Thirteen Screaming Eagles Perish in Bastogne
Today we honor and remember 13 men of the 101st Airborne Division who were killed in The Battle of the Bulge.
During their time at the European battlegrounds, several accidents happened in which the men of the 101st Airborne Division were killed by exploding ammunition, and the Bastogne frontline was no exemption!
On January 5th, 1945, disaster struck at the Regimental Command Post of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, when a truck loaded with landmines exploded at the Petit Séminaire, just outside the center of Bastogne.
To this day it is still unknown what set off these explosives, but twelve men of the Headquarters and Headquarters Demo Platoon, as well as a driver from the 501st Service Company, were killed by the devastating explosion in the seminary courtyard.
Thirteen Screaming Eagles had perished and soared to the ultimate height. 🦅
In the book, Battered Bastards of Bastogne by George Koskimaki, CPL David Smith briefly remembered that day,
“The truckload of mines which blew out in the courtyard left its mark. The courtyard is still blackened (witnessed on a trip in 1989) from the explosion. We lost some good men on that one.”
As their badly maimed bodies could not be identified separately, the men were first buried together in the Temporary American Military Cemetery Grand Failly, France, at Plot K, Row 11, Grave 274, on January 19, 1945.
In 1949, the remains of PVT Frank Baer, PVT Michael Balducci, PVT Harold Brisco, SSGT Leon Brown, CPL Bonnie Caroon, PVT Letcher Coney, PVT Walter Craley, PVT Wallace Diefenbach, PVT James Keel, PFC Sam Lapin, CPL William Maue, PVT Robert Rutherford, and PVT Earl Smith returned to the United States where the men were given a final resting place in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.
Lest we forget! 🇺🇸
Those men were on the wrong place at the wrong time....may they all rest in Eternal Peace🫡🇺🇸🫡🇳🇱🤛
What I can do is light a candle in our nearby for each men 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️