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| From left: Henry Fuller, Tony DiArchangel, Lud Labutka of Company E, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division |
Sandy's email to the BJ Alums blog:
Hi John:
Good to hear from you. Paula is
correct about the "project" -- the subject is my dad. He was a W.W.
II veteran, serving in the 101st Airborne as a paratrooper. On Saturday, July
13th at 2 p.m. we are having a dedication ceremony at the Military
Aviation Preservation Society Museum
in North Canton. My brothers and I donated his uniform and other memorabilia to
them and they pulled the entire thing together.
Director Jim Adkins was gracious
enough to let his New Horizons Band play that day for the ceremony.
We have invited lots of family and
friends to come, so be sure to mention that it's free and open to the
public.
Below is a first draft of a bio of
my dad that will go with the exhibit. His uniform was on display at a museum in
France for over a year - http://www.paratrooper-museum.org.
Glenn and I visited France a few
years ago and had dinner with the young man who owns the museum, Emmanuel
Allain. He actually wanted to buy my dad's stuff, but I just couldn't let go of
it -- especially since it would be so far away. He understood and reluctantly
sent everything back and we decided to ask MAPS if they wanted it. It's closer
and grandkids and great-grandkids will be able to see it whenever they want.
They were tickled to death to have it.
That's about it… I'd be
delighted to see you at the dedication, John.
Sandy
p.s. My drunken friend is still in
prison but will get out at the end of the year. He was sentenced to four years
by Judge Allison McCarty -- thank goodness. Anyway, I broke a few small bones
in my spine and I will probably always have some back pain (being fat and old
doesn't help with that!). A couple of years ago I had to have surgery
on my left foot for achilles tendonitis and the next year surgery on my left
shoulder for a torn rotator cuff. Only my family doctor would say that my body
was probably "weaker and more susceptible" to those injuries
because of the accident. The majority of the impact was on my left side. Thanks
for asking…. and my accident was in 2009 with "the
drunken idiot." Good choice of words by you.
Biography of Sandy’s
father:
Henry
Fuller was born in Akron, Ohio on September 14, 1922, the youngest of ten
children. His mother died when he was only four years old and he spent much of
his childhood in the Summit County Children’s Home on Arlington Street. His
closest brother, Robert, was also born in Akron in 1919.
 |
| Henry Fuller |
As
a young man, he worked at the Phillips Paper Bag Factory in downtown Akron. It
was there that he worked with a woman named Zola Mitchell. She was the mother
of a young woman whom he later wrote to when he was stationed overseas.
Fuller’s
brother Robert was a pilot and that is what Fuller thought he wanted to do in
the service, but they were not taking any new recruits, so he opted for being a
paratrooper instead. His date of entry into the military was February 5, 1942
at Fort Benjamin Harrison Indiana. He attended Parachute School in Fort Benning,
Georgia and received his “Parachute Badge” in 1942 and his Combat Infantry
Badge in 1944. He was in the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st
Airborne Division, Company E.
Fuller
left for England in September of 1943 and arrived there in October of 1943.
After extensive training in England, Fuller, along with 791 men in his regiment
(the 502nd), flew out of Greenham Common Airfield in England in the evening.
They were headed for the coast of France where they would jump in Normandy.
They had been confined to their tented assembly area for the past few days for
security reasons. Their faces had been blackened to “blend into the darkness
and prevent reflection from the moon,” according to Wallace C. Strobel, the
young Lieutenant who was the leader of Company E.
As
the men stood there waiting for their orders to leave for their planes, word
was passed that “Eisenhower is in the area.” As he came toward a group of men,
he stopped and looked at a young Strobel and asked him his name and where he
was from. That encounter turned out to be one of the most famous photographs
taken during World War II and Pfc. Henry Fuller is in that photo. Many years
after the war he said he didn’t remember seeing or hearing Eisenhower that
evening, but he did remember a pretty woman standing near the General’s car --
he assumed that she was Eisenhower’s driver, Kay Summersby.
On
that fateful evening, 792 men from the 502nd jumped into Normandy. After six
days of fierce fighting, only 126 men were still alive and marched back to St.
Come-du-Mount. Fuller was one of those men along with Lieutenant Strobel, who
later wrote, “I have always been proud of my service with the officers and men
of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 101st Airborne Division.”
Fuller said that he knew that Strobel was all business but he “did right by his
men and the men trusted him.”
After
the Normandy invasion, the men of the 502nd pushed inland heading toward Carentan.
Fuller served in battles not only in Normandy, but Rhineland, Ardennes and
Central Europe and was wounded in Belgium on January 17, 1945. The deadly
Battle of the Bulge, fought in the town of Bastogne in Belgium, would end eight
days later on January 25.
Fuller’s
total length of service was one year, seven months and eight days training and
serving in the United States and two years and ten days in foreign
service.
Fuller
was honorably discharged September 22, 1945 and returned to Akron. On New Year’s
Eve of that year, he married Arline Mitchell, the young woman whose mother he
had worked with before the war. They had three children; Sandra, Ronald and
Timothy. His second wife, Patricia, preceded him in death.
Fuller
worked as a lettercarrier for the United States Post Office for over thirty
years. He passed away on Sunday, March 23, 2003 in Wadsworth Ohio, where he had
lived for 10 years, at the age of 80.
After leaving the BJ
Reference Library, Sandy worked at the Orrville Public Library and the
Wadsworth Public Library. She lives in Doylestown.
If you want more information about the MAPS Museum, click on http://mapsairmuseum.org/
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