WARTIME LISTS OF KILLED IN ACTION
BRING TRAGEDY TO ADDITONAL HOMES
Year End Review Edition
Sorrowful news, in the form of messages advising the next of kin of the death of a loved one somewhere in the service of their nation, came to an increasing number of homes in Muscatine and vicinity during 1944 as the country’s military operations against enemies on World war No. 2 proceeded on an accelerated pace. Emphasis upon the tremendous cost of warfare in human lives was called in repeated instances, by official messages, relating that men from this community had made the supreme sacrifice while following the flag with the respective branches of the armed services. News dispatches from the scenes of history –making engagements recorded in the third year of this nation’s participation in war were followed, in the course of a brief lapse of time, and with distressing regularity, by official notification to the effect that someone from this community was included among those who had given their lives.
But brief bits of information were available, in most instances, for the bereaved relatives of servicemen whose deaths were written into the record during this third year of the war. The date, the theater of action, perchance a note to the effect that the serviceman had been buried in an American cemetery abroad- and but little more were ordinarily included. Subsequently, in instances, letter from companions in service, or others in close association, gave additional details. For some, whose death occurred while in service in this country, funeral services were conducted when bodies were returned to the home community for burial. For others, who died on foreign soil, memorial services were conducted at various churches of their affliction.
Community memorial services, honoring those whose lives were given in the service of their country were conducted at the Muscatine high school auditorium Sunday, Nov. 26, with representatives of various pastoral organizations participating establishing a custom of holding on the last Sunday afternoon of each month, similar memorial service for the community’s war heroes.
Brief sketches of those who gave their lives in the service of their country since the outbreak of the war, compiled from causality list and information obtained from relatives follow:
STAFF SGT. JOHN W. BIRDWELL
A former Muscatine man, Staff Sgt. John W. Birdwell, was killed in action in the Normandy assault on July 11, 1944, his wife, at Seymour, Ia., was advised. He had made his home with his stepsister, Mrs. Vera Essex, 302 ½ East Second street, before entering the army. He had been employed by the Rock Island railway here for a time.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, Friday, December 29, 1944
John Wesley Birdwell was born Sept. 5, 1912. He died July 11, 1944 and is buried in Brittany American Cemetery, Montjoie Saint Martin, France.
Sgt. Birdwell served in World War II with the U.S. Army 359th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division and was awarded the Purple Heart.
Source: ancestry.com; abmc.gov
