39th infantry regiment – Noel B. Poirier

Fallen Heroes: Private Walter A. Smith

German guns captured by the 4th Infantry Division, September 1918. (Source: archive.org)

The Smith family had travelled thousands of miles to raise a family far from the wars and poverty of eastern Europe, only to have one of their sons give the ultimate sacrifice on a far-off battlefield in France. After John Smith (1869-1953) and his fiancé Mary (1869-1925) married in 1886 in Poland, they wasted noContinue reading “Fallen Heroes: Private Walter A. Smith”

Fallen Heroes: Private Oscar F. Nicewander

Infantry personnel . Operation Enterprise - 2LT Manlove, Platoon Leader, 3rd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry - Location: Rach Kien, Vietnam. Photographer: Freddie Duncan

This fallen hero from the hamlet of Dundee had barely been in service three months when he made the ultimate sacrifice in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The Nicewander family came to Ohio from Pennsylvania in the first half of the 19th century with the arrival of Peter Nicewander (1809-1882). The family originally settled inContinue reading “Fallen Heroes: Private Oscar F. Nicewander”

Fallen Heroes: Private Wesley A. Little

American Prisoners of War - Tunisia 1943

I will admit that the stories of fallen heroes lost on battlefields in North Africa during World War Two always captures my attention. My own grandfather served in North Africa during that war and every soldier’s story on those battlefields remind me of him. This fallen hero’s story is one of those reminders. The familyContinue reading “Fallen Heroes: Private Wesley A. Little”