Pool, Lafayette Green “War Daddy.”

Pool, Lafayette Green, “War Daddy”, born 23-07-1919, in Sinton, Texas, to John McKinley Pool and Marion Lee Ruth (Lacook) Pool. Poole grew up on a farm in Sinton and graduated from Corpus Christi College Academy in 1939. Tall and lanky, he won the sectional 165-pound boxing crown at New Orleans, Louisiana; he turned down an opportunity to compete in the Golden Gloves national final tournament. After high school, he enrolled at Texas College of Arts and Industries (present-day Texas A&M University-Kingsville) in Kingsville and majored in engineering. After a year, he left college and attempted to join the U. S. Navy with his twin brother, John Thomas Pool, left   Lafayette, with the birth, arrived five minutes before his brother. While his brother was accepted in the Navy, Pool was rejected due to an eye injury. He persisted and on 14-06-1941, enlisted in the U. S. Army. In 1942 he joined the newly formed 3rd Armored Division under command of Lieutenant General Courtney Hicks Hodges, in which he served until he was wounded.

Lafayette Pool received his basic training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Upon completion, he was sent to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, and assigned to the Fortieth Armored Regiment. When the Fortieth was disbanded, Pool was transferred to the Thirty-second Armored Regiment, Third Armored Division, at Fort Polk, Louisiana. During the coming months, the division trained at the Desert Training Center in the Mojave Desert (southern California and western Arizona); Camp Pickett, Virginia; and Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. In December 1942, while on leave, Pool married Evelyn Lois Wright. In August 1943 Pool’s regiment moved to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, in preparation to be shipped overseas. On 04-09-1943 he boarded a train bound for New York Harbor and the next day departed aboard the RMMV Capetown Castle. The ship arrived in Liverpool, England on September 15. Pool, then a staff sergeant, was billeted at Codford, Wiltshire, and he trained at Salisbury Plain with Third Platoon, I Company.

By late June 1944 Pool’s unit landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, where his regiment was assigned to Combat Command A. During the next eighty-one days, Staff Sergeant Pool commanded three different Sherman tanks across France, Belgium, and Germany. The first was an M4A1 armed tank that he named In The Mood. When asked why, he replied, “That’s the way I felt then—just in the mood for anything.”

During Pool’s time in combat, his crew remained intact. They consisted of Corporal. Wilbert “Red” Richards (driver), Private. Herbert Arthur ” Bert” Close (co-driver and machine gunner), Corperal Willis Arthur “Ground Hog” Oller (gunner), and T/5 Del Boggs (loader). On 29-06-1944, In The Mood entered combat at Villiers-Fossard and was hit by a German panzerfaust, a hand-held anti-tank weapon. Pool received his second tank, an M4A1(76)W that he also named In The Mood, on July 1. During combat in the village of Fromental on August 17, this tank was knocked out by friendly fire when an American P-38 fighter mistook it for a German tank. His third tank was also an M4A1(76)W. On September 19, while attacking the Siegfried Line in Munsterbusch, Germany, the Sherman was struck by a round from a German Panther tank. Damaged, but not immobilized, the driver attempted to back away when a second round struck and tipped the tank into a ditch. The round killed Pool’s replacement gunner, Private Paul King; Oller was not present for this action. Pool was thrown from the tank and suffered serious shrapnel wounds to his right leg. Later doctors were forced to amputate it eight inches above the knee.

Pool returned to the United States and was admitted to William Beaumont General Hospital in El Paso, Texas. Lafayette was later transferred to Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia. The facility specialized in prosthetics. Pool was fitted with a wooden prosthetic leg and discharged in June 1946. He later opened a filling station and garage in Corpus Christi, Texas. He tried several other businesses, but was not content.

In July 1948 he was allowed to re-enlist in the U. S. Army and entered the Transportation Corps. He later rejoined the Third Armored Division as an instructor in automotive mechanics. On 19-09-1969, Pool retired from the U. S. Army as a chief warrant officer two. He attended San Angelo College in San Angelo, Texas, and received certificates in accounting and business administration. He later became a preacher and taught junior high school. On 24-03-1970, tragedy struck when his son, Captain  Jerry L. Pool, Sr., age 25, went missing in action in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. He was declared dead in 1978.

Death and burial ground of Pool, Lafayette Green “War Daddy.”

On 30-05-1991, Lafayette Green Pool, died in his sleep in Killeen, Texas; he was seventy-one years old. At the time, he was survived by his wife, Evelyn, his four daughters, and three sons. “War Daddy” Pool was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road, San Antonio, TX 78209.

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