Memorial

Biography

The following is a story, told by his daughter, Sandy MacDuffee: "When John and Helen were first married, they lived in Old Forge, PA and Dad worked odd jobs to make ends meet. For a time he worked in the coal mines but after an accident in which he broke his leg, Dad said that he would never go back into the mines. John received his Order to Report for Induction October 1943 but he wasn't inducted until May 3, 1944 in Clark Summit, PA. John's first taste of battle was during the Battle for Metz France, a difficult and very hard fought battle. John traveled across Europe with the 3rd Army and was in Luxembourg on R & R when the Battle of the Bulge began in December 1944. John and his fellow soldiers fought long and hard through some of the worst winter weather that Europe had seen in a very long time. At times the soldiers walked through mud in the cold rain and then knee and waist-high snow. In one of John's letters home, he said that he and his buddies were sleeping in a barn and it was warm because they were sleeping in the hay. He spoke often of missing me and my Mom and the "good ole USA." He couldn't wait to get home to his family and his country. But it was not to be. John was killed on January 28, 1945, three days before my 2nd birthday in a battle in the small village of Putscheid in the northeast corner of Luxembourg."

More information

Pfc John Chichilla enlisted in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania on 3 May 1944.
He was a miner before he enlisted.