I am amazed actually at how many people said "My Dad" and not grandpa or Great Grandpa.

Keep the pics coming please.

Amazingly.. None of my immediate family served in WWII. They were farmers and were deferred from the draft. In 1944 my grandfather was 34 and grandmother was 31 with 2 kids.

But.. I decided to share some locals from my area that I have researched a little for one reason or another..

William Thompson

He had enlisted in the United States Army. Served during World War II. Thompson had the rank of Staff Sergeant. Service number assignment was 38297251. Attached to 84th Infantry Division, 334th Infantry Regiment.

S/Sgt William G Thompson enlisted on 17 November 1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

On 19 December 1944 S/Sgt Thompson was performing duties of the platoon sergeant in addition to his other duties ... On the day of his death he was a squad leader of the Third squad of the Anti-Tank Platoon of First Battalion Headquarters Company.

The mission of his platoon was to provide anti-tank protection for his battalion, which had just taken the town of Wurm, Germany ... The enemy barrage became increasingly severe, and S/Sgt Thompson ordered the men in his crew to take cover.

However, realizing the importance of anti-tank protection in the likely event of an enemy counter attack, he remained in an exposed position to complete the task of placing one gun in action ... By so doing, he lost his life when an enemy artillery shell exploded against the house wall above him ... His self-sacrifice has been a source of inspiration to the men of his company.
William G Thompson is buried or memorialized at Plot A Row 7 Grave 27, Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands.

Clifton Weaver

(I don't have the story in front of me so I will shoot from the hip and memory) The Story is that on the 23 of January in France US units were trying to cross the Ruhr at the closing of the Battle of the Bugle.

Engineers had build a baily bridge. The Platoon leader later said that the Machine gun was too heavy for one man to carry, but during the battle Clifton ran across the baily bridge carrying the machine gun and he set up alone on the other side of the river. Clifton was killed by enemy fire.

While his actions did not stop the german advance, it did buy enough time for parts of his platoon to cross the baily bridge and set up on the other side and stop the german crossing at that river point.

Roy Edward Ridgeway.

Roy was a waist gunner on a b-29 in the CBI. His plane collided with another during a night training exercise and his plane and full crew fell into the Bay of Bengal South of Calcutta. His body was never recovered.

It was said from his Unkle: "I took him to the train station to report to camp and that was the last time that I ever saw him.:

This post was edited on 12/8/23 at 9:36 am