The veteran I did research on is my great-grandfather, Dale Youngern. Grandpa Dale was a Darby's Ranger and served in the Army from 1943-1945. The Darby's Rangers were an elite group of soldiers that went into enemy territories first. They were said to be "the tip of the sword" because they were such talented soldiers. When he served in World War II, he fought in Africa, Italy, France and Germany.
Grandpa Dale said that he enlisted in the Army because it was the right thing to do and they were short of men.
The Darby's rangers landed in Anzio, Italy and fought the Germans fir four months. They were such outstanding fighters that they pushed the Nazis right out of Rome! After their outstanding battle they got to meet Pope Pius XII.
Grandpa Dale served our country for 3 year, 3 months, and 3 days, and earned the rank of Corporal and was decorated with 5 bronze stars and a Good Conduct Ribbon.
Grandpa Dale's proudest moment in the war was when the war was over and he got to go home to his beautiful wife Florence.
I'm so proud of Grandpa Dale because he had so much courage and pride in his country. I want to be just like him!
Jocie's essay was so good, that it was chosen (only 2 essays were chosen out of all) to be read out loud at the Veteran's Day Program at Jocie's school. Grandpa Dale was so moved by Joice's essay that he just had to be in attendance to witness his great-granddaughter's first public speaking experience. So, my mom got the day off from work and she and Denny drove him down from Grand Forks! We were so happy he could make it to this special occasion. It wouldn't have been the same without him there!!Jocie and Grandpa Dale enjoying dinner and some cake at our house the night before the program
This is dark...but here is Jocie at the mic reading her essay
The Proud Grandpa...and the proud granddaughters :)
1 comment:
Hello! We met Dale in May 2000 when he was in Rome, Italy visiting the city that he helped liberate during WWII. My husband Howie and I were on our honeymoon and we were eating dinner and Dale and his daughter (Judy?) were sitting next to us and told us his story. We took a video of him telling us the story and we promised to send it to him when we got home. Needless to say, it is better late than never because we never sent it :-(. However with Veterans Day tomorrow we thought of him again and watched the video for the first time in over a decade! We want to send/post the video. We searched the internet to find him and came across your blog. What is your email address? We can post to youtube or email to you.
Regards,
Rachel Barkin
Marlboro, NJ
howraeb@aol.com
Post a Comment