PVT Philip Germer
Source: Find a Grave, c/o Laura Phillips.
Private (PVT) Philip Germer of HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 101st Airborne Division, was born in Trinidad, Las Animas County, Colorado, to Melvin S. and Theodorita “Dora” (Lucero) Germer on October 29, 1923. Philip had two brothers, Charles and Melvin, and four sisters, Eleanor, Mary, Virginia, and Isabel Germer.
Philip attended Trinidad High School, graduating in the class of 1941. While at Trinidad High, he began dating a beautiful Italian redhead named Esther DiPaolo, who later became his fiancée.
Philip registered for the draft in his hometown on June 30, 1942. At the time, he was employed as a meat cutter by Swift & Co., which was a meat-packing empire founded by Gustav Franklin Swift, Sr. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at Pueblo, Colorado, on September 10, 1942, and volunteered for paratrooper duty. He was sent to Camp Toccoa and was assigned to the Light Machine Gun Platoon of the HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th.
On D-Day, PVT Philip Germer was part of “Chalk 5”, as were his good friends, CPL Fayez Handy and SGT George Dwyer. Together with 2LT Bill Wedeking, Dwyer led this stick of jumpers consisting of, in total, 18 paratroopers.
But this group of men was not very lucky, as five of them would not survive D-Day, and one of them died in battle on June 14.
PVT Philip Germer’s body was found a couple of days later, still in his jump harness, killed by German small-arms fire. He may have been killed while descending or closely after landing on French soil, never being able to show his mettle in battle.
Another Screaming Eagle had soared to the ultimate height. 🦅
Source: Find a Grave, courtesy of Ailemle
SGT Dwyer described his good friend Phil in this way:
“‘Germer’ (that is what everybody called him), was always good-natured and smiling or laughing, and playing jokes on his buddies, but hard working when it came to our training requirements, which were strenuous, to put it nicely.”
PVT Philip Germer died at the age of 20. He was first buried in the temporary military cemetery of Hiesville, Normandy, on June 10, 1944, after which he was moved to the nearby temporary military cemetery of Blosville on July 4, where he was laid to rest at Block I, Row 10, Grave 181. In 1949, he was re-interred at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, at plot C, Row 28, Grave 30. May he rest in peace.
Happy Birthday in Heaven, Philip.
Lest we forget! 🇺🇸
Sources:
Family Search
Tonight We Die as Men by Gardner & Day