Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
This Memorial Day, I've thought about my namesake--I guess because I'm getting older.
Uncle Robert, my great uncle, fought in the Italian campaign. He was one of the first GI's to reach the bombed monastary at Monte Cassino. He was included in an Ernie Pyle story that was later made into a movie (I forget the name of the movie). He wrote home that the weather that winter was so bad that he didn't take off his boots for two months.
Somewhere between Monte Cassino and Anzio he was wounded and returned to the States to recover. I'm told that because he was married he didn't have to go back but after discovering his bride was running around on him he returned overseas (in a twist of fate, his wife and two gentlemen friends were later killed in a car wreck).
Uncle Robert is listed as a non-combat casualty. He died in Luxemburg, supposedly of a blood clot that went to his lungs. His body was later returned to the States and he rests in Orwood Cemetary in western Lafayette Co., Mississippi. I keep telling myself I'm going to do more research on his movements during the war and I shame myself for not finding the time.
Thanks for reading--especially to those who've lost someone a lot closer than a great uncle they've never met.
Uncle Robert, my great uncle, fought in the Italian campaign. He was one of the first GI's to reach the bombed monastary at Monte Cassino. He was included in an Ernie Pyle story that was later made into a movie (I forget the name of the movie). He wrote home that the weather that winter was so bad that he didn't take off his boots for two months.
Somewhere between Monte Cassino and Anzio he was wounded and returned to the States to recover. I'm told that because he was married he didn't have to go back but after discovering his bride was running around on him he returned overseas (in a twist of fate, his wife and two gentlemen friends were later killed in a car wreck).
Uncle Robert is listed as a non-combat casualty. He died in Luxemburg, supposedly of a blood clot that went to his lungs. His body was later returned to the States and he rests in Orwood Cemetary in western Lafayette Co., Mississippi. I keep telling myself I'm going to do more research on his movements during the war and I shame myself for not finding the time.
Thanks for reading--especially to those who've lost someone a lot closer than a great uncle they've never met.
