A neighbor and friend of mine talked to me in the fall of 2025 about his grandfather, Bill "Willie" Tobitsch, a sailor in WWII. Bill was from Butler, PA, but moved to the Bronx and entered the Navy there. The family already knew some of what Bill did in the Navy, by Bill's own admission. Further, to this day, the family has Bill's shadow box. So, I was not starting from scratch with Bill and there was no big void in knowledge that I was trying to shine light in. Nonetheless,

A few months back, one of Edward's kids asked me to look into her father. This was shortly after word starting getting out in my neighborhood that I can sometimes find out stuff about what GIs did in the war. The daughter was fairly confident that Edward worked for Patton, although details were sketchy on what unit. She also told me, with a chuckle, that he was 'just an administrative officer.' So, I got some basic information from her and ran with it. We were lucky in that t

Note: this history was supplemented by the availability of Army 'morning reports' on the web and a well researched and assembled history of Glenn's unit by private individuals, also available on the web. Glenn in France in 1944. Fun fact: he gave a French photographer a pack of cigarettes to take this photo. Handsome guy, steely eyes. Glenn was from Wilkinsburg. His house is long gone. Prior to being drafted, he was working as a foreman at Mine Safety Appliances. He was 24 wh

Lawrence was from Turtle Creek.  I drove by his house recently just to see it…I don’t think the neighborhood has changed very much. He was married and worked as a Drill Press Operator for Westinghouse. He was also his neighborhood's Air Raid Warden. Lawrence's official Air Raid Warden identification card. I've only seen this one card of this type. He was drafted into the Army, Infantry, at the age of 30 - quite the old man for such a thing. Lawrence entered France on Utah Bea