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| Lt. Col. Percy McCarley, 9th Infantry Division, died in Paris of non-battle causes. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14664921&ref=acom |
Percy D. McCarley, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 3, 1917 in Mississippi. His parents were also both born in Mississippi. His father worked as a dry goods store bookkeeper. Percy had two younger brothers.
By 1940 Percy had graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and was a second lieutenant stationed in Honolulu. He was at the time married to his New York born wife Jeanne (They were married at the West Point Chapel on August 19, 1939). They had one daughter.
After a year in Hawaii, he was set to North Carolina and joined the 9th Infantry Division. He fought at Casablanca and at Sicily, where he was wounded. He was back in commanded when the 9th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach on D+4. He led his men throughout the fighting in Normandy, across France and into Belgium and Holland. He was a lieutenant commander in the 518th Military Police Battalion. The 518th served to direct traffic and keep traffic jams to a minimum. Setting up checkpoints to maintain proper flow of traffic, the unit was often close to where it could be attacked by the enemy.
Lt. Col. McCarley died on September 12, 1944 in Paris, France. I was not able to discover if his death was the result of a wound being treated unsuccessfully at a Paris hospital, or if he was killed in Paris from some non-battle cause.
It is curious that there is not more easy to find information about Col. McCarley. After all, he was a West Point grad and a high ranking officer -- not that many lieutenant colonels died in WW2. Being involved with the military police, perhaps his death was a tragic accident where the less shared with his family the better. Guns, motor vehicles, and young men acting recklessly, and perhaps some liberated spirits, are a volatile combination that often ends in tragedy.
His grave is at Magnolia Cemetery in Batesville, Mississippi. I don't know what happened to his wife and daughter after the war.
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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