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Personal info

Full name
EMERY, James Robert
Date of birth
18 September 1925
Age
19
Place of birth
The Covina Hospital, Covina, Los Angeles County, California
Hometown
Cook County, Illinois

Military service

Service number
36947071
Rank
Private
Function
Ammunition Bearer
Unit
A Company,
1st Battalion,
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
82nd Airborne Division,
3rd Platoon
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
7 April 1945
Place of death
Northern riverbank of the Rhine at Hitdorf-am-Rhein
Hitdorf-am-Rhein, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
C 18 18

Immediate family

Members
John R. Emery (father)
Eva M. (Havens) Emery (mother)
John W. Emery (brother)
Coral Ann Emery (sister)

Biography

www.freewebs.com/a504

More information

"We got to the far bank at Hitdorf and landed right on a minefield. One of my ammunition bearers, James Emery, was killed in that field. That was my first experience with a man crying for his mother in the middle of the night, and this close. It was the most heartbreaking experience you ever heard. You heard the man crying for his mother and his arms and legs were already gone. He moved around on a couple of more mines and that ended it."
Leonhard Keck in an interview with Frank van Lunteren, November 2005.

Source of information: Frank van Lunteren, www.ancestry.com - Headstone and Interment Record / Family Trees / 1940 Census

Photo source: Dennis en Gerda Hermsen, www.ancestry.com - Amanda Roberts Family Tree