{"id":1008,"date":"2019-08-06T20:16:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T20:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2019-08-11T04:02:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T04:02:42","slug":"william-pharr-billy-stromberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddshistory.com\/?p=1008","title":{"rendered":"WILLIAM PHARR “BILLY” STROMBERG"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE SEAGOING ARMY OFFICER<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1ST<\/sup> Lieutenant Stromberg, Ft.\nReno Remount Station, Oklahoma 1952<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Billy Stromberg at his Caldwell County\nhome in 2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, I interviewed Billy\nStromberg when I began the series of biographies on the men and woman from Caldwell County who gave their lives for our\ncountry in World War II. His older brother Richard had been killed on New\nGeorgia in 1943 and Billy provided me with recollections and photos of his\nbeloved sibling. At that time, Billy mentioned his own service in the U.S.\nArmy, and I promised I\u2019d get back with him. I finally did, five years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thankful I did.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Pharr Stromberg was born in Caldwell County, Texas on June 27, 1929. He was the\nninth and youngest of six boys and three girls of Hjalmar Pharr Stromberg and\nEster Mary Ann (Sponberg) Stromberg. The Stromberg children spanned three\ndecades, with Billy\u2019s oldest sibling, Roland arriving in 1905. The Sponberg and\nStromberg families were part of a wave of Swedish immigrants arriving in and\naround the Central Texas area in the\n1870s. Many were fleeing famine that struck much of Scandinavia\naround that time. Most were farmers but there were also many professionals in\nthe group. Billy\u2019s grandfather, Richard Eustachius Stromberg was a pharmacist\nwho for a time worked at Tobin Drug Company on Congress\n Avenue in Austin. One\nbiographer sums up Billy\u2019s Swedish stock well: They were \u201cgood, strong, hard\nworking people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Stromberg family ranched and farmed in the north end of Caldwell County. Billy\u2019s childhood was typical of a farm and ranch kid \u2013lots of hard work. After three years at the tiny Mendoza School, he completed his schooling in Lockhart, taking the school bus ten miles into town every day. He graduated from Lockhart High School in 1947.  Billy was a serious young man, and his love of rural life, of raising and improving livestock came early and continues to this day. Like other young men in his family, he attended Texas A&M. A&M was an all-male military college, and he was assigned to A Company, Quartermaster Corps. His senior year, Cadet Major Stromberg also served as the Supply Officer for the Composite Engineers Regiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like most Aggies, he had a military\nobligation and requested upon commissioning appointment as a Reserve officer in\nthe U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps.  So\ndid his roommate, Gale Brundrett, from Refugio. Surprisingly, the Army honored\ntheir requests. After a sixteen week Quartermaster Officer\u2019s Training course at\nFt. Lee, Virginia, the two got lucky again.\nThey were assigned to the 9182nd<\/sup> Technical Service Unit at Fort Reno, Oklahoma in January 1952. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fort Reno has a colorful history. It was\nestablished in 1874 as a military post to protect an Indian agency from marauding tribes\nduring the Red River War. Soon, its role changed, as the Native Americans,\nmostly Southern Cheyenne and Southern\nArapaho, needed protection from Sooners rushing to settled the territory\u2019s\nUnassigned Lands. The post was abandoned after statehood, but the fort\u2019s\nRemount Depot remained. The United States Army needed horses for its cavalry up\nuntil World War II. The facility was turned over to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University)\nin 1948, but a portion of the post continued to function. Major Lee O. Hill QM,\nwhom Billy remembers well, explained the Remount Depot function in a 1952 Army\npublication:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nRemount Branch is now engaged in the procurement of horses and mules for Turkey, a sizable percentage of this procurement\nbeing comprised of breeding stock. In order to carry out the Foreign Aid Animal\nProcurement Programs, it has been necessary to activate the animal holding\nfacilities at the former Reno QM Remount Depot, Fort Reno, Okla., where the\nanimals, upon purchase, are sent for processing and conditioning prior to being\nshipped overseas. Animals shipped under this program have, according to\nreports, arrived in excellent condition, have measured up to required\nspecifications, and are serving most efficiently the purposes for which they\nare intended.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Because of his skill with horses, newly minted 2nd<\/sup> Lieutenant Stromberg became part of the United States\u2019 efforts at supplying Turkey, its new strategic partner and an uncomfortable neighbor to Joseph Stalin\u2019s USSR. The Army \u201cbought horses all over the country,\u201d he recalls. Horse traders began filling orders. Animals aged 4 to 8 years were purchased and shipped by train in cars holding twenty-five horses. Upon arrival, they were vaccinated and had their hooves trimmed. To ensure their quality, \u201cwe had to ride them.\u201d Billy chuckles when I ask if the animals were good mounts. \u201cThey were green broke at best!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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