“My dad was a radio operator in the 102nd Infantry Division, 405thRegiment, 3rd Battalion, Headquarters Company. He was a Staff Sergeant and also received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious duty during a week-long attack after crossing the Roer River.
I began collecting memorabilia around 2000. My collection focuses on the 102nd, however, it covers many other Divisions and service branches.
Some of the highlights that I have acquired are personal diaries, and photos, Addressograph dog tag machine, hand crank Army issue phonograph, life raft (with “Gibson Girl” emergency radio, oars, antenna kite, antenna balloon), dress uniforms, field uniforms, complete Army, Navy, Cadet nurse uniforms, various radios, etc.
I felt honored to loan a portion of my collection to a high school for their production of South Pacific.
My research into the 102nd Division allowed me to tell the stories of many of the soldiers in the division that didn’t come home. I have been able to send quite a few photos to the Faces of Margraten Project where the caretakers of the Margraten cemetery, in Netherlands, continue to place photos by each grave there. There are still many names without faces that they are hoping to identify.
Through my Facebook page, I was able to connect reporter in NY to the family of a soldier killed in Germany. His family had no idea of the story behind his death. I was able to give the firsthand account of another soldier, his buddy, that held him while he died.
I am currently part of a documentary about the atrocity at Gardelegen, Germany where over 1,000 political prisoners were massacred in a barn just three weeks before Germany surrendered.
Link to my WWII Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/405th102dOzarks/posts“
