beach on D-Day, Major Howie wrote to his young daughter, Sally, “ It’s something like football, somebody has to play the game, somebody has to beat the enemy, and all my life I have tried to make the first team in everything. Sitting on the bench when game time comes is no consolation for weeks of bruising drudgery and I have been sitting on the bench and training hard for this day. Remember what I told you, Sit up Straight, Look people in the Eye and Tell the Truth. With All my Heart, Your Daddy.”
The Citadel erected one of the largest Carillons in the Western Hemisphere in his honor in 1954. The College also commissioned a painting that hangs in Daniel Library with the scene of his flag draped body entering the village entitled “The Major of St Lo”. In 2003, he was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Like the village, his hometown of Abbeville erected a monument in his honor. The wording on the stone concludes “Dead in France Deathless in Fame”. He is buried in the Colleville-sur-Mer Cemetery in Normandy along with thousands of other Americans who gave their lives for our freedom as well as for that of others during the Normandy campaign.
We are proud to host his nephew, Thomas Dry Howie II, himself a military veteran, at our Veterans’ Day ceremony who will tell more of this amazing story. Please come out on November 11 at 11am at Veterans Square and honor Major Howie and all our men and women, including those from Dillon County, who have bravely worn the uniform in service to our nation.
Dillon County Veterans Day Ceremony To Feature Nephew of ‘The Hero of St. Lo’ & South Carolina Hall of Fame Member
