This soldier did not see combat; he dealt with WWII’s aftermath.
He travelled through destroyed towns in France and Germany and saw old people and children picking up rubble to make homes. Guarded German POWs. Met Displaced Persons in camps. Aimed his M-1 Carbine at U.S. Army Military Police. These were some of Private Floyd Cheatwood’s actions in 1946 at age 19 while occupying defeated Germany after WWII.
Eighty years later and 5,125 miles from that, Cheatwood was the center of attention oan June 11, 2026, as 70 family, friends and fellow residents celebrated his 99th birthday at the Norman Veterans Center.
Cheatwood was drafted to active duty Army Air Corps service on August 19, 1945, before WWII ended. After basic military training, he went to several locations in the United States before de-boarding a troop ship in Le Havre, France, in January, 1946. In February, he arrived at his assigned unit, 9th Aviation Engineer Command, Erlangen Army Airfield, Bavaria, Germany.
Erlangen Duty
Soldiers slept and worked at Ferris Barracks, a former Wehrmacht post with little war damage. “They rebuilt it before we got there and that was the best barracks I ever stayed in. It had those marble floors and bathtubs.”
Cheatwood’s primary duty was to repair special purpose, heavy-duty bulldozers and other civil engineering construction equipment. He served there through August, 1946, before departing on emergency leave to the United States because his step-mother died.
Additional Duty
“I was in the bed (of a two-and-a-half-ton truck), guarding four prisoners. I was sitting there with a carbine across my lap. The guy that was driving was reckless, turned the corner real quick. I went out in the bed of the truck, and the rifle went over, slid against the cab. I was thinking, ‘Well, I’ve had it now.” You know, a new soldier. They gingerly got out of their seat, all four of them, went over there and picked me up, took me back and set me on the bench, and put the rifle back in my lap,” he said, smiling. “And right then I just thanked the good Lord for what was happening. All they wanted to do was go home. The war was over. They did not want any problems.” He guarded up to 19 Germans at a time.
Military Police Incident
“My sergeant told me to guard the building…not let nobody in the driveway. He said it was some stuff being stolen.” A jeep full of MPs pulled up and Cheatwood told them they could not park there. “One said, ‘Do you think you could get that carbine around before I got this .45 out of the holster?’ And crazy me, I pointed the rifle right at his throat and that was kind of scary. And I said, ‘Buddy, I’ve got a round in the chamber.’ One of them in the back seat said, ‘Well, we can park somewhere else because the kid is just doing what he’s told.’” Cheatwood said, “I thank the Lord that it didn’t come to that because I had the rifle pointing right at his throat. I felt bad about that ever since.” Was a bullet in the rifle’s chamber? No. “I played their bluff.”
Displaced Persons
“I talked to some of those people from Denmark, Sweden,” Cheatwood said. “They was in the next compound compared to our compound. The fence was 20 feet high. They had thousands that had come there from being repatriated, waiting for somebody to put them on the paths to where they could go back home.” This was the Erlangen Displaced Camp which held 822 people who were Holocaust survivors, forced laborers and refugees, according to Arolsen Archives.
It’s the Army or Me
After his step-mother’s funeral, Cheatwood didn’t return to Germany. Instead, he qualified as a paratrooper, rode gliders and worked on heavy equipment at various Army posts. He was honorably discharged as an E-5 Staff Sergeant in August, 1949. As a civilian, he worked for Halliburton, the City of Oklahoma City, and at Transcon.
Cheatwood did not reenlist. Why? He stated, “Fell in love…She said either the Army or me so I became a poor, foolish civilian.” So, he married Helen Jean Spaniel from Seminole in 1948. They were married 48 years before she died. After four years, he married Elva Jean, who died in 2015.
Older brother Ralph fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, 31-year career. Younger brother Charles fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, 20-year career. Floyd’s family includes one son, Tommy Lynn Cheatwood, and daughters Susan Ann Chavez, who is a retired U.S. Army Reserve nurse, and Marilyn K. Cheatwood. • Story by Lt. Col. Richard Stephens, Jr., USAFR, Ret. website: Rich Travel Niche
