Thats cooooool! Adam, and he is a welder! I have a connection where WWII forks can find each other, I'll do the digging.
Oh, unless we are missing each other, It says he was a welder in his current/present occupation, I thought that was very Cool!
He obviously did something out of the ordinary if he got the Bronze Star, and must have been wounded to get the Purple Heart.
I am not sure what the bronze star was for, but he was shot through his right arm to earn the purple heart.
Grizzly Adam , I have a military doc on him to send. Cannot figure out how to save it so I can get it to you.
ancestry.com. I sent one to your email too so you could zoom in on it. Most those docs have poor resolution, think they were copied from microfiche. Also, I used to have a public library card in my previous town. It gave me online access to heritage.com.
And to further flesh out the story, this is taken from the 134th After-Action Report: December 12 - 15: At 0500, 12 December, the 1st Bn. commenced crossing the Blies River, with B and C Companies entering the town of Habkirchen, Germany. This was the first actual occupation of German soil by more than patrols within this Corps. "B" and "C" Companies held this bridgehead alone for 48 hours against the repeated counterattacks of over 300 SS troops and tanks. During this period, the two companies suffered high casualties, including the Company Commander and all officers but one of B Company. The Company Commander of C organized and reorganized and made one of the most dramatic defenses of a bridgehead in the annals of the campaign. On 13 December, the 2nd Bn. crossed the Blies River and seized Hill 307 while the 1st and 3rd, who were able to reinforce the remnants of Companies B and C after their brilliant stand, continued to mop up Habkirchen, receiving heavy artillery fire. On 14 December, a Class 40 Bailey bridge was constructed at that location. All units were under continuous heavy artillery fire.
