Today I am proud to share the names of several men -- boys really -- who died in the great cause to save the world from bloodthirsty tyrants who would have everyone goosestepping to the same xenophobic tune.
John N. Wilson (Nebraska): Colonel Wilson was my grandfather's friend and commanding officer. He was strict, but loved the men under his command. After organizing the 219th Field Artillery in California, he commanded the unit until July 11, 1944. On that evening, he and a squad walked into a German machine gun emplacement in the dreaded hedgerows of Normandy. He is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery and Colleville-sur-mer, France.
Frank B. Van Gundy (Kansas): Sergeant Van Gundy was one of the original Kansas National Guardsmen folded into the 219th following Pearl Harbor. He was killed with John Wilson and is interred at Colleville-sur-mer.
PFC Harlan V. Safrit (North Carolina): Private Safrit tripped a landmine near St. Nicholas, France in the fall of 1944.
PFC Joseph Ruse (New Jersey), Second Lt. Pete Boese (Kansas), Second Lt. Benjamin Mills (Kansas), Sergeant Vaughn Parker (Kansas): These men, in addition to two others not identified in my grandfather's diary, died attempting to assist a wounded officer on February 9, 1944. The Army's official KIA date is February 24, 1945, but I tend to trust my grandfather's memory on this one. The only time I saw him cry was when he referred to this incident. Boese, Mills, and Parker had all served with my grandfather in the Kansas National Guard since 1939, and died just three months short of the end of the war in Europe. They and Pvt. Ruse are buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands.
It is more than likely that anyone who knew these men personally is gone. They died so young, of course, that they forfeited many of the things we take for granted: marriage, children, careers, and even growing old. It is my hope that by naming them here, at least a hint of their memory will endure a little while longer.
