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Neske Walter Jacob

Name:
Walter Jacob Neske
Rank:
Private First Class
Serial Number:
32762320
Unit:
26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Date of Death:
1944-09-13
State:
New Jersey
Cemetery:
Laurel Grove Memorial Park, New Jersey
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster
Comments:

Walter Jacob Neske was born on December 17, 1923 in Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey. He has three sisters and five brothers. The family attended the Paramus Reformed Church. He attended the Harrison School and graduated from Ridgewood High School in the class of 1941 where he was on the track team. His high school quotation "I know him of a noble mind although a lion in the field" foretold his military career.

He left Ridgewood to enter the service February 3, 1943 and went overseas three months later to join the 26th Infantry Regiment, the "Blue Spaders" for North African operations. He received a Purple Heart for wounds received during the invasion of Sicily. The 26th returned to the UK November 5, 1943. After staying in the hospital for some time he was re-activated for the D-Day invasion of France where he was again wounded, receiving an Oak Leaf to add to his Purple Heart.

Neske died September 13, 1944 near Namur of shrapnel wounds to the shoulder and groin, four days after arriving in Belgium with the Blue Spaders. He is now buried at Laurel Grove Memorial Park, Totowa, Passaic County, New Jersey, USA.
Source of information: From the book "At Death He was 25 Years Old" by Christopher C. Stout"