Joseph A. EDGERLY

Joseph A. EDGERLY Fort Kobbe, Panama 1943

Source : Andy (Ellen Marchese)

Parents : Joseph A. & Mary E. EDGERLY

Frères & soeurs : Marion L, George, Leonard R, Judy & Charles

Demi-frère et sœur : Marion & Robert

Source : Andy

 CEMTERY TEMPORARY of  Luynes Cemetery, Aix-En-Provance N°3551

Story of Cemetery Temporary 

Map of Rhône American Cemetery

Joseph A. Edgerly enlisted in the Army on 1 July 1942, ten days after his eighteenth birthday. Following Basic Training, he entered the paratrooper training program at Fort Benning, after which he was assigned to the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion, one of only two independent American paratrooper battalions of WWII. The battalion was first deployed to Ft. Kobbe, Canal Zone; then to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, for additional training; then to Italy.

While most Americans are familiar with the invasion of Northern France at Normandy on 6 June 1944, few are aware of the invasion of Southern France on 15 August 1944 by Allied forces based in Italy, forces that included the 551st, which was dropped by parachute near Le Motte. In the weeks that followed, the 551st conducted ground operations in Southern France and the Maritime Alps.

On 4 November 1944, a 19-man patrol from the 551st led by 2LT Richard R. Hallock (Memorial 47168422) was dispatched into the mountains north of Mollières. As the patrol made its way over the snow-covered terrain, it came under machine gun fire from concealed German pillboxes. The officer leading the patrol ordered the men to withdraw to better cover. But four men in lead scout roles, PVT Joseph Edgerly among them, were forced by the fire to hold their positions, and thus were cut off from the main body of the patrol.

The main body of the patrol were able to withdraw from the area, but only one of the four who were separated, CPL Clarence R. Carter, was able to rejoin the main body. The remaining three, PFC John F. Chappell, PVT Joe G. Rowe, and PFC Joseph Edgerly were reported missing in action. Two weeks later, the 551st was withdrawn to St. Jeannet, near Nice; three weeks after that, the battalion was sent north to the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge, after which it and the Army's only other independent Parachute Infantry Battalion, the 509th, were disbanded and their personnel dispersed among other airborne units.

In 1982, a veteran of the 551st, Dan Morgan (Memorial 194101468), visited over 90 fellow veterans of the battalion, conducting interviews of each for a history of the battalion that was published in 1982: The Left Corner of My Heart. Joseph Edgerly was a popular member of the battalion; warmly remembered for his personality, his athleticism, and the attention he lavished on the battalion's Dachshund mascot, Furlough. Based on the recollections of the veterans he interviewed, Morgan concluded that the body of Joe Edgerly was recovered the the day following the ambush. That proved to be far from the truth.

The remains of two soldiers were found long enough after the action to be identifiable only by personal effects: Joe Rowe's dog tags with one set of remains; the clothing of the other remains bearing a laundry mark that suggested they were Chappell's. (Laundry marks consisted of the first letter of the individual's last name and the last four digits of his serial number.) But as late as September 1945, months after V-E Day, Rowe and Chappell were still carried as MIA (missing in action). And the official report of the recovery of the skeletal remains that ultimately were identified as those of Joseph Edgerly is dated 15 October 1945, though confirmation, through dental records, that it was Edgerly was not completed until September 1948, more than three years after the end of the war. The casualty status of Rowe and Chappell was changed to KIA (killed in action), while that of Edgerly remains FOD (finding of death), a status accorded those whose death is inferred, in the absence of remains, from circumstantial evidence.

The belief among the veterans that Dan Morgan interviewed was that Joseph Edgerly had been an orphan. Indeed, Morgan wrote: "He had a very rough start in life as a homeless youngster living on the streets of Boston…" While census records suggest Edgerly may have had a problematic home life and a hardscrabble childhood, they contradict his having been homeless or an orphan. At the time of the 1930 US Census, six years after Edgerly's birth, his mother and father were living apart: his father, Joseph, listing his marital status as "married," was living with his widowed mother and her son by a second marriage; Edgerly's mother, Marion, was listed as the divorced head of her own household of four children. Edgerly's father is not to be found in the 1940 US Census, but his mother still appears as the divorced head of household, but now with six children (Joe the eldest), two born since the 1930 census, and all of surname Edgerly. Additionally, when Edgerly enlisted, he designated his mother as next of kin, and her and his paternal grandmother as the beneficiaries of his GI life insurance. At the time of his enlistment, he listed his education as one year of high school. These facts argue against his being an orphan or homeless. On the other hand, the fact he enlisted at Camp Grant, Illinois, indicates that, by age 18, he had left Boston for greener pastures.

Joseph Edgerly's mother, Marion Edgerly, bore six children and lived to be 81. His two sisters have disappeared from public records, perhaps due to marriage and changes of surname. But the men of the Edgerly family can be traced, and while it is impossible to gauge what success in life they might have enjoyed, it appears that longevity eluded them: Edgerly's father died at age 49; two brothers at age 52; a third brother at age 62.

Abstracted from "Joseph Edgerly: No Soldier Left Behind," by Les Hughes. Full version at www.insigne.org/551-Edgerly.htm   

Source : Andy

Source : Andy

Source : Ancestry