WW2 D-Day Fallen - Forrest Brewer, 82nd Airborne Division

Cpl. Forrest Brewer, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment was killed in action on D-Day.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29958671
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Forrest Vernon "Lefty" Brewer never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

He was born on December 9, 1917 in Tennessee. His parents Frank and Mattie were also both born in Tennessee. His father worked as a general merchandise store salesman. By 1930 the family had moved to Florida and Frank worked as a filing station manager and later as a clerk. Forrest had two older sisters, one older brother and one younger brother (who served in the navy). By 1940 Forrest had completed three years of high school and worked as a baseball player, excelling as a top notch left handed pitcher.

http://www.baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com/biographies/brewer_lefty.html

He enlisted in the army on March 3, 1941. He volunteered for parachute duty and after completing jump school he joined the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He married Mary Dixon during the summer of 1942. He advanced to the rank of staff sergeant but was busted back to private for fighting and breaking another soldier's jaw.

By early 1944 the 508th PIR was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division and Forrest became a corporal (for the second time after being busted back to private again for another fight) in Company B, 1st Battalion. He no doubt had many opportunities to use his baseball skills in the games played with his fellow paratroopers. Baseball really was America's game back in the 1940's. (Another baseball player, Henry O'Neill, who played for the Philadelphia Athletics, was profiled earlier this year.)

On June 6, 1944 the 508th PIR was given the assignment of the southwest portion of the 82nd AD sector of the airdrop. Poor weather and heavy flak resulted in the 508th air transports to stray off course. German units in the scheduled drop zones prevented pathfinders from setting expected markings. As a result the troops from the 508th PIR were widely scattered and many drowned when they landed in unexpected marshes. 

Cpl. Brewer was killed in action on the afternoon of D-Day when he was unable to escape from counterattacking German tanks who machine-gunned the outmatched paratroopers.

His grave is at Riverside Memorial Park in Jacksonville, Florida. I don't know what happened to his widow.

Fifty years later, Bill Dean, the paratrooper who was with Brewer the day he died, admitted that not a day went by when he did not remember his comrade. “I will never forget Lefty,” said Dean, “...nor how fickle fate is ... he taught me how to soldier and I made it back ... he didn’t.” (Source here.)

Thank you Forrest for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Forrest.

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.

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