George THOMPSON
Company C
137th Armored Ordnance Battalion
16th Armored Division

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE SIR



When the Czech and US anthem played, everyone stood to attention and saluted, a touching moment and a reminder of the unique bond that exists between this part of the country and the United States of America.
Left to right: Charles Noble Jr. (USMC - Korean War), John "Tom" Ingram (90th ID), James Duncan (2nd ID), Norval "Dick" Williams (80th ID), George Thompson (16th AD), Earl Ingram (2nd ID), ?, Herman Geist (2nd ID), behind the flag, ?, Alan Buckley and George Patton Waters.


George Thompson celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II riding in the "Convoy of Remembrance" in Pilsen

George Thompson was only 18 when he served with the 16th Armored Division, in which he was a tank mechanic, during World War Two.

While occupying Czechoslovakia, American soldiers assisted the Czechs in re-building their country and the economy ruined by the war. For example, Sgt. George Thompson and other soldiers of the 137th Armored Ordnance Battalion repaired captured German vehicles and turned them over to the Czechoslovak government for their use.

As the first country forcibly seized by Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia suffered the longest occupation of any country in Europe. As World War Two in Europe came to an end, Patton's Third U.S. Army liberated western Czechoslovakia and freed the last people held captive by Nazi Germany. The six long years of Nazi oppression and brutality were finally over.