Arden Pridgeon was born on April 5, 1924, in Isabella County, Michigan.
In April 1943 he was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program and in the summer he was drafted. He received an advanced form of basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia and in December 1943 he went to University of Wisconsin for the Army Specialized Training Program. In March 1944 he completed his term there and the ASTP was shut down. Arden then received orders to join the 96th Infantry Division and was assigned to G Company, 381st Infantry Regiment.
He trained in Oregon and California before deploying to the Pacific Theater on July 15, 1944.
He participated in the invasion of Leyte, Philippines, on October 20, 1944, and the subsequent Battle of Leyte which ended on December 25, 1944. In April 1945 he participated in the invasion and the Battle of Okinawa.
Upon being wounded on April 15 he was evacuated to Guam for treatment and Saipan for retraining.
He returned to Okinawa on June 1, 1945, and continued to fight. In mid-July 1945 he and the rest of the unit moved to Mindoro to train for the invasion of Japan.
With the war over, he opted to return to the United States and landed at San Francisco on January 4, 1946, and was discharged on January 11, 1946. |
