George Juskalian (; June 7, 1914 – July 4, 2010) was a decorated Colonel of the United States Army who served for over three decades and fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Following graduation from Boston University, Juskalian entered the army as a second lieutenant in June 1936. During World War II, he served with the infantry during the North African Campaign and took part in Operation Torch. At the Battle of the Ousseltia Valley, he was captured by German troops and became a prisoner of war (POW) for twenty-seven months. During the Korean War he commanded an infantry battalion. He was then stationed in Tehran where he acted an advisor to the Imperial Iranian Army throughout 1957 and 1958. During the Vietnam War, Juskalian once again undertook advisory duties, working with the South Vietnamese Army between 1963 and 1964, before serving as the MACV inspector general under General William Westmoreland.
Juskalian retired as a colonel in 1967 and is one of the most decorated Armenian-Americans to serve in the United States Army. His awards include two Combat Infantryman Badges, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Stars and the Air Medal. He received the Nerses Shnorali Medal from the Catholicos of All Armenians in 1988. The post office in his home town of Centreville, Virginia, has been named the "Colonel George Juskalian Post Office Building" in his honor.
Early life George Juskalian was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on June 7, 1914, the youngest son of Armenian parents Kevork Juskalian (1861–1938) and Maritza Ferrahian (1876–1960). George's father, Kevork, was from Kharpert, Ottoman Empire, and his mother Maritza was from Arapkir, Ottoman Empire.
Kevork Juskalian was among the earliest graduates of the Euphrates College in Kharpert, completing his studies around 1881. He served as a minor official of the local Turkish government in Mezire, a village near Kharpert. He was then invited to work in the Persian consulate in Mezire until he was recalled by the Turkish government to serve as supervisor of eleven villages in the region of Kharpert. Kevork Juskalian felt that there was no secure future for him in Ottoman Turkey and subsequently fled to the United States with his family, arriving at Ellis Island on November 15, 1887. Consequently, the Juskalian family became some of the first Armenians to come to the United States. Kevork found a job at the Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Armenian Church of Our Savior on January 18, 1891.
In 1893, Kevork returned to Kharpert and married Maritza Ferrahian, daughter of Krikor and Yeghisapet (Yesayan) Ferrahian. Due to the Hamidian massacres, Kevork and Maritza returned to the United States and Kevork rejoined the Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works company.
Juskalian, who grew up in Fitchburg, attended the local schools and graduated from Fitchburg High School in 1932. He continued his education at Boston University, graduating in 1936 with a bachelor's degree in science, journalism.
Military service While studying at Boston University, Juskalian undertook military training as part of the Reserve Officers Training Corps. On graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army, and in June 1936, was assigned as an administrative officer of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Brewster, Massachusetts, where he helped build a national park.
After leaving active service, Juskalian had intended to study law at the American University in Washington, D.C., but when his father died in 1938, he gave up this plan and returned to Fitchburg to reunite with his mother and assist his brother-in-law's dry-cleaning business. That year, after passing a government exam, Juskalian became a fingerprint classifier for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and took part in the search for John Dillinger, who was on the "Top 10 Most Wanted" list. He then volunteered for active service in 1939.
Juskalian was called to active duty at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and was promoted to the rank as first lieutenant in November 1940. Juskalian was given command of a 200-man company after the reorganization of the 1st Infantry Division. In February 1942, Juskalian was promoted to captain and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida, before moving to Fort Benning, Georgia and then Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania, for additional training and combat readiness evaluation. In August 1942, Juskalian boarded the RMS Queen Mary, and along with the other 15,000 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, was shipped to Europe.
World War II North African Campaign
The soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division are believed to be among the first American troops shipped out to the European theater during the war. The division landed near Glasgow, Scotland, then proceeded to a British Army base near London to continue training. Juskalian, who became the assistant plans and operations officer on the regimental staff, went to Inveraray, Scotland, to train for the North African Campaign.
Juskalian then took part in Operation Torch as part of the 1st Infantry Division's 26th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Theodore Roosevelt Jr. The Allies, who had organized three amphibious task forces, aimed to seize key ports and airfields in Morocco and Algeria while simultaneously targeting Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. Juskalian's unit was part of the task force that invaded through the port of Oran.
Landing in Oran on November 8, 1942, the 1st Infantry Division's primary objective was to confront the German Afrika Korps commanded by Erwin Rommel, while its secondary objective was to support Bernard Law Montgomery's advance against the Italian forces. Eventually, the 1st Infantry Division broke through the German resistance and scaled Mount Djebel. Oran fell to the Allies on November 10 and Juskalian's unit advanced east into Tunisia, reaching the Algeria–Tunisia border by January 15, 1943. There, the task force met resistance from German and Italian troops.
German prisoner of war As the fighting continued into the Makthar Valley, Juskalian was assigned to the 26th Infantry Regiment's headquarters. When attempting to save the life of a fellow soldier following heavy fighting, he was captured by German troops at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia on January 28. Juskalian described his capture as follows: "One of our intelligence officers had gone out to check on the situation, and word came back that he'd been wounded and was out there somewhere. So another officer and I went out in a Jeep and found him, but he was dead. Then we came under fire, so we couldn't drag him out of there." After telling the driver to return to the command post, Juskalian investigated the conditions of the other U.S. soldiers. "I thought they were all right because we hadn't heard anything from them, but they'd been overrun by the Germans." Having lost his glasses, Juskalian could not distinguish the soldiers that were approaching him from 50 feet (15 m) away. The soldiers were Germans and took him prisoner. Juskalian said about his capture, "I was irritated with myself for being so foolhardy, I shouldn't have been there." Juskalian later learned, while still a prisoner of war (POW), that he had been awarded the Silver Star for his rescue attempt. After his first two days of being a POW, he was promoted to major.
Oflag IX-A/Z in Rotenburg, Germany Juskalian spent the next twenty-seven months as a POW and was held in various camps in Italy, Poland and Germany. After being interrogated in Kairouan, he was sent to Tunis and flown to Naples. The planes flew at a low altitude as Juskalian described: "They flew about 100 feet above the Mediterranean because they were afraid that, if they flew higher, the American fighter planes—not knowing POWs were inside—would see us and shoot us down." The POWs were sent to Oflag IX-A/Z British POW camp in Rotenburg an der Fulda where they remained until June 6, 1943, when they were transferred to Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland.
The British POWs provided the Americans with necessary advice regarding the camp life and shared rations and clothing sent by the British Red Cross. The British, who were in the process of digging an escape tunnel, requested help from the Americans. Juskalian would later describe the operation: "I volunteered, although I have had claustrophobia ever since a boyhood friend shut me up in a wood bin for a prank. When I look back at it, I wonder how I did it. Some nights when I think about it, I break out in a cold sweat. Somehow, I was able to summon up the will to do it. The tunnel was already some 80 to 100 feet long. It extended underground beyond the barbed wire fence, but those in charge wanted to lengthen it so that the opening would come out below ground level on the steep side near the bank of the Fulda River. In that way when the tunnel was broken open, the escapees could not be seen by the guards in the towers."
The tunnel was about 3 feet (1 m) high by 3 feet (1 m) wide. Lighting in the tunnel was provided by makeshift candles. The prisoners used improvised digging tools and shovels that were constructed from British biscuit cans and their handles made from the wooden slats of their beds. The tins were also used to create a pipe for fresh air to funnel through the tunnel with the assistance of a hand-cranked fan at the entrance of the tunnel. A sled, made of wooden slats with a tine base to make it slide easily over the earthen tunnel floor, was used to haul the sandbags. Juskalian described the method that was used to dispose the sand: "The method used to conceal the sand was ingenious. The sand was poured into burlap bags made surreptitiously from Red Cross parcel wrappings then passed rapidly along a makeshift fire brigade line through the building and up into the attic. There it was dumped between the outer and inner walls where there was a wide space for insulation. Literally tons of sand could be disposed of there before the space would be filled."
Before the tunnel had been completed, the American POWs were transferred to Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland. Juskalian estimated that if the tunnel had been dug for another 100 feet, it would reach its destination at the bank of the Fulda River. Two American POWs pretended to be sick to remain in the Rotenburg camp and to continue working on the tunnel and ultimately escape. The two Americans, who eventually rejoined the rest of the American POWs in Oflag 64, relayed the news that the tunnel had been discovered by the German guards who had learned of its existence after planting a spy among the POWs.
Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland
Juskalian spent nineteen-and-a-half of his twenty-seven months imprisonment in Oflag 64. The POWs in the camp undertook various leisure activities including staging plays, playing music, reading, athletics, and learning languages. While there, Juskalian became an editor of a monthly newspaper that was published with the assistance of a guard who owned a local printing shop. The newspaper featured "stories from home, cartoons, pictures of pin-up girls and girlfriends and articles about camp sports and activities".
In June 1944 the American POWs held a party on the first anniversary of being in the camp. The party coincided with the Normandy landings, and the Germans suspected that the American POWs had purposely planned the party because they had prior knowledge of the Allied invasion. The commandant of Oflag 64 called higher headquarters for advice and assistance. Eventually the German Gestapo searched the Americans' rooms for evidence of outside communication. However, Juskalian shared one of the cigars his brother-in-law, Hagop Chiknavorian, had given him, with the officer undertaking the search who soon became "distracted and softened".
Oflag XIII B in Hammelburg, Germany