My father was 52 when he passed. He was buried in the old pioneer cemetery in Williams, Oregon. He grew up in Chicago IL one of 11 children during the Great Depression.
Times were hard during the 1930’s and my grandfather and his oldest sons all worked hard to feed the rest of the family. Food was scarce so my grandfather allowed my dad to join the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne when he was 19-yrs old in early 1942 with his older brother who was later killed in action during the landing on Sicily.
My father saw 3-years of combat deployment as a BAR rifleman with the 82nd Airborne in Europe during WW2. He saw action in N. Africa, Sicily, Italy and France during D-Day.
