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His buddies made it home and he did not a very young Frank Mellet and others like him who paid the ultimate price in serving are who we honor on Memorial Day. In E Company, they were Richard Winters from Lancaster, Pa., Burton Christenson from Oakland, Calif., Forrest Guth from Fogelsville, Pa., John Eubanks from Hancock, Ga., Walter Gordon from Jackson, Miss., Floyd Talbert from Kokomo, Ind., Carwood Lipton from Huntington, W.V., Ronald Speirs from Boston, Lewis Nixon from New York City, dozens of others.Īnd Frank Mellet from Long Island, killed by a German sniper in January of 1945. Real people, our soldiers who serve, with real names.
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Only one was from the Old Army, only a few came from the National Guard or Reserves. One came from Harvard, one from Yale, a couple from UCLA. Some were desperately poor, others from the middle class.
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“They were farmers and coal miners, mountain men and sons of the Deep South.
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