Legacy Chronicles

Chronicle XIII Prelude Before he left for war, he was required to sign a document. A Last Will and Testament. It did not describe distribution. It read more like a promise…to take care of her if he did not return. In that moment a responsibility was assumed. It appeared to be a standard requirement, something…

Before continuing with the Chronicles of a Legacy, there is something that must be understood. What you are about to read is not presented in strict chronological order. It may appear, at times, to move backward or forward in time. That is intentional. Because this is not simply a record of events. It is the…

Chronicle II – The Prologue France 1944 – A young American soldier of the Greatest Generation The Soldier He began at Yale when he received the call to duty. In an era when Ivy League halls were largely reserved for the affluent, he had already stepped into a world few young men from his background…

Camp Edison, New Jersey – Signal Corps. Training (Original Photo framed for preservation) In 1944, a young American soldier reported for duty at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, home of the United States Army Signal Corps. Fort Monmouth served as the center of military communications training during the Second World War. The Signal Corps was responsible…

Signal Corps Memorandum Book – November 26-27, 1944 Artistic reconstruction of Allied land craft approaching the Normandy coast during rough English Channel weather in World War II. Used here to illustrate the conditions soldiers experienced when crossing to France. By late November 1944, Allied forces had already secured much of Normandy following the landings on…

A temporary Signal Corps encampment near Gonfreville, France, November 1944. Soldiers often bivouacked in conditions like these while awaiting movement and maintaining operations. My father remained bivouacked in this area for approximately two weeks. Location of Gonfreville, France where my father bivouacked for approximately two weeks after arriving in Normandy in November 1944. Transcript in…

“Dec 13 Left for Cherbourg.” In the days following Christmas 1944, my father recorded a brief note, one that stood apart from the rhythm of his daily memorandum entries. It did not describe a destination. It did not reflect on the day. It simply recorded what had been seen along the way. Memorandum Transcript Dec.…

This entry was not written to introduce a new event, but to bring into view what the previous Chronicles begin to form. The photographs shown here represent two points in time. One at the beginning, and one near the end. In the first, taken in 1944, my father is twenty-one years old. He appears as…

Transcript Entry: 25 Dec 1944- Spent a very a quiet, lonesome Christmas Day, thinking of you darling. 2 Jan 1945 – Our First Anniversary ho & I thought of you every minute. Christmas Day, 1944 He wrote just one line. “Spent a very quiet, lonesome Christmas Day thinking of you darling.” There is a stillness…

January 15, 1945… Memorandum Transcript Jan 15 – Left Utah Beach, arrived at St. Mère-Église for what I might call a 3 day rest. Visited one of our largest cemeteries of this war. “Really a sight I’ll never forget hon.” (Refers to my mother) Pictures of a US Cemetery in SAINTE-MÈRE-ÉGLISE, Normandy less than a…