For the last few weeks Donna and I have been cleaning out Donna’s 96-year-old stepmother’s apartment. She recently fell and is now in a total care facility. We found a Purple Heart Medal that my wife thought was her father’s since he served as a Marine during WWII, but the back of the medal has the name of his brother, Richard S. Greene.
We know nothing about him. There is no one left to ask.
All of Richard’s brothers and sisters in the Greene family have passed away, and Donna’s stepmother’s memory has tapered to a slender thread. However, through the tenacity of our friends Larry and Maryann Williams and Larry’s sister, Angele, some things came together from documents and articles found by them on Ancestry.com.
Richard died on November 9th, 1944 in Northern France. He graduated from high school in 1943 and one month later joined the US Army. He must have scored well on his army tests because after basic training he was sent to Northeastern University in Boston for 4 months under a program that developed junior officers and soldiers that required special technical skills. But manpower needs must have trumped manpower planning. He was assigned to the 26th Infantry Division, 101st Regiment (The Yankee Division), and shipped out to Europe as a qualified machine gunner in September 1944.
According to records, he died from a fatal shoulder wound caused by artillery fire. From what we can speculate, his unit was working around Dieuze or Moncourt Woods in northern France. His lifespan did not extend to the Battle of The Bulge that started a month later. As part of Patton’s Third Army, his regiment distinguished itself in hard fighting and had a part in helping end the war in Europe. The Division’s last event was liberating a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, an action that presented hard witness for the soldiers’ sacrifice.
Richard was 19 years old and had a fiancé.
The news must have been tragic for his 5 brothers and sisters and in particular for my wife’s father, Donald, who was serving in the Marine Corps at the time. Richard’s obituary’s title in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle states, “Richard S. Greene, Machine Gunner”.
I am sure he was more than that in life. Even a 19-year old’s life creates widening ripples before and after the date of the obituary.
There are voluminous books about WWII and a cursory reading will teach a reader that one person alone did not affect the war’s outcome. But each soldier, taking small steps, taking even an inch of ground, gains progress toward the end of the conflict. Any US combat veteran will tell you that his friends didn’t die with thoughts of the Constitution, our democracy, or the security of the country… but by their actions, nourished its continued heartbeat.
And even though they didn’t know him, I’ll bet some of those concentration camp inmates appreciate him and his Purple Heart. God Bless Richard, RIP…
