Cole, Robert George, born on 19-03-1915, in San Antonio, Texas,
the son of colonel Clarence F. Cole, Army doctor, and Clara H. Cole. Robert was an American soldier who received the Medal of Honor
for his action in Carentan, in the days following the D-Day Normandy invasion of World War II. He completed his education at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio
in 1933. He joined the United States Army on 01-07-1934. On 26-06-1935, he was honorably discharged to accept an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Cole graduated in 1939 and went back home and married Allie Mae Wilson. Cole was a lieutenant colonel commanding the 3rd Battalion of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, nickname “Five-Oh-Deuce” or “The Deuce”
on June 6, 1944, the date of his unit’s first combat jump. Commander was General Maxwell Davenport Taylor.
General Dwight Eisenhower speaking with Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole
of the 101st Airborne (far right) just before he boarded his C-47 headed to Normandy. At 02.00 on 12 June the 506th PIR, nickname “Five oh Sink”
with the 101 Airborne Division
, passed through their line and captured Hill 30 to the south of Carentan. From there, led by Company E, the 2nd of the 506th PIR (Band of Brothers) attacked north into Carentan at daylight as part of a 3-battalion assault.
The German 6th Parachute Regiment under Freiherr Friedrich von der Heydte,
virtually out of ammunition, had abandoned the town during the night, leaving only a small rear guard. By 0730 of June 12 Carentan
was captured. Cole was recommended for a Medal of Honor for his actions that day, but did not live to receive it.















Death and burial ground of Cole, Robert George.
On 18-09-1944, during Operation Market Garden, Colonel Cole, here with Crilley, Joseph “Joe” James, Captain of the 101 Airborne Division, 326th Engineers C Company. My personal dear friend,











Cole returned shortly after and had to wipe his best friend’s blood off the radio, which thankfully still worked. A pilot asked him to put some orange identification panels in front of his position. Cole decided to do it himself. He was placing a panel on the ground when he was shot and killed by a German sniper.


Captain Ivan Hershner
, the C.O. of Item Co, who died age 81 in 2005, was sent to the responsible AAF fighter squadron in spring, 1945, to determine why that fatal mistake happened. The final finding was that the 3rd Battalion of the Deuce had advanced too far and too fast the day and Stopka’s group from 3/502 was in an area that was still supposed to be occupied by German troops. As Cole’s widow and two-year-old son Bruce looked on, Cole’s mother accepted his posthumous award on the parade ground, where Cole had played as a child, at Fort Sam Houston. In September 2009, for the 65th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, Cole’s son Bruce with his wife, came to Best/Holland to unveil a monument on the spot where his father was killed by a sniper.











