Orville Farmer

ASN:35156536

Award of the Bronze Star Medal for Heroic Conduct, 7 June 1944

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Evansville Courier - Sunday, September 25, 1994

(see news article below)

Orville Farmer, of 2217 W. Virginia St., took it upon himself to meet the French, to supplement his Army rations.  Farmer was a jeep driver with an artillery unit of the 82nd Airborne in France.

He recalls going into towns after they were liberated, even though he couldn’t speak French.  He bought a 9mm automatic gun, with about $20 in French money, and he also bought food. Once he went into a grocery to buy wine.  The owner brought out a bottle.  Farmer wanted a case.  The owner said no. “Finally, I looked at him.  I wanted to pay him for it.”  Farmer said, “I told him in the only language I knew to go to … and I picked up the case and went on back to camp.  I just took it.” Later, Farmer’s sergeant explained to him the grocer’s supply was low.  Farmer, who didn’t understand that, shared the wine with other soldiers.

The French lined the streets when American soldiers traveled through their towns, Farmer said. “There were all kinds of people waving at us and yelling. They were happy to see us.  That all changed when we got to Germany.”

Most American soldiers saw German prisoners in France. Sometimes they were shot, even though the Geneva Convention forbade that. One time two Americans brought in a German prisoner.  Farmer recalled, a lieutenant told one of the Americans to take the prisoner back to a holding area, and said, “If he tries to escape, shoot him. “He didn’t go too far in the woods and you heard a rifle go off,” Farmer said.  “It wasn’t long before he came walking back. He killed that Gerry. He didn’t have a chance of living. And that lieutenant knew that, too.” But the Americans believed the Germans were committing far more violations.

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Orville Farmer, 83, died June 1, 2001. God bless this hero.