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| Staff Sergeant Charles Kettering, 2nd Ranger Battalion, likely drowned when a British LCA similar to the one in this photo sunk in rough seas on D-Day. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55906659/charles-e-kettering https://photos.usni.org/content/448361jpg |
Charles Edward "Buzz" Kettering never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Charles was born on June 7, 1920 in Warren, Pennsylvania. His parents Peter and Clara were also both born in Pennsylvania. His father worked as a railroad brakeman and railroad conductor. Charles had two older sisters, two younger sisters, and one younger brother. By 1940 Charles had graduated from Strong-Vincent High School in Erie, Pennsylvania and was still living at home. He worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
He enlisted in the army in March 1939. At some point he volunteered for the Rangers and ended up as a staff sergeant in Company D, 2nd Ranger Battalion which was created in April 1943.
In the planning for D-Day, Sgt. Kettering's company along with Companies E and F were given the assignment of scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, more than one hundred feet high, to take out powerful 155mm guns that threatened the invasion beaches and invasion forces at both Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. Off the coast of Normandy, the Rangers were offloaded into ten British Land Craft Assault (LCA). The June 6, 1944 attack began with 225 men, but 35 men from two different LCA were lost in the rough seas. Weighed down by heavy equipment, many could not be rescued before drowning. Sgt. Kettering was most likely one of these lost at sea because his body was never recovered.
His cenotaph grave is at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. His parents both died on the same day in 1963.
This is one of the final 100 stories (88) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Iwo Jima fallen Corpsman Francis Broughton, 5th Marine Division. You can read about Francis 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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