The last one: Alvie Boles' World War II Army unit was 277-men strong. Now, he's the remaining member of a ‘Hell on Wheels' unit

ROSEDALE — Alvie Boles knew this day would come. He just didn't know he would be the last man standing.

From the mid-1950s until about 1998, Boles and the other survivors from his World War II unit received an annual list compiled by a Californian who had served with Boles in a headquarters company of the 2nd Armored Division, 92nd Field Artillery Battalion.

The list was divided into two parts: the unit's survivors and those who had died. Each year, the "living” list shrank.

The lists stopped when its creator died, but through phone calls and letters, Boles knew by 2000 that only five survivors, including himself, remained from a unit once 277 men strong.

Three more died before 2006, paring the list to Boles and his best war buddy, Joseph C. Smith of Florida.

In October, Smith became gravely ill, telling Boles by phone, "I think this cowboy's about ready to ride on out.”

"I knew then it wouldn't be long,” Boles said.

It wasn't. Boles, 87, got the news from Smith's widow Oct. 31. Her husband had died 20 minutes earlier, leaving Boles as the unit's sole survivor.

He is the last one left to recall, among other things, the unit's participation in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge.

Raised outside the tiny McClain County town of Rosedale, Boles left home at 17 and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. He worked on projects including the White Sands National Monument in the New Mexico desert before being drafted into military service in February 1941.

Initially drafted for one year of duty, he was two months from going home when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Suddenly his tour would be extended indefinitely.

A few months later, Boles was among seven soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, picked to become part of a new Army division, the 2nd Armored, training at Fort Benning, Ga.

Under the command of Brig. Gen. George S. Patton, the division was sent to North Africa in November 1942.

Nicknamed "Hell on Wheels,” the 2nd Armored is best known for its role in the Campaign at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and for being the first American unit to reach Berlin in July 1945.

Boles spent most of World War II driving a half-track vehicle and using a motorcycle to run messages from one artillery unit to another.

Boles had three encounters with Patton. All occurred as the general known as "Old Blood and Guts” inspected his troops.

The first took place in a Louisiana bayou during a training exercise. Airplanes were strafing the troops and vehicles on the road separating two marshes. An air alert signaled drivers to pull as far off the road as possible. Boles pulled his scout car off the road but not far enough for Patton, who yelled at the corporal sitting next to Boles.

"He ate him out about it. ... It was tickling me. I didn't give a durn,” Boles said.

Minutes later, another air alert sounded. This time, Boles decided to pull far enough off the road to either please Patton or submerge the vehicle in the marsh.

The latter happened.

"It took a tank retriever all day to get it out. ... He really chewed us out about that,” Boles said, laughing.

The second encounter occurred during a firing display at Fort Benning. Boles was sitting on the windshield of a half-track vehicle, eating a can of C rations and watching the display from afar.

Patton plopped down on the other side of the windshield and demanded some food.

"He ate a can of beans with me,” Boles said.

Asked about their mealtime conversation, Boles said it was one-sided.

"You just answer questions. You don't talk to him. He does the talking,” Boles said.

Their final encounter took place on the autobahn at Berlin, shortly after the war ended.

Representing the U.S. Army at the Potsdam Conference, the division was ordered to stand at attention for a passing review by Patton.

Patton's inspection began at the west end. The eight motorcycles under Boles' charge were some distance away on the east end. Patton got out of his vehicle and walked past Boles' group for a closer look.

"Some of the boys passed out from standing so long in the heat,” he said.

With photographers and reporters focused on him, Patton asked Boles how long he had been part of the 2nd Division.

"Ever since it was formed, sir,” Boles replied.

Mugging for the cameras, the general's voice cracked. "Now that's one of my boys,” Boles recalled.

"I thought, ‘I'm not one of your boys. I'm hotter than heck, and I just want to get out,” Boles said.

Some of Boles' war tales will go to the grave with him. The more painful ones, like how he earned a Purple Heart, he keeps to himself.

He volunteered only that shrapnel struck him in the forehead during a battle. He doesn't recall exactly where or when.

"I've heard people say, ‘I wasn't scared.' What I say is, if you weren't scared, you're either lying or you weren't there,” Boles said.

"You had one purpose, and that's to get home,” he said.

Without going into detail, Boles called the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 the toughest action he saw.

He spent much of the war's final months in Germany. He said the German civilians he encountered were gracious.

Boles lost most of his war memorabilia in a 1949 house fire, spent most of the early 1950s hospitalized with tuberculosis and said he hasn't had a pain-free day since a 1990 car wreck nearly killed him.

He spent much of his life as a brick mason based in Norman before returning to Rosedale in 1972 with his wife, Alma.

Boles wants to make one thing clear, he said.

"I'm no hero. I'm just a survivor,” he said. "I just survived everybody else, I guess.”