112th Infantry regt. 28th division KIA PH Aug 7 1944

[scottplen]

just started to research this 28th div kia not a PA guy but an PA division !

[Ulsterman]

Wow- I used to live 6 doors down from his fiancees' old house- 144 Bartlett Street. It is still there.

The Lewiston Sun Journal is still going strong, as is the VFW in Lewiston. if you write to the local Androscoggin History society (c/0 the Town Hall in Auburn on Center Street), you might get more information. Address the letter to Doug Hodgekin.

There are still a few people in L-A who will have known him around.

If you ever want to sell that one, let me know.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Ulsterman

[Ulsterman]

well, well. I must have passed Reynolds siblings many times in my life and maybe even met them a few times. Odds are the present Governor of Maine , Paul LePage, is a nephew of Reynold as one of his sisters married a LePage.

There is a guy who is named for his KIA Uncle who lives in Massachusetts and is active in the Scouts. I am positive I knew his cousin, Nicole Bergeron, as she used to be a teller at the neighborhood Credit Union. I suspect I knew his Reynold's fiancee too.

All of Reynold's brothers are now dead, but he has a couple of sisters who are still alive. Another of his brothers served in WW2, got married in 1946 after coming home, got divorced shortly thereafter and died in 1951.

How that medal ended up on the market is a mystery. my guess is someone cleaned out the parents house and sold it, either that or the infamous Rumford Purple Heart engraver/ faker manufactured this by looking up obscure Maine obituaries.

This medal is really poignant and means a lot to me, as I lived in L-A for over two decades.

Reynald 's parents or grandparents came down to Lewiston from Quebec to work in the shoe mills on the Androscoggin river in the 1890s/early 1900s. His Dad, Alphonse, was born in 1900 and his Mom in 1896, both in northern Quebec. They were part of the great Franco migration into Maine. most Franco American families were the classic American work,family,community, church story. 95 percent of the Franco Americans were staunch Catholics and staunch Roosevelt Democrats. Families were often large, sometimes very large. Families with 10 kids were not uncommon. Many kids dropped out of school after the 8th grade and went to work somewhere, usually an 8 to 12 hour shift in a mill or shop. Most families speak French (Quebec ois ) as a first language and the older Francos often have a French accent.

Odds are Reynald spoke French fluently, although his Québécois and the local patois in Normandy was about as similar as modern English and Elizabethian English. My next door neighbor fought in Normandy and although he was technically an interpreter, he said the locals had a hard time with his accent. his Harvard educated Yankee Lieutenant did most of the talking, but my neighbor understood most everything he heard. Most of the major mill cities in Maine actually have a regional accent , a FRENCH local accent! You can actually tell if a person is from Waterville or Biddeford Sanford and Lewiston by the way they pronounce "avec."

In the 1930 s and 1940s Lewiston was a bustling, busy, hard working place and most people worked in the shoe mills (like Reynald) their entire lives.He worked in the Federal Shoe mill, which was a massive mill and made quality shoes. today it is overpriced condos on the river. In those days people worked very hard for a little money and took great pride in their work. they went to St Peter and Paul's church in downtown Lewiston and as Reynold was from Baxter Ave. It was a ten minute walk to the basillica. Baxter Ave. was mostly built in the 1930s and Reynold lived in a smaller house (by today's standards) with his numerous family members. As I recall, most of the houses are about 1000 square feet or so, with .25 acre yards. It's a nice neighborhood and when Reynald called it home the tram stopped there and took you into town (about a half mile) for 5 cents.

Born in 1920, I do not know if he graduated from High School, but I would bet he did, as he was originally on a warrant officers list when he enlisted down in Portland. He had the American Defense ribbon.

Had he not been killed during the last German counter attack of the Normandy campaign, I reckon he would have fought on until the Bulge, where a lot of his comrades seem to have become casualties.

Had he lived, I reckon he'd have come home and lived in Lewiston/Auburn all his life. He'd have got married to Jeanne in St Peters, gone to Mass every week, joined the VFW and the Knights of Columbus, worked his ass off for 45 years, 50 weeks a year, 8 -10 hours a day and never taken sick leave unless his wife made him. Hed have smoked Luckys and voted Democrat almost every time, with the exceptions of Eisenhower, Reagan and Olympia of course. He'd have hunted and fished, fixed stuff around the house and dreamed of owning a camp on a lake up north one day........coached little league, watched the Red Sox and Patriots religiously, drunk Budweiser and whiskey and probably never, ever, ever have talked about the war......except maybe a few times with his brothers at family picnics or when his own son came back from Vietnam.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Ulsterman

[scottplen]

Hello

thanks for info ! i can not tell you how it came on market who originally sold it ? i do not know ? guess someone cleaned out estate .but i can tell you it came from a dealer from new england ! as for engraving it is 100 % correct and vintage wwii officially hand engraved ! Sorry to say i no longer own this i made a trade that has been in the works for a bit !

[Ulsterman]

Darn.