Person:Gavin Robertson (2)

Baptised in St. Phillips Church Mechanic By Dick's sister Ardis about 1987: On December 8, 1919, int he little town of Rosebud, Montana, my brother was born. The snow was so deep that it was very difficult for my parents to get to the hospital. My Dad said his son was very expensive, for the trip of five miles ruined the two horses pulling the sled. I was left with a neighbor as was my half-sister, Rita. As it was the first time I had ever been away from my Mother over night in my 2 1/1 years, I caused everyone a lot of trouble, I have been told. Rita says I kept saying, "Wash mine face and mine eyes". for I didn't want to fall asleep. My brother was named Gavin Dawson for his father, Gavin, and an Uncle Morty Dawson Dutton. My Dad did not want to call him Junior. He said it would soon be Gavin and the old man and he didn't want that to happen. Our Uncles' nickname was Dick, so my brother became Dickie. As he grew older he wanted to be called Dick, but our family always forgot and we were still calling him Dickie when he was in the service. As children, we lived on a farm on the Rosebud Creek five miles south of the town of Rosebud. WE had no close neighbors who had children, so Dick and I spent most of our leisure time together. We did fight a lot, but we had good times, too. Uncle Dick and Aunt Alma visited us from California about every three years. They had no children, but Dickie was Uncle Dick's favorite nephew. Each time we went to town, Uncle Dick always bought something for Dickie and me. One time Uncle was busy visiting with people, but as we started to go home, Dickie said, "Uncle Dick, didn't you forget something?" Uncle Dick realized he'd forgotten to buy us something, but to tease Dickie, he acted like he didn't know what he had forgotten. Dickie took little time to say, "You didn't ask us what we'd like today". Dickie knew he couldn't outright ask for anything, so he did it his way. That day we each got two bars of candy. Our summers on the farm were fun. We had shetland ponies to ride, so we could do a lot of exploring in the hills around our farm. We saw many old Indian relics and old Army camps, but it never occurred to us to save anything we found. I'm sure we used many interesting, valuable artifacts in our games of skipping rocks on the creek or tossing rocks to a line to see who could come closer. Dickie didn't enjoy riding as much as I did, so he would find all kindsl of excuses to stay home when it was time to gether the cows, or do other errands with the horse. he was always good with the machinery and loved to take things apart. One summer, when Dickie was about 7 years old, my Dad was ready to move the haystacker to the meadow only to find that Dickie had removed every nut from every bolt on the machine. he had them all piled up neatly. There must have been over 100 nuts and bolts. As is normal with mothers, Mom was really proud of Dickie for being so good with a wrench. Proud maybe, but Dad was really disgusted. He always said it probably took him twice as long to put the bolts back as it did Dickie to take them off. From Clerk's File 127261, Army of the U.S. Certificate of Service: Gavin D Robertson, 01-018-606, Captain, Company C, 397 Infantry Regiment, honorably served in active Federal Service int he Army of the U.S. from 19 June 1943 to 20 March 1946. He departed from the continental United States of 20 August 1944 for the European Theater of Operations at which he arrived on 16 August 1944, where he served until his departure on 07 January 1946. He arrived back in the U.S. on 24 January 1946. he received wounds in action on 16 November 1944 and again on 12 April 1945. He received the decorations and citations: European Theatre Ribbon W/4 BR Stars, Purple Heart W/1 OLC, American Theatre Ribbon, Victory Ribbon. He participated in the battles and campaigns: N. France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and C. Europe.