Steve, my Dad served with E-Co., 2nd Bn, 39th Inf Reg, 9th Infantry Division
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His first combat experience was to have the USS Thomas Stone torpedoed out from under him while approaching the first landing in North Africa in 1942. He served in every major campaign (8) that the 9th participated in during WW2:
Algeria-French Morocco
Tunisia
Sicily
Normandy
Northern France
Ardennes-Alsace
Rhineland
Central Europe
He has always claimed to have been the 2nd soldier of the 9th Division to have seen Cherbourg France just before the siege. He saw it when he raised his head up out of a foxhole behind a hedgerow, and found himself peering through a very large projectile hole through the head of the man kneeling in front of him... the man had remained motionless after being struck. It is a vision that still haunts him.
He was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor, and two Purple Hearts... The first for a shell or grenade fragment in his ankle, The second wound was received just weeks before the end of the war in Europe. A MG bullet through his upper left thigh while running through a field outside of Winterberg Germany. It took him out of the action for the rest of the war.
This September 23-24-25th, the 9th Infantry Division Association will celebrate it's 60th Annual Reunion in Washington, DC. and hold it's memorial service at the WW2 memorial. I am proud to be part of the reunion committee, and one of the co-founders of the Sons & Daughter's Auxiliary of the 9th Infantry Division Association...
He truely is one of the Greatest Generation, and has always been my personal hero... The toughest guy I have ever known, now walks with a cane, favoring the leg where he was wounded...
As we approach Memorial Day, my hat is off to all of his generation whose sacrifices gave us the freedoms we enjoy today... your Dad included of course
