Stanford Norman Goen was born on October 18, 122, in Oklahoma. He was the son of William Stanford "Stan" Goen and Ophelia Kirk Goen. He was married to Margaret Faye Hale Morris. He graduated from Floydada High School in 1941 and attended Texas Tech in 1942 before entering the Army in March 1943 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He trained there and at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in light and medium tank warfare, and later took part in desert maneuvers at Camp Bowie, Arizona. IIn January 1944, he was deployed to England and, by October of that year, landed at Utah Beach with the 82nd Airborne Infantry, taking part in operations around Düren and Cologne. Pvt Goen served in the United States Army with the 740th Tank Battalion in World War II. Known as the “Daredevil Tankers”, the 740th was a separate battalion that fought from Utah Beach all the way to the Baltic Sea in support of various divisions of the US war effort.

During combat, a tank explosion left him wounded and burned, leading to his evacuation to Paris, France, where he was hospitalized and awarded the Purple Heart. After recovering, he joined the 7th Army and helped breach the Siegfried Line in the Saar Valley before being transferred to the Ruhr Pocket campaign. During that battle, his tank was hit directly, forcing the crew to advance on foot. As they entered the town of Olpe, a nearby shell explosion killed him on April 10, 1945. He was initially buried near Kastle, Germany, then reinterred in Margraten, Holland, before being returned to Floydada in 1949 for final burial. He is now buried in the Floydada Cemetery, Floydada, Floyd County, Texas, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com