As a single man, Victor lives in Chautauqua County. He enlisted in August 1942.
He joined the 506th P.I.R. and the third battalion.
Company I
He was assigned to Company I.
Camp Toccoa
The training that begins at Camp Toccoa is the first step that will eliminate those who will not resist the hardness of the parachuting school. These days and nights are punctuated between daily races (including the famous climb to Mount Currahee), walks, intense sports sessions, the path of the fighter, theoretical and practical courses on the profession of infantryman, weapons handling, shooting, etc… will lead men to exhaustion and beyond their limits ; but they will come out as true soldiers of elite troops.
Fort Benning
Early December is the transfer to Fort Benning for parachute jump training. The program consists of four one-week phases.
The first week is reserved for physical preparation (week which for the 506th will prove unsuitable because the regiment comes with an exceptional preparation and fitness).
The second week is reserved for learning about folding, simulation of jumping from platforms (model planes, 10m tour, etc…) to learn how to fall.
The third week is the one of jumps from the famous frying pans, 80m high towers that perfectly transcribe the conditions of jumps.
Then comes the last week of the C-47 jumps, five jumps that will be crowned with the “wings” award, the paratrooper certificate.
Victor will pass all these steps successfully and leave on Boxing Day on a 10-day leave.
Returning in mid-January 1943, the regiment trained in urban fighting techniques.
Camp MacKall
In april, it is the start towards Camp Mackall where training takes an intensive turn, the jumps take place with equipment and weapons followed by three days in simulation of enemy territories.
On June 10, the regiment was attached to the 101st Airborne Division.
In early July, the 506th took part in large maneuvers in three states (Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana), where the fighting exercises followed the jumps.Victor becomes a sergeant.
The regiment then moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, until its departure day for Camp Shanks a few kilometres from New York to prepare for a departure for the Old Continent. On september 3, Victor and the regiment boarded the SS Samaria from where they landed on september 15 in Liverpool.
Trains will take the men south of Hungerford in Witlshire and will then be assigned to their various quarters.
For Victor and the third battalion it will be Ramsbury.
A rigorous training regime will begin in the camps and surroundings of the English countryside, complete with jumps and forced steps.
At the end of march 1944, the units participated in Exercise Beaver and at the end of April in Exercise Tiger.
On May 11 it is Exercise Eagle, where only the 101st Division participates and which will take place in conditions almost identical to those that the men will have the opportunity to experience on D-Day. they will embark in C-47 with a flight time identical to what they will live over the sea and then towards the Drop Zones on the continent, and this will be the opportunity to work with the 9th Troop Carrier Command.
At the end of May, Victor prepares his package, the order has arrived to embark towards the airfields.
This famous day, so long awaited since its arrival in the airborne troops is approaching; all these training since 1942, all these efforts to finally experience what it has come to be. Victor arrived at the Exeter aerodrome in Devon where the 96th TCS of 440th TCG was parked.
Base d'Exeter
Beverly is moving into the camps prepared for the troops.
On June 3, paratroopers were notified of the departure date, but the bad weather pushed it back 24 hours.
D-Day is set for Tuesday, June 6.
June 5 evening, Victor going to the evening of the 5th to his C-47, he is the third from the left
It was 11 :48 this Monday, june 5, when the C-47 42-100733 belonging to the 440th TCG and piloted by 2nd Lieutenant William H. Zeuner took off and joined the formation for setting up before heading to Normandy and Drop Zone « D » located near Angoville-au-Plain, the drop time is scheluled for 0143. The C-47 is in position 24 in serial 16. Victor is in position 4 is in stick.
The mission of the third battalion is to seize two bridges at the mouth of the Moat and establish a bridgehead.
The flight over the English Channel was uneventful; the convoy arrived on the mainland from the east and was confronted with a cloud bank, and then tried to keep its course the formation was shot by the flak, the plane is certainly hit, it crosses the entire peninsula of the Cotentin, passing the DZ and ending up above the sea. The jumpmaster of the stick seeing this went to the cockpit to make another pass on the Drop Zone.
The aircraft was again struck while returning to the shore. Four paras will succeed in jumping from the plane, the plane is hit on the right side, the latter has difficulty to keep its balance.
The C-47 crashed at sea off Pointe du Hoc.
Two of the paratroopers who jumped will end up with the rangers who will attack Pointe du Hoc on the morning of june 6, they will climb and fight alongside this unit.
In the weeks that follow some bodies will be brought back by sea, Victor will remain missing.