Memorial Day/Veterans Day remembrances

[bobarossa]

In the USA, Memorial Day (last monday in May) is the day to commemorate veterans who died in service of the country. 

I finally found the photo of my uncle Orlando Bapst in a bag of my mother's pictures that had been misplaced for years.  I never knew Lando as he died at the age of 22, 12 years before I was born.  Since he never lived long enough to have offspring and all his siblings have been gone for at least 10 years now, I decided he should be remembered by someone.

Lando was a member of Co C, 331 Inf Reg, 83 Infantry Div.  I did some checking and his division was located just west of the area of attack for Operation Cobra.  He died the day before Cobra was to kick off.  Hopefully he was not one of the 25 soldiers killed in a friendly fire bombing incident on that day.

Feel free to add remembrances of your relatives or friends who have died.  I changed my avatar to Lando's picture.  I know most of the world uses NOV 11 for this so you can wait until then if you want.
 

[Gusington]

Good thread idea. My Uncle Irving served in the 84th Railsplitters (US Army) but was a Navy engineer by training. By the end of 1944 the unit was made up of a hodgepodge of American troops from all over the place, every branch.

Irving was deployed somewhere in or near the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. According to family history, he was killed when he fell into a trench or tank trap, and a tank fell in on top of him.

He was 26 years old. Like you, I know a lot about him but obviously never met him.