1942 world war II

Your Dad's military uniform was full of medals (ribbons) hanging in the front bedroom closet and he even was awarded the purple heart. I remember that I was shown the religious medal that he wore inside his uniform during combat that apparently saved his life. The medal was dented.

~ Les Young

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The only thing he brought back from the war was a German Luger. He told me he saw "statues of diamonds." I told him, "Kenneth, you could have been rolling in diamonds." He said, "When you hear bullets and see guys dying next to you, that’s the last thing you think of is getting money out of this. But the luger would protect me."

~ Andrew Young

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In 1942, after finishing college, he was offered a commission in the Army. He turned it down because he said he wanted to lead the troops.

Because Kenneth knew electronics, they put him in advance scout. He was a tech sergeant, 3 stripes with "T" underneath. He was basically a foot soldier who knew technical information. He was one of 4-5 people that went ahead of the troops. He was trained at Fort Monmouth, NJ and was in the Signal Corp, a branch of the special forces. His job was to send information in morse code back to headquarders.

He was in the war in Europe. He didn’t carry any arms. He was with the advanced troops in North Africa first, then Sicily. He was injured in Sicily, with shrapnel in the kidney area near the spinal column, which the doctors couldn’t remove. After one week in the hospital, he was back in action. They landed in Anzio, Italy where he was injured again. He received the Purple Heart and the Oak Leaf Cluster. The Oak Leaf is given for a second wartime injury.

There was a Red Cross telegram to our mother. We didn't know what to expect. It said, your son tech 5 or 3 is now recovering in the hospital from an injury.

When they landed in Anzio, he had lots of young soldiers with him. It was dark. The Germans were shining lights in the water. They were coming in on LSTs. Don’t make noise, he would tell them. They will fire at any noise or object. He went under water until the light stopped. They landed in darkness. Young soldiers, barely 20, would call out, "Mama!," so the Germans would shine the light on them and shoot them.

They landed at Marseilles. There was an incident – the troops advanced, captured a town. There were motorcycles with sidecars, all lined up nicely with keys in. Kenneth told the Lieutenant he didn’t like the set up. The Lieutenant said, Nah, nah, I know what I’m doing. Kenneth had a Reader’s Digest, and went into the bushes under a tree. The town was vacant. He was reading his book in a shady area. All of a sudden, there was mortar shell, and it killed some of the troops. The Lieutenant said nothing.

His buddy in Chicago got killed with him. He went to the house to talk to the parents. He said it was brutal, blood all over, people screaming... can't save them. You are so occupied and scared, you don't think.

~ Joe Young

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