EARL CASEY KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE DURING WW2

REMEMBER THE FALLEN .........................EARL L. CASEY KILLED IN FRANCE DURING WW2 .........................BY Bob Lessard .........................Historian Post 64 American Legion ......(Periodically, the Gazette will publish biographical sketches of Middleboro’s war casualties. This is intended to remember the sacrifices of all veterans and those who gave their lives in service to our country.) ......United States Army Private First Class Earl Leonard Casey, 34, was killed in action on July 8, 1944. His wife Helen (Mannion) of 26 Courtland Street was informed by a telegram she received from Adjutant General J. A. Ulio. That information was reported in the August 11, 1944 edition of the Middleboro Gazette. ......Mrs. Casey informed the Gazette that General Ulio did not state where Earl had met his death. She did say that her husband was somewhere in Normandy. She had received a letter, written on D-Day in England, so that he was probably with troops that followed the first invasion forces, said the paper. ......PFC Casey is the first Middleboro father to be reported killed in action. He and Mrs. Casey have a nine month old blue-eyed daughter. Her father last saw her when she was four months old, reported the Gazette article. ......Earl L. Casey was born in East Millinocket, Maine on December 13, 1909. He was the son of Henry and Helen Casey. Both parents were deceased. ......In addition to the above information, the newspaper added that Casey was employed at the Fore River plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company at the time he entered the service. He married Helen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Mannion in 1940. She is living with her parents at the Courtland Street home. ......He was inducted into the Army at Boston on October 14, 1943. He saw his initial service time at Fort Devens here in Massachusetts. He was transferred for additional training at Fort Croft in Spartansburg, South Carolina. ......Morning reports of his unit indicate that Earl Casey lost his life on Hill 122 in the area of Gorges (printing on the company records was difficult to read), France, while serving with Company A of the 358th Infantry, 90th Infantry Division on July 8, 1944. ......He is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer France, which is maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission. His grave is located at Plot D, Row 10, Grave 20 in the cemetery. ......His memory is kept alive here in Middleboro by a Massachusetts Department of Transportation memorial sign located on the Wood Street bridge overlooking Route 495. His name is also engraved on the Central Casualty stone in the WW2 section of the Middleboro Veterans Memorial Park.