Hi all
Well my name is Juerg, I am 40 years old and living in Switzerland. I am married and have 2 kids, aboy and a girl. My passion for WWII started when I was a kid as my Dad knew a business friend who fought in Stalingrad. Now my main research is the history of the German Fallschirmjaeger Rgt 15 which fought in Normandy near Mont Castre and in the Bulge on the southern flank, attacking from the town of Vianden.
I love to do "stand where they fought" tours with my friends and we tour the Bulge sites almost every year and Normandy all two years. So I know the places very well. I toured the US sectors of Normandy last May again and stood for my first time on the soil of the Bloody Gulch fighting site, made famous when mentioned in the Band of Brothers series. Also Dead Man's Corner, Hell's corner and Saint Marie du Mont have been paid a visit. And last but not least the Brecourt Manor fighting site.
Basically, I collect all stuff related from Normandy or the Bulge, US and German ones. Now I sigend up here because I got a nice Purple Heart/Bronze star group, and I only bought it because it was marked "Normandy". The group was un-researched and I thought this would be a nice research project. So I started researching, wrote an NARA info request to Washington (still waiting for their reply), and checked with my network of friends. Now, last Saturday was the day where jumped into the air.
The guy was a medic assigned to the 326th Airborne Engineer Combat Battalion, 101st Airborne Division and was attached to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment for Operation Market Garden. Two of his Bronze Star Medals are for Heroic Achievment. One during Market Garden and the other for Bastonge. I would have to assume his third Bronze Star Medal was a CMB conversion after the war.
His name is John D Segel, born October 4, 1921 and I am looking for anything about him. He died 01/17/2002 in San Diego. Segel might have a relative in Michigan City and so I wrote a letter to him but no reply yet.
I got copies of 3 general orders for 2 Bronze Star medals and the Combat medic badge. I am looking for his general order for the Purple Heart (where was he wounded) and a photo would be super.
If you have questions just ask me and I will try to help.
Best wishes from Switzeland
Juerg