I am searching for more information about my father, PFC Robert Sandor - Army Serial # 31326199. This is what his Honorable Discharge papers say (I received from funeral home):
Separation Center: Ft. Devens, Mass. Entry into Active Service: 1943 (he would have been 16 years old). Place of Entry into Service: Hartford, Ct. Date of Enlistment is blank meaning he was drafted? His Military Occupation Specialty and No Reads: "Sj. Traly Clerk C'65 - Military Qualification say "Combat Infantry Badge." Battles and Campaigns read: "Rhineland." With an: V pointing upward. I believe that means he was there at the beginning? Decorations Received: "Good Conduct Medal," "Victory Medal," "European African Middle Eastern Theater Campaign Ribbon." Date of Departure: July 41 - 25 July 43 - Destination: ETO. Date of Arrival: 30 Jul k3 10, Sep lj-5. He served 6 months and 18 days Continental Service and 1 Month, 10 days Foreign Service. Highest Grade: PF - 1 Sep U5 - USAC. Well, that's all I can read from those records. I am attaching them herewith. From what I could understand, I am thinking he served in the XX Army Corp, 65th Infantry Division, 1280th Army Corp. of Engineers (I know he was there because his best friend, Willis G. McLeod was there with him), Battalion - Company "C."
Then, I contacted the National Archives (NA) and they sent me this information: Two Final Payment Work Sheets -
The First Final Payment Work Sheet - Army Component - RA 817th Engr. Avn Bn, March ARB, Calif. Grade: (6th p.g. Pvt) Home Address: Sound Vie Ridge, Glenville, Conn. (same on Discharge Papers). Enlisted or Inducted at: N.Y. City, N.Y. 16 Nov. 46. Discharged on 5 March 1949 - Station March AFB, Calif. Arrived in US: 16 Nov. 1948. 3 years in service. Last Pay to include: 28 Feb. 1949 By H.C. Nichols, Capt. FD. Honorable Discharge by Reason of: AR 615-353 (CG-PETS) & Par. 3bDA Cir 335/48. The rest of the document talks about his deductions and pay.
The SECOND Final Payment - Work Sheet includes: Enlisted/Inducted at: Greenwich, Ct., Name of D.O. EA NY (and I cannot read the rest - it is in pencil). Discharged on Nov. 12, 1945. Station WDSC Ft. Devens. Arrived in US: Sept. 10, 1945. Previous Organizations: 1280th ENGINEER BN. Nov. 3, 1945. Then, the rest of the document talks about his pay.
In accessing the Archival Database ( AAD) on the National Archives (NA), I found this information: Name, Serial # and State match. Residence: County: Middlesex, Place of Enlistment: New York City, Date of Enlistment: 3/16/1946. PFC, No Branch, Branch Code: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA, Term of Enlistment: Hawaiian Department. Civilian Occupation: Laboratory technician and Assistant (my father was a carpenter and so was his entire family - so, I think this is wrong). I found the Ft. Devens Book with his name and address in it.
My parents told me that my father was stationed in Linz at the Nibelungen Bridge. He called it their "Checkpoint Charlie" and he told me that he had to protect Austria from the Russians. I remember seeing the United States Forces Austria patch on his uniform. I also remember seeing his uniform decorated the Army Corp. of Engineers pins, patches, service medals, Here are some photos of him. I was told by the National Archives that all of my father's records were destroyed in the "Fire." I am trying to search Roll Calls to verify the documents I received from the N.A.
I just wrote a letter to the National Archives yesterday requesting information and records on the 1280th Engineer Combat Battalion 1945.
I need help in figuring out this information. I cannot seem to find information (Roll Call) for the 817th or the 1280th. Besides the Ft. Devens booklet, I believe my father fought in the Rhineland Campaign but can't find what Infantry he was in. I did find some information yesterday from a Len Drucker who was in the 1280th staying they were attached to the VI Corps. Combat Engineers and that is why I am now on this site.
I would appreciate any help/guidance that anyone can share with me. I thank you for your time. Sincerely, PFC Robert Sandor's daughter, Cynthia.
Please note: All photos are copyrighted and some are contained in a book I wrote about my mom when she was in the BDM. (PS: I found her personal journal 4 months before she passed away and wrote her biography entitled "Through Innocent Eyes - The Chosen Girls of the Hitler Youth." Many of my readers are now encouraging me to write a fictional story about my dad and also include a 'love story' in it where he met and married my mom, Gertrude Kerschner from Kleinzell, Austria).
Photo from March 17,1945 - Third Platoon of Company C. The picture was taken just before the building of the bridge across the Rhine River at Bad-Gadsberg. I do not have the names of all of the people but this is what I do have: Kneeling from left to right: Sgt. Charles Polite, New York; Tony Alves, New Jersey; Lawrence Weber, New York; Frank Linardi, New York; Manuel Pacheco, Mass; Laird Cogley, Penn.; John Marshall, New Jersey; Norbert Lukesewski; Richard Korte, MO; Lawrence Figueirede, New York, Frank Moore, New Jersey, Sam Blum, New Jersey, Francis McGonigle, Del.; PFC. Wellander, Iowa, Howard Weaver, New Jersey, Robert Whitmore, MO. Joseph Boyle, New Jersey, Neil Sharkey, New Jersey; Frank Schleicher, New Jersey; Casper Urbanek, Penn.; Ralph Ippolito, New York. Standing from the left: S/Sgt. Robert Kratzer, Ohio; Jacob Muth, New Jersey; Lt. William Abbotts, New Jersey; Frank Leonard, New Jersey; Michael DeEsposito, New Jersey; William Cuilson, Mo.; John Gazorian, New York; Charles Thomas, Iowa. My dad (Bill Rupp) is standing sixth from the right.
Clifton James, sheriff in 2 James Bond films, dies at 96
By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press
Apr 15, 2017
Clifton James, best known for his indelible portrayal of a southern sheriff in two James Bond films but who was most proud of his work on the stage, has died. He was 96.
His daughter, Lynn James, said he died Saturday at another daughter's home in Gladstone, Oregon, due to complications from diabetes.
"He was the most outgoing person, beloved by everybody," Lynn James said. "I don't think the man had an enemy. We were incredibly blessed to have had him in our lives."
James often played a convincing southerner but loved working on the stage in New York during the prime of his career.
One of his first significant roles playing a southerner was as a cigar-chomping, prison floor-walker in the 1967 classic "Cool Hand Luke."
His long list of roles also includes swaggering, tobacco-spitting Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the Bond films.
His portrayal of the redneck sheriff in "Live and Let Die" in 1973 more than held its own with sophisticated English actor Roger Moore's portrayal of Bond.
James was such a hit that writers carved a role for him in the next Bond film, "The Man with the Golden Gun," in 1974. James, this time playing the same sheriff on vacation in Thailand and the epitome of the ugly American abroad, gets pushed into the water by a baby elephant.
"He wasn't supposed to actually go in," said his daughter. "They gave him sugar in his pocket to feed the elephant. But he wasn't giving it to the elephant fast enough."
She said her father met with real southern sheriffs to prepare for his role as Pepper. Of his hundreds of roles, it was the Louisiana sheriff that people most often recognized and approached him about.
His daughter noted that her father sometimes said actors get remembered for one particular role out of hundreds.
"His is the sheriff's, but he said he would have never picked that one," she said.
George Clifton James was born May 29, 1920, in Spokane, Washington, the oldest of five siblings and the only boy. The family lost all its money at the start of the Great Depression and moved to Gladstone, just outside Portland, Oregon, where James' maternal grandparents lived.
In the 1930s, James got work with the Civilian Conservation Corps and then entered World War II in 1942 as a soldier with the U.S. Army in the South Pacific, receiving two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star.
Lynn James said one of the Purple Hearts came when a bullet pierced his helmet and zipped around the inside to come out and split his nose. The second Purple Heart, she said, came from shrapnel that knocked out many of his teeth.
She said her father rarely spoke about the war and never described events leading to his receiving the Silver Star.
"He lost too many friends," she said.
After the war, James took classes at the University of Oregon and acted in plays. Inspired, he moved to New York and launched his acting career.
Later in life, he spent the fall and spring of each year in New York. In the winter, he lived in a condo in Delray Beach, Florida. During the summer he lived in Oregon.
James' wife, Laurie, died in 2015. He is survived by two sisters, five children, 14 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Lynn James said a celebration of her father's life will be held in Gladstone in August, but there are no other plans so far. She said some of his ashes will likely be spread in the Clackamas River in Oregon, in which he swam as a boy, and in New York Harbor, where some of his wife's ashes were spread.
USS Arizona survivor rejoins shipmates, interred aboard ship
By JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A veteran who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and died last year at age 94 has been reunited with his fallen shipmates on the sunken USS Arizona.
Raymond Haerry was interred on the ship in a ceremony that his granddaughter says was solemn and beautiful.
Haerry was 19 years old when bombs started falling on his battleship on Dec. 7, 1941. He never returned to Pearl Harbor while he lived because the memories were too painful. As he neared the end of his life, he told his family he'd like to be laid to rest there.
Haerry died Sept. 27 in Rhode Island. Five Arizona survivors remain.
Haerry's granddaughter, Jessica Marino, traveled from New Jersey to Hawaii with her family for Saturday's ceremony. She handed his urn to divers, who placed it within the ship's sunken hull. Hundreds of sailors and Marines are entombed there.
"That was the point at which I kind of lost it," Marino said. "It was really sad, but also really sweet to see. It was amazing."
Only USS Arizona survivors can be interred on the ship. Haerry served for 25 years in the Navy, retiring as a master chief.
He's the 42nd survivor to rejoin his shipmates, according to the National Park Service.
Spokesman Jay Blount said these ceremonies help bring closure to the families, allow sailors to return to their shipmates and raise awareness of the sacrifices made 75 years ago. The National Park Service and the Navy conducted the interment.
Rear Adm. John Fuller talked about Haerry's courage— not the absence of fear, but a deep abiding belief in something greater than oneself.
"I can't help but think about him being reunited into these simple, hallowed spaces. The calm that comes from being again with your crew, and the lessons we can learn from all he taught us," said Fuller, commander of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific.
Marino said she knows her grandfather better now.
"I know this part of his life that really did shape him," she said. "To be a part of getting him back to his ship and with his shipmates, it's an honor for me."
Health issues prevented Raymond Haerry Jr. from joining his daughter in Hawaii. It was Haerry Jr. who pieced together the narrative of what happened in Pearl Harbor by asking questions of his father over 50 years.
Haerry was trying to get ammunition when a large bomb detonated, igniting fuel and powder magazines, Haerry Jr. told The Associated Press in October. Most of the bow was instantly separated and the ship was lifted out of the water.
Haerry Jr. said his father swam through flaming waters, sweeping his arms in front of him to push the flames away. He shot at Japanese planes from shore. Later, he helped retrieve corpses from the harbor.
The ship lost 1,177 men, nearly four-fifths of its crew. At first, Haerry's family was surprised by his request to be laid to rest there, but soon they understood.
"That brotherhood doesn't go away and as he got closer to the end of life, it resonated with him," Marino said. "He didn't want to see the site or relive that disaster, but he wanted to relive that camaraderie."
Several weeks ago, I submitted my DNA to Ancestry.com. Well today I got an email saying the results were in. Cool stuff. Among the data, they also showed me dozen of people I could be related to, who had also taken the test. Well I contacted about 10 of them, and then hoped for the best. So imagine my surprise when I received an answer from one of them, within two hours.
I AM IN TEARS right now, but they are happy tears!
This is edited for privacy, but here is the letter I just got. Praise be!
Hi Marion, Your father Walter was my maternal Grandfather's (Joe Finkowski) cousin. My Great-Grandmother (Angeline Poniedzialek married Francis Finkowski) Angeline's Brother Albert was Walter's father (your Grandfather) I talked to my Mom who gave me this information. She would love to be in contact with you as she remembers Walter& Joe being very close....
This is an answer to my prayers. I'm still in shock!!!! She wrote back again and put me in touch with her mother. I just sent an email to her, so waiting... And to top all this off, we live about two and half hours from each other. Dad, I know you are smiling down!!!!
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