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| Tech 5 Wayne McKinnie served with the 170th Engineer Combat Battalion in Leyte. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98581264/wayne-leroy-mckinnie https://www.ww2online.org/image/soldier-170th-engineer-combat-battalion-laying-fuse-one-five-dynamite-charges-osbornes-peak |
Wayne Leroy McKinnie never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on June 11, 1919 in Morrill, Kansas. His parents Ralph and Mabel were born in Iowa and Kansas, respectively. His father worked as a farmer and lunch stand proprietor. Wayne had a younger sister. By 1940 Wayne had completed four years of high school. He lived at home and worked as a highway construction laborer. Later he worked for the Santa Fe Railroad. He married Erma May in 1943.
He was drafted into the army in the later half of 1943 and became a tech 5 in Company C, 170th Engineer Combat Battalion.
Fulfilling Douglas McArthur's promise to return to the Philippines, American forces landed on Leyte on October 20, 1944. There was minimal Japanese resistance at the beachheads. Over the next five days the Americans made steady advances. Sgt. McKinnie was killed in action on October 25, 1944. I don't know if Sgt. McKinnie was killed while performing his engineering duties or due to Japanese night attacks, or daily air raids which were common in these early days before the enemy air force was wiped out.
Two days after word got home about Sgt. McKinnie's death, his sister got another of the dreaded army telegrams informing her that her husband Floyd Wade, 17th Airborne Division, had died on November 14, 1944, after he was not able to recover from a grenade wound that took both his right arm and leg in a training exercise.
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| https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3666418/floyd-wilbur-wade |
Sgt. McKinnie's grave is at Morrill Cemetery in Morrill, Kansas. His widow remarried and died in 1990.
Last year on this date I profiled Bronze Star hero Donald Shelton, 34th Infantry Division. You can read about Donald here.
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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