metro >> that's life
Ahead Of The Game
A retired Army major, 94, remains
young at heart.
Sue Pearl
Special to the Jewish News.
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26
November 1 • 2012
rving Steinberg, 94, loves to be sur-
rounded by young people. When
his children broached the subject
of their dad moving to an assisted liv-
ing facility, Steinberg replied, "No way
... I hate being around old people!"
He jokingly compares himself to a
used car. "The body may be getting old
on the outside, but on the inside it's
still strong as hell."
Born May 6, 1918, Steinberg grew
up with his brother and sister on
the east side of Detroit. He attended
Central High School and Wayne
University where he received his
degree in accounting that enabled
him to get his first job in the auditing
department at General Motors in the
Detroit Diesel Engine Division.
In 1940, at age 22, Steinberg was
drafted into the Army. "Within two
hours, I was shipped out to Camp
Grant, Ill.:' recalls Steinberg, who
scarcely had time to put his affairs in
order.
"We were given old uniforms from
World War I that smelled so strongly
of mothballs that it was hard to
breathe. We practiced our drills using
old broom handles because there were
no guns. If Hitler had known that, we
would have been invaded immedi-
ately!"
After leaving Camp Grant, Steinberg
was sent to Galveston, Texas, and then
on to the First Cavalry Division in
Fort Hood, Texas. "The First Cavalry
Division was one of the best combat
divisions in the Army," says Steinberg.
"Their finance department was look-
ing for accountants, and I was cho-
sen to work at their headquarters. I
became a staff sergeant"
When Steinberg heard that the
Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, he
made the decision to attend officer's
training school in Petersburg, Va. He
graduated as a second lieutenant in the
90-day program where everyone was
known as the "90-day wonders."
In December 1943, Steinberg, along
with 17,000 other troops, shipped
out of New York on the Queen Mary
without a naval escort. They traveled
for five days, surviving submarine
attacks, icebergs and frigid tempera-
tures. "When we arrived in Greenock,
Scotland, it was a miracle that the
Nazis, who were dropping flares all
around, weren't able to locate us," says
Irving Steinberg
Steinberg. "If we had been found, they
would have destroyed us all."
In the course of his five-and-a-half
years in the Army, Steinberg received
six battle stars, including a Bronze
Star for the Battle of the Bulge, where
he also became a major. His war
days were certainly filled with many
hardships, too. "I lost my best friend
who was shot during the Normandy
Invasion," Steinberg sadly recalls. "I
was supposed to take my troops out
that day, but my friend took my place
because I had just been made captain
and had been sent to headquarters
instead!'
Steinberg has other sad memories.
"During the Normandy Invasion,
my troops didn't have enough warm
footwear so we had to remove all the
dead German soldiers' boots and shoes
and put them on our own feet. The
Germans captured 100 of our young
soldiers. They shot and killed every
one of them."
Steinberg came home from the
Army in 1946, and one year later met
and married his first wife, Shirley.
"Shirley's dad and my uncle played on
the same baseball team at the Jewish
Community Center and that's how we
met:' says Steinberg. "Shirley insisted
that we get married, but I wanted to
wait until I could afford it. She told
me she would work as a teacher until
I could take over and that is what she
did for two years."
Steinberg and his brother owned
their own chemical company and
when that business started to do well,
Shirley quit working. "We raised our
two children, David and Margie, in
Detroit!'
In 1988, Shirley got pancreatic can-
cer, and Steinberg stayed home from
work for six months taking care of her
until she passed away. "We were mar-