WWII Hero’s Bond with a Horse: A Son Shares His Father’s Story

CAPTURING A LEGACY

Walt says his dad, Phil Larimore, never told him about his war experiences until they sat together at his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in 1999.  Walt asked him if he’d share some stories, and for some reason, his dad decided the time had come to open that box of memories.  He talked with Walt and later many others, as well.  “After Dad passed away in 2003, I began transcribing over 400 of his letters home as well as the many stories he told my brothers, his friends, and me—some that bordered on unbelievable, such as a secret mission to find and save the world-famous Lipizzaner horses.  I researched historical accounts of his battles and World War II in hundreds of books, memoirs (some unpublished), periodicals, newspaper articles, and websites.  I interviewed a few of the remaining men he fought with and the children of others.  I traveled to and spent months in several states and in Europe studying exhibits and documents at archives, museums, posts, forts, redoubts, and stables. The information I discovered allowed me to fill in holes and add color and detail to an already incredible story.”  All that he learned led Walt to believe this was a story that honored God, and revealed details of the forgotten Southern Front of the European theatre, which he says people need to know.   

WAR AS A TEEN 

Phil was the youngest Army officer in WWII, graduating from Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 1942, just weeks shy of his 18th birthday.  After a little more than a year of training, Phil and his fellow troops are deployed to Anzio Beachhead, Italy, where some of the most intense fighting of the war took place.  Walt tells in great detail many of those scenes.  “The following night in shivering rain, Phil accompanied his men on his first mission: laying down a series of booby traps and mines in ‘no man’s land’ just a few hundred feet from German machine guns.   Phil couldn’t believe that this was the way he’d start fighting a war, but those were the cards he’d been dealt.”  Later that night, one of Phil’s men, Private Winfield Doner, was burying a mine when something went terribly wrong, causing it to explode and kill him.  “No matter how much he thought he’d be prepared for war, seeing up close the first of his men killed instantly changed the way he would look at things in the future.  He knew he couldn’t dwell on the loss right then, but he could not shake the memory.  Echoing in his mind were these unanswerable questions:  Why did he get killed and not me?  Why him?  Why not me?”                          

Another awful time was when Phil had no choice but to shoot two Germans who stood with rifles aimed at him.  “This was the first time Phil killed another human at point-blank range, face-to-face, which weighed on him.  All his previous killings had come from downrange shooting and his superior marksmanship.  Phil reminded himself for the hundredth time that it was kill or be killed. That was the hell he had entered.”

A SPECIAL HORSE

A master equestrian, Phil had ridden horses since childhood, worked with draft horses in the Army, taken part in war games on an Arabian stallion, and learned dressage in Naples, Italy.  On a special, one-day mission in 
Czechoslovakia to collect intelligence on a horse stud farm, he met a German officer who rode up on a dazzling Lipizzaner stallion.  Trailing behind them was a bay-colored Thoroughbred with a rather ugly head, Phil thought.  The officer directed Phil to mount the horse, and the men went rode off toward the farm.  By the end of their time together, Phil was convinced of the horse’s speed, jumping ability, responsiveness, and had taken quite a liking to him -- and vice versa.  As the men said their goodbyes, Phil whistled at the horse, who tried to return to him before being led away.  

Just a few days later, Phil was the target of a Nazi sniper, whose bullet shattered his right leg.  It was only four weeks before the Germans surrendered.  Requiring amputation, Phil was evacuated to the States and spent the next year at a hospital in Atlanta for rehabilitation.  Fit with a prosthesis enabling him to walk, Phil was offered a job as the Executive Officer to his beloved former commanding officer, Colonel McGarr, at Ft. Myer in Virginia.  McGarr and Phil’s best buddy, Ross, also stationed there, took him for a ride one day through a pasture.  “Several dozen horses were grazing, but one horse in particular caught Phil’s eye: a gorgeous bay-colored Thoroughbred… He admired the remarkable horse’s deep hindquarters and long legs.  But what caught Phil’s attention was the horse’s unique head.  Not attractive or sleek, just clunky looking.  Could it be him? But how?  He looked at Ross and the colonel, who were both carefully watching him. Then McGarr broke into an ear-to-ear smile and nodded. ‘It’s him.’”  Phil was reunited with the Thoroughbred he had so admired in Czechoslovakia, rescued at General George Patton’s command, along with some 375 prized Lipizzaners from Hitler’s secret stash. About 30 of them, along with the Thoroughbred, were shipped to America.  Phil had the great delight of riding and training him – with one leg – for the next year.  He renamed him “Chugwater,” and found that riding and grooming him was therapy.  “Chug not only carried him away from his worries and disappointments but also away from his horrific war memories and recurring nightmares,” Walt says of his dad.   

When Phil was separated from the Army after a narrowly-lost appeal to remain despite his disability, he was offered schooling at the University of Virginia.  He happily accepted, but leaving Chug, who belonged to the Army, broke his heart.  A couple of months later, he learned that a number of war surplus horses, including Chug, were to be auctioned off.  He gathered the $50 minimum bid, and headed out to buy his beloved friend.  When he saw the other horses going for far more money, and realized he would be outbid, Phil’s heart sank again.  Chug was one of the last horses to be auctioned, and when he was introduced, Phil was suddenly blinded by a spotlight.  The auctioneer told the crowd all about Phil being a decorated Army hero, and how he’d spent the last year training Chug to respond to left-leg-only cues.  He then asked the crowd not to bid, and opened the bidding at the minimum.  Phil waved his $50, the gavel came down, and Chug was his, to the roar of the crowd’s cheers!  When a reporter asked Phil, “’I understand Chugwater was going to be euthanized by the Germans at one time.  Is it true that you saved his life?’  Phil shook his head.  ‘Actually, he saved mine.’”

SURPRISES DISCOVERED

Walt says that in the 15+ years he researched his father’s story, there were many things that surprised him, both about his dad’s experience and WWII.  A few of them:

• that all of Dad's “unbelievable stories” were true

• Dad’s stunning bravery and leadership skills as a teenager 

• the fact that he was the youngest-ever and only-ever 17-year-old graduate of OCS, the youngest commissioned officer in WWII, the youngest Company Commander in WWII, one of the most highly decorated frontline junior officers in WWII, and that he survived 413 days of front-line battle, given that in some battles the average life expectancy of a frontline Second Lieutenant was only 21 days

• the suffering and successes on the forgotten Southern Front in Europe (northern Africa into Europe), which had five “D-Days”, first divisions into the war, most days of battle, most casualties, most valor medals, etc., which Walt most wants people to learn and appreciate about WWII

PHIL’S FAITH

Walt says his dad walked his faith more than he talked about it.  When he asked his dad one time if he had a personal relationship with God, Phil responded by saying he’d settled that during his combat days, and took a piece of paper out of his wallet to show him.  It read: “No shell or bomb can on me burst, except my God permit it first.  Then let my heart be kept in peace; His watchful care will never cease.  No bomb above, nor mine below need cause my heart one pang of woe.  The Lord of Hosts encircles me, He is the Lord of earth and sea.”
 

For more information on Dr. Walt Larimore click the LINK! 

CREDITS

Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author, most recent: At First Light (Knox Press, 2022) / retired family physician, 40 years, delivered more than 1500 babies, named America's Outstanding Family Physician Educator by the American Academy of Family Physicians / educator, served on the adjunct faculty of several medical schools and family medicine residencies / award-winning medical journalist and blogger for multiple radio and TV shows / M.D. degree, with AOA honors, Louisiana State University School of Medicine in 1977; B.S. degree was from Louisiana State University in 1974 / married to Barb, his childhood sweetheart, two adult children, two grandchildren