Preston W. Davis

Preston W. Davis

Army

PRESTON
W.
DAVIS

Aug 6, 1926 -
BIRTHPLACE: Woodbine, KS

SOLDIER DETAILS

DIVISION:
Army
THEATER OF OPERATION:
Pacific
SERVED: Oct 28, 1944 -
Aug 9, 1946
HONORED BY: Eisenhower Foundation

BIOGRAPHY

Preston Warren Davis went into the service on October 28, 1944. I trained on the 37 caliber and 57 caliber antitank weapons and the 50 caliber machine gun at Fort Hood, Texas. From there I was sent to California and was shipped to the south Pacific. We crossed the equator then back to Manila Bay. From there I joined the 37th Infantry Division, 145th Infantry DCO, and the 30 caliber machine gun squad. We left Manila and went north on patrols into the mountains to find the Japanese. We fought up through Cagayan Valley to the north end of the island, blowing up their ammunition dumps and captured the rest of the Japanese army that were on the island. We chased them that far while still in the 37th Division. Then we moved back to our camp and the division went home. I didn't have enough points to go home with them so I was transferred to the artillery outfit. The outfit was stationed at Cabanato where we were on guard duty for the company. This was also the prison camp at the end of the death march so we dug up the graves of allied prisoners killed during the march. The bodies were then taken back to Manila for burial. I was shipped back to Honolulu and put into the Air Force for 4 months. The infantry and the Air Force didn't get along very well. On the first day of inspection, a 2nd Lieutenant told me to take off my infantry combat badge. I then said 'over my dead body would I take it off'. We never had an inspection again all the time we were in Honolulu. I came home to Camp Beil, California for discharge, then back to Junction City, Kansas. The best birthday present I had was on August 6, 1945 when the bomb was dropped on Japan and the War ended. Preston Davis was awarded The Philippine Republic Unit Citation by the Government of the Philippians for his 'Extraordinary Heroism while Engaged in Battle against Hostile Enemy Force in the war against the Japanese Empire and Liberation of the Philippine Islands in Luzon during the period of 2 March to 25 September 1945'.