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| Lt. Richard Dietrich, 319th Glider FA Bn was killed in action on D-Day when his Horsa glider was shot at and crash landed. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40100548/richard-e.-dietrich http://normandy.whitebeamimages.ie/forum/threads/crashed-horsa-glider-chalk-31-436th-tcg.576/ |
Richard E. Dietrich never had a chance to reach 100 years old. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Last year I was not able to write a profile everyday from September to November because I was studying for the Certified Financial Planner test (I passed!). I feel my project to honor one U.S. serviceman for each day of the war would be incomplete if I left them off. As I have time, I am going back and adding profiles for the days I missed.
Richard was born on September 5, 1918 in Bloomington, Indiana. His parents William and Catherine were also both born in Indiana. His paternal grandparents were from Germany and Switzerland. His father worked as a farmer and later as a creamery solicitor. Richard had three older brothers, three older sisters and one younger sister. Richard graduated from Indiana University in 1939 with a degree in mathematics. He got a maters degree in mathematics one year later. He got a job with Aetna Life Insurance. He married Martha Ricks
He enlisted in the army in May 1942 and became a commissioned officer. Because of his math background, he was assigned to the artillery arm of the army. He reached the rank of second lieutenant in the 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. The 319th GFAB first saw action in Sicily in September 1943. It also took part in fighting at Naples. It was transferred to England in November 1943 to prepare for the invasion of France.
Lt. Dietrich's unit was scheduled to come in on the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, in a landing zone near St. Mere Eglise. The 40 Horsa gliders, carrying the men and their 75mm pack howitzers, were riddled by heavy anti-aircraft fire as they came in to land, causing most of them to crash. Of the 337 men in the unit, 58 were wounded and another 15 were killed, including Lt. Dietrich.
His grave is at Valhalla Memorial Gardens in Bloomington, Indiana.
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.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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