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Thornton, Jamie E. (774th)

Jamie-E.-Thorton-1Jamie E. Thornton

Biography:  Jamie Edmond Thornton was born on June 17, 1926, in Elberton, Georgia.  He is the son of Jamie and Mary Todd Thornton and attended local schools through the 10th grade. 

Service Time:  Jamie entered the service on August 22, 1944 at Fort McPherson, Georgia.  He spent 8 months in training as part of a Replacement Training Company, 200F as seen in this photo.  Jamie can be seen in the 3rd row from the front, standing 16th from the left.  At least some of his training was accomplished at Fort George G. Meade before moving on Camp Shanks in New York, which was a staging area used prior to shipment to the European Continent.  

Jamie shipped out on on March 1, 1945, landing on March 16 and was ultimately assigned to the 774th Tank Destroyer Battalion.  He spent time guarding German prisoners before taking them to a Disbursement Camp in Munich, Germany, before their eventual release.

Honorable Discharge

He then spent time working with a demolition crew, tasked to blow up left over ammunition.  At some point, he was sent to a hospital in Paris and then loaded on a hospital ship, for an early ride back to the U.S.  It is believed that the hospital ship was the “Frances Y. Slanger”, which was procured for the war effort by the U.S. from Italy.  The ship was converted for medical use and boasted the largest patient capacity of all the U.S. ships.

Jamie-Edmond-Thornton-2

Jamie came back to the U.S. on November 30, 1945 and spent time in the Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee before finally being discharged on January 15, 1946.  Jamie left the service at the rank of Private First Class.

After returning to the states, Jamie married the former Elsie Martin, who was the daughter of Jesse Martin and Lotti Berryman. The new couple would settle back in the Elberton area. 

I want to thank Jamie for his service to this country and thank his granddaughter Lydia for providing the information and photos for this article.