He was serving as the company duty officer on the evening of December 6 and the morning of December 7, 1941, when Japanese forces launched their surprise aerial assault on Pearl Harbor. As the island plunged into chaos, Greene’s routine garrison oversight shifted instantly to crisis command. He became a central point of contact for a massive influx of frantic inquiries, tasked with tracking personnel, securing vital installations, and managing a deluge of requests from military families and local civilians desperate for information on missing loved ones. This intense period of emergency operations culminated in May 1942, when he returned to the United States in charge of a transport vessel transferring Japanese internees from Hawaii to the continental United States.
He subsequently joined the War Department General Staff in Washington, D.C., as Chief of the G-2 Central American Section, and following his graduation from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in May 1943, he was assigned to the Operations Division, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, and promoted to lieutenant colonel.
Desiring a combat command, Greene requested a transfer and arrived in the European Theater of Operations in November 1944 with the 76th Infantry Division, taking command of the 3rd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment. By early 1945, the division was heavily engaged in the Rhineland Campaign, pushing toward the German border. On February 7, 1945, Greene led his battalion in a high-risk, amphibious assault crossing of the flooded Sauer River near Echternach, Luxembourg. Facing rapid currents, steep terrain, and heavily fortified German pillboxes under intense enemy artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire, the operation was so tactically daunting that General George S. Patton remarked its sheer audacity was its chief virtue, as the terrain made a successful crossing seem nearly impossible. Despite these grueling conditions, Greene’s battalion successfully breached the German defenses and established a vital foothold that allowed the rest of the 417th Regimental Combat Team to advance into Germany. For their extraordinary heroism, determination, and indomitable fighting spirit during this critical operation, Greene’s battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
Following the cessation of hostilities in May 1945, Greene was assigned to the G-2 Division, Assembly Area Command in Rheims, France, to plan and execute troop rotations, and later to G-2 EUCOM in Frankfurt. His duties as a staff intelligence officer included observing the Nuremberg war crime trials, monitoring the Soviet withdrawal from Czechoslovakia, and conducting liaison work with Allied Forces and the Papal Mission in Kronberg, earning him the French Medal of Gratitude. Returning to the United States in 1948, he served on the Army Personnel Records Board and held troop assignments with the 17th Airborne Division and the 3rd Infantry Division. In the early 1950s, he returned to West Germany as the Senior U.S. Army Intelligence Officer for Headquarters, Berlin Command, navigating intense friction and frequent casualties during the East German uprisings. His final assignment was as Professor of Military Science at Florida State University, where he oversaw the significant growth and integration of the Army ROTC program. He was promoted to colonel in December 1954 and officially retired from military service in February 1957.
As a collector of both 76th Division AND Pearl Harbor survivor militaria, I couldn’t ever ask for more out of a grouping.
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