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| Pfc. Rafael Baldor, an experience ski instructor, served with the 10th Mountain Division with these soldiers. http://georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov.tumblr.com/post/56851240557/us-mountain-troops-on-a-patrol-and-showing-the https://www.pinterest.com/jessicaadza/10th-mountain-division-wwii/ https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=121084204&ref=acom |
Rafael Baldor, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on October 24, 1917 in Vermont. His parents were both born in Spain. His father worked as a granite quarry cutter in New Hampshire. Rafael had three older sisters, a younger sister and a younger brother who served in the army for the full length of America's involvement in World War 2. By 1940 he was living at home working as a ski school instructor.
No doubt Rafael's skiing prowess led him to enlist in the very first American army division trained to fight on skis. He became a private first class in Company L, 3rd Battalion, 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division.
The 10th ID first engaged the enemy in February 1945. In keeping with its training, it was given the mission to dislodge the Germans from the Northern Apennines Mountains. The 10th ID advanced into the Po Valley in April 1945. On April 21 the 3rd Battalion led a march to get deep behind the enemy lines. That day Pfc. Baldor marched through villages where the villagers passed out wine, cheese, bread and flowers to their liberators. When dusk arrived, things turned deadly. Pfc. Baldor was killed along with 13 other men by a bomb that may have been from a German plane, or perhaps, tragically, from an American plane.
His grave is at North Conway Cemetery in New Hampshire.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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