![]() ![]() I was having a hard time of it, and he and his wife Helen Mary took me under their wing. The first time I met him was at the airport in Anchorage, Alaska in 1969, when I was 23. He returned to the States to recuperate, and rejoined the 505 Parachute Infantry Combat Team in December for the Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Berlin. He’d been hit multiple times by automatic weapons fire. In September of 1944 he was badly wounded at the “ Battle of Arnhem, the Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II”. He fought all the way from North Africa to Berlin, at the tip of the spear. They were all on their own, until the regular infantry could fight its way through enemy lines to relieve them. ![]() In World War II t he Airborne’s mission was to jump behind enemy lines, and wreak havoc. ![]() In 1941 he was a sergeant in the Army, and when the 82nd Airborne Division was formed he volunteered. He fought with his father, ran off and lived on his own, doing men’s work, like teamstering and bucking hay. His mother was a devout Irish Catholic, who died in 1931 after giving birth to her ninth child. Pettyjohn II was born in a sod house on the White River, just north of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |