Kiley, John W.

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Kiley, John W. born on 15-09-1919, in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, the son of John Kiley and Pauline M. Kiley. John was a plumber before joining the National Guard in New York on 15-10-1940. John then served in the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, nickname”Currahee” under command of Colonel Robert Frederick “Bounding Bob” Sink of the 101st Airborne Division, under command of then Major William Carey “Bill” Lee. Father Of The Airborne , as a Captain and Company Commander during World War II.

The 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles” was activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, under the command of William C. Lee. Camp Claiborne was a U.S. Army military camp in the 1930s continuing through World War II located in Rapides Parish in central Louisiana. The camp was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Eighth Service Command,

It was formed as an airborne infantry division trained for parachute and glider operations. Designed for deployment behind enemy lines, the division was tasked with securing key objectives in advance of larger ground operations. The division departed for overseas service on 05-09-1943 from the New York Port of Embarkation and arrived in the United Kingdom on 15-09-1943.

American airborne landings in Normandy were a series of military operations carried by the United States as part of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy by the Allies on June 6, 1944, during World War II. In the opening maneuver of the Normandy landings, about 13,100 American paratroopers from the 82nd under command of Major General Matthew Bunker, “Old Iron Tits” Ridgway and 101st Airborne Divisions, then 3,937 glider infantrymen, were dropped in Normandy via two parachute and six glider missions.

Death and burial ground of Captain Kiley, John W.

On 18-09-1944, the battalion, in the meantime arrived in the Netherlands, command post was positioned beside a burned-out German halftrack, about two hundred yards from the Catholic Church of Onze Lieve Vrouw van Lourdes, known locally as the Vlokhoven tower in Eindhoven. Eindhoven is the burthtown of the webmaster and liberated on September 18th

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At one point, Captain Kiley, age 25, crossed the street and stood fully exposed, carefully observing the church and the road ahead. Although the captain’s insignia on his helmet had been painted over, he could not afford such a risk. One of his men shouted for him to take cover before a sniper “shot his ass off.” Kiley turned and replied, “If I get down, so will everyone else.” Moments later, a single bullet struck him in the neck, and he fell. John Kiley is now buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten, Eijsden-Margraten Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands. adress 1.6269 Na Margraten, Netherlands. Signifcance: The only American militairy cemetery in the Netherlands. Burials Contains the graves of 8.288 American soldiers from World War II and missing; Lists 1.722 names on the /Walls of tyhe Missing.

Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster:    robhopmans@outlook.com

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