Captain Robert G. Craanen was born October 9, 1918 and was killed in action by German machine gun fire in Bray, France on August 26, 1944. He was the son of George and Genevieve Craanen of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Robert’s father also served with the 3rd Army during WWI. He had three brothers: John served in WWII with the Coast Guard, James served with the U.S Army as a Chaplain in Viet Nam and William served with the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany in the late 1950’s. Robert attended East High School in Green Bay and went on to St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI where he was a member of the ROTC and received his degree in Biology in 1940, he enlisted immediately after. Captain Craanen was the Commanding Officer of a Headquarter Battalion of the 5th Division under General Patton’s command. He had been overseas since February 1942. He spent 18 months in Iceland and the remainder of the time in England and Ireland before going into France shortly after the invasion. Captain Craanen was buried at the American Temporary Cemetery Villeneuve-Sur-Auvers, he remained at the cemetery in France for four years before his family had him brought back home to the United States. Captain Robert G. Craanen is now buried in the Allouez Cemetery which is in Brown County near Green Bay, Wisconsin.