Jordan, Joseph Martin.

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Jordan, Joseph Martin, born 25-07-1922, in Stony Creek Township, Henry County, Indiana, the third child to Halford and Louvia Jordan. Joseph was born into a working class family: Halford performed farm work, while Louvia remained at home caring for her children throughout the Great Depression.

Joseph grew up with a large family; six family members besides his parents and him lived in their house in Muncie. Among those were his older brother and sister, as well as his two younger sisters, Barbara and Patricia. As a teenager, Joseph attended Cowan High School, where his graduating class consisted of 29 students. He enjoyed playing basketball and baseball for the school, as well as other typical teenage activities like fishing and working odd jobs on the farm as well as being a parking lot attendant.

After he graduated from Cowan in 1940, Joseph worked at Delco-Remy, an automobile plant in Muncie, and continued to help out on the family farm. In an act that was not uncommon for the time, Joseph married Phyllis Cleo Lanning, his high school sweetheart, on 28-05-1942, three months before he enlisted in the Army. In March 1943, Joseph’s first and only son was born: Joseph Theodore Jordan. Fortunately, Joseph was able to meet his son before he left for England.

America’s entrance into World War II required industrial might to make the switch from commercial products to weapons and equipment for war. Automobile factories began manufacturing jeeps and tanks, and clothing and textile factories began stitching military uniforms for the mass of men enlisting in the U.S. Army.

Jordan enlisted in the military early in 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Shortly thereafter, he transferred to Camp Toccoa in Georgia. That summer, Jordan volunteered for the airborne, a new, experimental division that was dangerous and largely unproven in combat. Because the airborne was so dangerous, volunteers were paid an extra $50 a month, this incentive encouraged many men to volunteer. Being a paratrooper was also a sign of elite physical fitness, combat preparedness, and general skill.

Eventually, Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division was formed at Camp Toccoa, and Jordan became one of the first members of arguably one of the most storied companies in World War II. Easy Company “Band of Brothers” would go on after D-Day to fight through Normandy, Holland, and Belgium, and would eventually go on to be one of the first American groups to reach Hitler’s Eagles Nest.  Easy Company trained at Camp Toccoa until November 1942, when they completed basic training under the not beloved First Lieutenant Herbert Sobel. Lieutenant Herbert Maxwell Sobel was Easy Company’s commanding officer, and he was generally hated by every member of the company from the lowest ranking privates to the men ranked directly under him. Sobel believed that his men should fear him, which made him a disciplinarian of the highest degree. He would suspend weekend passes over small issues such as an untucked corner of the bed, or possession of “contraband” that was completely subjective to his own opinion. Life under Sobel was so bad in fact, that some men joked about killing him on accident once they were actually in combat with him.

For an unknown reason, in the late 1960’s, Herbert Sobel attempted suicide by shooting himself through his temple, but the shot only severed his optic nerves, blinding him for life. He was later moved to a VA assisted-living home, and resided there for 17 years, before dying of an failed attempt suicide and malnutrition and neglect on on 30-09-1987 at age 75. No funeral was held. Herbert Sobel is buried at At the Montrose Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

After Easy Company finished basic training in November, they marched to Atlanta in Easy Company fashion. Some members of Easy had seen a newspaper article that showcased a Japanese unit that marched 100 miles in 72 hours, a world record for distance covered in a land march. The men of Easy Company were all fiercely competitive, and no one would allow an enemy unit to hold the record, so they marched from Camp Toccoa to Atlanta in under 72 hours, breaking the world record the Japanese had recently set.

Easy Company then transferred to Fort Benning, a fort located on the Georgia-Alabama border. It was at Fort Benning that Jordan earned his parachute wings along with the rest of Easy Company. After Fort Benning, Jordan transferred to North Carolina, where he and the rest of Easy Company practiced jumping with weapons and conducting complex military training maneuvers. The last phase of training before departure to Europe took place in the woods of Southern Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Jordan crossed the Atlantic in early September 1943 aboard the RMS Samaria, a British troop ship. Once in England, Easy Company, under command of First Lieutenant Thomas Meehan was stationed at Aldbourne, where they spent the majority of their time in England for training.

On D-Day, Meehan, was killed when the C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft he was a passenger in was hit by German anti-aircraft fire. The plane crashed near the village of Beuzeville-au-Plain (approximately 2 miles northeast of the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise), killing the crew and the paratroopers aboard, including Company “E”‘s entire company headquarters group. The wreckage of the plane wasn’t confirmed found until the 1950s, so until then, he and all the men on the plane were missing in action. Meehan was 22 years old at the time of his death.

Not long after arriving in England, Jordan fell ill and was forced to have his appendix removed resulting in a lengthy stay at the 2nd General Hospital in Oxford, England, for treatment, and a hiatus from the intense training and rehearsals that were being conducted by Easy Company in preparation for D-Day. Jordan was able to return to training in October, giving him plenty of time to prepare for the invasion of Europe that lay on the horizon.

Easy Company began their “dress rehearsal” for Operation Overlord on 01-04-1944, at Slapton Sands, on the southwest England coast. Slapton Sands was the final step of preparation ahead of Overlord, and while it was not markedly successful, the men felt ready and prepared for any situation that could arise.

In the late hours of June 5, and crossing over into the very early morning of June 6, Jordan boarded a C-47 aircraft with fellow Easy Company men and began the flight across the English Channel to the Norman coast. Under heavy anti-aircraft fire from German guns, Jordan and the men on his plane were dropped in the vicinity of Sainte-Mère-Église. Jordan himself was said to have fallen in Boudainville, which is northwest of Sainte-Mère-Église.

Death and burial ground of Jordan, Joseph Martin.

 

Private First Class Jordan was able to make his jump successfully, free himself from his parachute, and establish himself on the ground with some of his buddies behind enemy lines. Shortly thereafter, a member of Easy Company recalled that Private First Class Jordan, age 21, was killed while helping another paratrooper detach from his chute.

The pain experienced in the wake of Private First Class Jordan’s death is still felt today, in a phone call with his widow, it was obvious that she still lives with the pain she felt all those years ago when her husband made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, while helping his brothers in arms. His legacy has also been carried on by his family, which consists of Air Force officers and Army Rangers. Thanks to them, Private First Class Jordan’s legacy will be remembered for years to come, and his bravery and sacrifice will never have to go unnoticed. Joseph Martin Jordan’s widow, Phyllis, “Phyl” (1925-2018) lived a long time with the loss of her husband

Joseph Martin Jordan is buried between his unlucky comrads, at the Normandy American Cemetery, in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. Plot D, Row 24, Grave 37.

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