Nine members of the Fairfield Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, attended a ceremony on August 6th to present the World War II Victory Medal to Emory Everett (E. E.) West. Comrade West, who resides in Teague, saw foreign combat duty in Germany in 1946 and has been a member of the Fairfield Post since the early seventies. Seventy years after the war, the well deserved and long delayed Victory Medal was awarded to E. E. West
West’s biography is typical for many men of “America’s Greatest Generation” in that he not only fought for the defense of his country’s freedom during the war, but he also had a great career after the war and made a great contribution to his local community.
When war broke out in 1945, E. E. West joined the US Army. He soon shipped out to Le Havre, France and went on to Bamberg Germany. There he was put in charge of a ten man Military Police squad charged with the defense of a Supply Depot and the US Post in general. During 11 months of combat skirmishes with German insurgents, West never lost any of his men. He was discharged in February 1947.
Upon his return to Teague after the war, he hired on with the Rock Island Railroad Line as a fireman and was eventually promoted to engineer. In that capacity, he ferried rail shipments from Houston to Galveston for many years. As a charter member of the Fairfield VFW Post, West has held numerous offices. Most recently, he was Post Judge Advocate for the 2015-2016 operations year.
Fairfield VFW Post Commander, Roger Brooke stated that E. E. West has the respect and admiration of all of the men of the VFW at the Post as well as at the District levels. He added, “We all appreciate the great war that the men of his generation waged to keep America free and we appreciate their valuable contribution to American society after the war.”
Submitted by Sr. Vice Commander Arne Henderson.
