PVT Herschel A. Rose
Private (PVT) Herschel Albert Rose of the 101st Headquarters Company, 101st Airborne Division, was born in Cortland, eastern Hamilton Township, Jackson County, Indiana, to Albert F. and Myrtle A. (Spray) Rose on June 27, 1925. He had one brother, Kenneth L. Rose, and one sister, Barbara Ann (Rose) Keefer. His father was a World War I veteran of the 17th Coast Artillery.
Herschel attended Shields High School in Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana. He signed up for the draft in Seymour on June 28, 1943. He was employed as a mechanic at a local garage for some time. At the time of his draft, he worked at Jackson Co. Hatchery, and just before his induction, he was employed by Seymour Electric Hatchery. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 13, 1943.
On June 2, just before the start of D-Day, PVT Herschel Parker was assigned to the HQHQ Service Battery of the 321st GFAB. After the Normandy period, he was transferred to the 101st Headquarters Company on July 26, 1944.
PVT Rose probably had been in Normandy, France, with the 321st GFAB and had survived combat in the southern parts of the Netherlands, but met his fate in Bastogne, Belgium. He was killed by a gunshot wound to the head on December 21, 1944.
Another Screaming Eagle had soared to the ultimate height. 🦅
PVT Herschel Rose died at the age of 19 and was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart Medal. His death had shocked a host of friends from Shields High School, as he was well-liked by many of his fellow students.
He was first buried in a very shallow grave in a Bastogne civil cemetery on December 23, 1944. The 3042nd Quartermaster Graves Registration Company disinterred Herschel and, on January 23, 1945, reburied him at the temporary U.S. military cemetery of Grand Failly, France, at Plot I, Row 8, Grave 183.
PVT Rose returned for reburial in Seymour on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad the night of Monday, April 11, 1949, from Columbus, Ohio. Herschel rests eternally at Riverview Cemetery in Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana.
May he rest in peace.
In July 1951, checks totaling $5 million were mailed in Indiana to approximately 8,000 next-of-kin of deceased World War II servicemen. In a small ceremony, the first one was personally presented to PVT Herschel Rose’s mother, Mrs. Myrtle Rose, in the Statehouse by Governor Henry F. Schricker on Monday, July 2, 1951. Although it had been seven years since Herschel had sacrificed his life for the greater good, it must have been an emotional moment for her.
Happy Birthday in Heaven, Herschel.
Lest we forget. 🇺🇸