Otis Grant was a former Borger High School Student who voluntarily entered the Infantry on 5 September 1944. He went overseas 15 January 1945. Prior to entering the service he worked for Huber Corporation.

He was serving in Germany with the 3rd Army at the time the unit captured the “gold store” of Germany. Pvt. Grant was in the 90th Infantry Division, 359th Infantry Regiment when he met his untimely death just 30 days before the Victory in Europe. The 90th Infantry was made up of a group of men from Texas and Oklahoma. They wore a red patch on their shoulder with T0 which came be know to mean “Tough Ombre”.

A picture of Otis Grant in uniform

Otis was born on 16 May 1926 in Armstrong County to parents Otis Henry and Delly Belle (Leathers) Grant. Otis was the third child of six Grant children. Stearling was the oldest Donald was second and Otis third. In the late 1920’s the Grant family moved to Borger in the northern Texas Panhandle. The Grant’s had three more children William “Dutch”, Minnie Jean and Melvin. Of the six only two survive him Stealing and Melvin.

On 4 April, as it paused to allow the rest of the 12th Army Group to catch up, the Third Army made two notable discoveries. Near the town of Merkers, elements of the 90th Infantry Division found a sealed salt mine containing a large portion of the German national treasure. The hoard included vast quantities of German paper currency, stacks of priceless paintings, piles of looted gold and silver jewelry and household objects, and an estimated $250,000,000 worth of gold bars and coins of various nations. The other discovery which the Third Army made on 4 April horrified and angered those who saw it. When the 4th Armored Division and elements of the 89th Infantry Division captured the small town of Ohrdruf, a few miles south of Gotha, they found the first concentration camp to be taken by the western Allies. Although the weeks to come would reveal much larger camps, this first look at the apex of Nazi inhumanity could not have been more shocking. For those who saw it, the camp was graphic evidence that the Allied cause was just, and the quick and decisive annihilation of the Third Reich a brutal necessity.

Otis Grant's obituary

Otis L. Grant’s name is memorialized on the Memorial in our own Huber Park as well as the Panhandle Memorial in Amarillo.

Adopter Desiree tending to the grave of PVT Otis Grant

WWII memorial in Huber Park in Borger, Texas

“THANKS TO OUR YANKS

It cannot be said that Hutchinson County located in the northern Texas Panhandle did not contribute it share during World War II. A small county of approximately 35,000 people contributed about 2000 men to the service of our country. Most of the servicemen were volunteers not waiting to be drafted but volunteering so as to pick the branch of service they wished to serve in. It has been said that Hutchinson County had more volunteers for its size that any county in the nation.

On March 25, 1944 our local newspaper THE BORGER DAILY HERALD published a Special edition newspaper 8 section containing 96 pages with 1700 pictures of men and women in uniform serving our country. Finding that many servicemen had been missed on April 9, 1944 they published a 10 page supplement bringing the total number of servicemen to about 2000.

The losses were great for this county as 91 were KIA (killed in action). The local Veteran’s organizations and the community have erected a beautiful memorial in Huber Park in Borger, Texas. On the back side of the Memorial names of all KIA’s from all wars from this county are engraved. A space has been provided for veterans or their families to place memorial plaques for their loved ones.

During the war years Borger provided many different types of materials for the war effort. The northern part of the county had wheat farming and cattle ranching. The southern part of the county produced oil, gasoline refining, a rubber plant and many carbon black plants that produced the carbon used in tires. Boyd A. Alexander and Otis L. Grant were both from Hutchinson County, Texas. They attended different High Schools Boyd at Phillips High and Otis at Borger High, both are now buried at Margraten. There may be others from our county at Margraten but they are not known to this researcher.