Cpl. Ambrose J. McDonald

Biography and Wartime Service

Ambrose Joseph McDonald, was born February 8, 1922 in Tremont, Pennsylvania, to Helen C. Madden and William McDonald. Tremont, the Anthracite 'hard coal' regions of Central Pennsylvania is a small town of 1800 people and during the era of the Depression, his father Bill, worked as a traveling auditor for one of the larger coal companies in the county, going from colliery to colliery taking inventory. Having a steady job, there was always food on the table. Ambrose McDonald graduated from Tremont High School quite early, at 16 years of age. With the years leading up to the Depression, one year while he was still in Catholic grade school, before moving onto public high school, all the other children in his class had moved away, so they moved him up to the next grade.

He was the youngest member in his graduating class and looked it too. His father wanted him to become a doctor, and Ambrose took a year of Pre-Med classes at the Schuylkill Campus of Penn State University. 16 years old is very young to go to college and after a year, he decided to not return. Instead, he worked as a Presser at a local manufacturing company. Baseball was his love and... he hated his formal name 'Ambrose'. At the time, there was a baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies, named 'Hank McDonald'. So, Ambrose, with his love for the game was reborn, he was now known as 'Hank' by his friends.

On August 22, 1942, Ambrose 'Hank' McDonald went to the South Ward School Building in Schuylkill Haven, Pansylvania, for his physical after receiving a post card from the Selective Service. Then he was inducted into the Army on September 30, 1942, with entry into Active Service on October 14, 1942. The Army saw his one year of 'Pre-Med' listed in his record and decided to make him a medic. He made it from Camp Atterbury to the end of the war.

Ambrose 'Hank' McDonald earned the Bronze Star in the Hurtgen Forest, Germany on December 18, 1944. The Germans were strafing overhead and two soldiers from his artillery battalion, ran to get away from the enemy fire, only to run into a mine field that the engineers had taped off. In other words, so no one would go into it. For some reason, the two found their way into the mine field while running away regardless. One man stepped on a mine, which blew his boot with part of his leg attached up into the air and hit the man in back of him in the face, tearing it half off. Hank McDonald and another medic made two trips into the mine field to aid and retrieve each of these soldiers. Hank was the one who then drove the two soldiers on litters to the 308th Medical Battalion Station in Lendendorf.

He was released from the Army at Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation on November 16, 1945. For his service, Ambrose 'Hank' McDonald received, among other decorations, the Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one Silver campaign star and the Good Conduct Medal.

Hank McDonald met Meriam Alice Klinger, a school teacher from Reading, Philadelphia, not long after the war, when one of his friends from town had a girlfriend that had a visiting cousin. The two met and they married July 10, 1948. A day before the nuptials, Hank lost his job, a very unfortunate situation. On the GI Bill, he attended Ford Business School, Pottsville, Philadelphia and took up Accounting. Hank and his wife Meriam lived with Hank's parents in Tremont. In 1950, Hank's father Bill died, and he was offered the job of Head Accountant at the main office of Reading Anthracite Company, Pottsville, that was held by his father.

Ambrose J. 'Hank' McDonald retired on April 30, 1985 and sadly his wife Meriam A. McDonald passed away on July 19, 1985, making him a widower just as they were to spend their 'golden years' together. Hank died January 19, 1997 of complications of Myleofibrosis, bone marrow cancer.

I met his daughter Laurie McDonald Maley on several Reunions of the 83rd Division Association.

Thanks to Laurie Maley for sharing these photos about her father

Gallery

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