Billy Cadle

ASN: 36628974

Billy Junior Cadle registered for the draft on June 30, 1942. Born September 15, 1922 he was from Goreville, Illinois. His place of employment was F. W. Owens Company, Morganfield, Kentucky. This nineteen-year-old was 5-9, 155 pounds with a light complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.

Enlisted in the Army on December 21, 1942, Private Cadle received his training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and later assigned to A-Battery, 319th Field Artillery Group, 82nd Airborne Division, MOS 531 (Anti-Tank Gun Crewman) and MOS 844 (Gun Crewman Light Artillery).

Along with fellow Glidermen, Private Billy Cadle and the 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division sailed from Staten Island, New York aboard the US Army transport Santa Rosa on April 28, 1943. Their destination, Casablanca, Morocco, North Africa.

Later promoted in rank to Private First Class, Billy Cadle fought in six (6) campaigns; Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Normandy, Holland, Ardennes and Central Europe.  

Company Morning Reports

Company Morning Reports were produced every morning by the individual Army units to record personnel matters. Below are daily reports with entries for Billy Cadle;

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During personal interviews in 2004 with fellow soldiers Robert Rappi and John Girardin, PFC Cadle is mentioned in quotes from the book “BATTERY” by Joseph S. Covais.

Robert Rappi spoke of methods the soldiers used to burn off additional energy if not already fatigued while briefly stationed in Casablanca, Morocco. “Billy Cadle, him and I used to wrestle all the time, me and Billy. We’d tear up things. Them bunks were just made out of wood and had straw in the bottom, but he hit his head on a nail there one time, so we quit that bullshit!”

Private John Girardin recalled their time in Morocco, “Me and Cadle had an afternoon pass and caught a truck shuttling men from the bivouac area into the city and back.” Both men could plainly see the town (Casablanca) overrun with GIs going about their military business or afternoon passes. Girardin stated the local Moroccans “seemed to be either poor, degraded Arabs, often begging or soliciting GIs to trade with them for what little they had to offer, or cynical French colonials who viewed the American servicemen more as sources of income than liberators.”

Photo Gallery

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Photos courtesy of Charlotte Sartain Provenza, John Girardin, Joseph Covais, author of BATTERY and the Jerry Cadle family. Billy Cadle appeared in the A-Battery group photo taken June 20, 1945

The Adjusted Service Rating Score (ASR) was a system the U.S. Army used at the end of the war to determine when soldiers were eligible for discharge. PFC Cadle and many other soldiers with less than the mandatory 85 points were assigned to occupation duty in Berlin, Germany.

On November 13, 1945, Billy Cadle who had now earned 91 points, sailed home to the USA aboard the SS William A. Graham with fellow A-Battery soldiers Charles Youngblood and John Girardin. He separated from the service on November 19, 1945, at Camp McCoy, Tomah, Wisconsin, and returned to civilian life.

A Marion, Illinois newspaper dated November 29, 1945, posted this article (see inset) that read in part, “PFC Billy J. Cadle arrived Tuesday at the home of his parents, Rev. and Mrs. Cadle. Serving with Battery A of the 319th glider field artillery battalion in the 82nd Airborne (3 years) he was in the campaigns of Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Normandy, Holland, Ardennes, and Central Europe.”

PFC Billy Cadle was awarded 6 Bronze Battle Stars, Bronze Arrowhead, Good Conduct Medal, Glider Badge, Belgian Fourragere, Military Willems Order, Presidential Unit Citation Badge with Oak Leaf Cluster, World War II Victory Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Theatre Ribbon.

Billy J. Cadle, 82, died March 22, 2005.

“God Bless this hero”