re: Relatives that served in World War 2

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quote:

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95% of his unit parachuted into Bastogne

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The 101st didn’t jump into Bastogne. They were sent there in the back of Duce & a halfs.


As for combat jumps, the 101st made two such jumps in WWII:

June 1944: Operation Overlord
September 1944: Operation Market Garden

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Correct, I misspoke. 95% of his unit parished in Bastogne. Back in the early 90s I drove my grandparents to his buddy's 70th birthday party. There were only 3 of them there.

That side of my family is a billboard for 21andme/ancestory.com. My grandpa was born out of wedlock and my great grandmother married a gentleman who raised him as his own. Then the next generation my dad was adopted in the early 50s and about a decade later the adoption agency went up in fire so the only thing we know is that he was half German and half Austrian.

I'm big into the what-ifs of history. I doubt my parents would've met had my grandfather not mustered out before being shipped to Europe. (My dad was born 60 miles south and adopted through the Lutheran/WELS adoption agency.) Frankly in my 20s I wondered if there was a connection with the NAZI POWs who fraternized with the local women due to my dad's ancestry. I'm the last of the 50//25/25. Due to a variety of ethnicities on my wife's side (and a name change sometime in 1800s TN to avoid the law), my kids' what-ifs are off the charts.