We just learned about veteran Tom Rice’s passing, last night. He was Staff Sergeant of the C Company of the 501th PIR in the 101st Airborne. We still vividly remember his parachute jump over Carentan in june 2019. Here he is on the first photo, with Henri-Jean Renaud, former Sainte-Mère-Eglise mayor Alexandre Renaud’s son, in 2019. Additionally, roughly a month ago, on october 19th, veteran Forrest “Huff” Huffstetler passed, at the age of 98 years old. Having enrolled very young in the US Army, he joined the 82nd Airborne Division and was deployed in Sicily and Salerno, before participating in D-Day with his comrades of the H Company, 3rd Battalion, 505th PIR, as PFC. He landed at 2am the morning of the 6th on Drop Zone O near Sainte-Mère-Eglise, and had the opportunity of fighting alongside Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Krause. He was also present when Krause declared the village liberated and hung the american flag in town. Here is a photo of Mr. Huffstetler (on the left) alongside his comrade veteran Joseph Morettini, from the E Company of the 508th, also from the 82nd Airborne, who passed in 2020. They were at the Airborne Museum for the commemorations of the 75th anniversary, in 2019, and were attending the ceremony of the 50th anniversary of general Eisenhower’s passing. May all three rest in peace.
