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Gordon Walter Scott "Smokey", Jr.

Name:
Walter Scott "Smokey", Jr. Gordon
Rank:
Corporal
Serial Number:
13099280
Unit:
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Date of Death:
1997-04-19
State:
Pennsylvania
Cemetery:
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
Comments:

From findagrave.com:

"Member of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, "Easy" Company, from their inception at Camp Toccoa GA in 1942, until the Battle of the Bulge, when Easy was called upon to defend the crossroads town of Bastogne, Christmas Eve, 1944.

At that time, as the German Army prepared to attack, he manned his machine gun, as he prepared himself for attack, he was hit in the left shoulder, the bullet passed through his body, and exited from his right shoulder, brushing against his spine, leaving him temporarily paralyzed from the neck down.

He had been previously wounded in Holland, when Easy jumped on Eindhoven, but the wound he received in Bastogne effectively ended the war for him, sending him to a hospital in Alabama, where he regained his strength, and eventually walked out of the hospital in 1945.

After the war, he acquired a law degree, but never practiced, going into the oil lease business instead. In 1951, he married Elizabeth Ball Ludeau of Ville Platte, and fathered five children. He died April 19, 1997."

Gordon died in Pass Christian, Mississippi after suffering a stroke in his sleep. His current burial is unknown.