Carl Richard Forsline
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Carl Richard Forsline entered the Army on April 30, 1943, at Fort Snelling, Minn. Home at entry: Cook, Minn.
He served as a Staff Sergeant, infantryman, rifleman, and platoon guide in Central Europe, with Company I, 274th Regiment, 70th Infantry Division. He attended basic training at Kearns Air Force Base in Utah. He was then assigned to the 70th Infantry Division, the “Trailblazers”, at Camp Adair Corvallis, Oregon for basic training, and combat training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
In early December of 1944 he arrived at the port of Marseille, France. On December 25, 1944, he was sent to the front along the Rhine River in the Vosges Mountains.
Relieved the 45th Infantry at Krantzberg Ridge near Forbach. Assaulted Stiring-Wendel on March 3rd. On March 12th, 1945 he was hit by shrapnel from a screaming-meemie and severed the main major artery of his right leg. Hospitalized in Epinal, France and returned to the U.S. on June 7, 1945, at Winter General Hospital in Topeka, Kansas.
(A telegram to his family stated that he was “lightly wounded”, probably to ease the fears of his relatives back home.) An interesting side note to Carl’s story is that a man he had known in boot camp and become good friends with but had not seen in a while was the medic who initially applied a tourniquet and probably saved his life.
He received the following: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, American Theater Service Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one bronze battle star, World War II Victory Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge.
Mr Forsline was honorably discharged on November 11, 1945, at Percy Jones Hospital Center, Fort Custer, Mich.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The Saint Louis County World War II Project, 355.
