Fort Bragg Air Assault School renamed for Medal of Honor recipient
http://www.fayobserver.com/military/fort-bragg-air-assault-school-renamed-for-medal-of-honor/article_6beb112f-d976-5382-8b10-68926440626e.html
"Fort Bragg is recognized as home to the Army's airborne and special operations forces, but the nation's largest post is now making a claim on air assault, too.
A ceremony on Fort Bragg celebrated the post's past and future by renaming the relatively new air assault school for an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper who served in a glider regiment during World War II...."
A bit of history for the morning - and the future.
DeGlopper shipped overseas in 1943 and served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France.
*DEGLOPPER, CHARLES N.
•Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Co. C, 325th Glider Infantry, 82d Airborne Division
•Place and date: Merderet River at la Fiere, France, 9 June 1944
•Entered service at: Grand Island, N.Y
•G.O. No.: 22, 28 February 1946
Citation: He was a member of Company C, 325th Glider Infantry, on 9 June 1944 advancing with the forward platoon to secure a bridgehead across the Merderet River at La Fiere, France. At dawn the platoon had penetrated an outer line of machineguns and riflemen, but in so doing had become cut off from the rest of the company. Vastly superior forces began a decimation of the stricken unit and put in motion a flanking maneuver which would have completely exposed the American platoon in a shallow roadside ditch where it had taken cover. Detecting this danger, Pfc. DeGlopper volunteered to support his comrades by fire from his automatic rifle while they attempted a withdrawal through a break in a hedgerow 40 yards to the rear. Scorning a concentration of enemy automatic weapons and rifle fire, he walked from the ditch onto the road in full view of the Germans, and sprayed the hostile positions with assault fire. He was wounded, but he continued firing. Struck again, he started to fall; and yet his grim determination and valiant fighting spirit could not be broken. Kneeling in the roadway, weakened by his grievous wounds, he leveled his heavy weapon against the enemy and fired burst after burst until killed outright. He was successful in drawing the enemy action away from his fellow soldiers, who continued the fight from a more advantageous position and established the first bridgehead over the Merderet. In the area where he made his intrepid stand his comrades later found the ground strewn with dead Germans and many machineguns and automatic weapons which he had knocked out of action. Pfc. DeGlopper's gallant sacrifice and unflinching heroism while facing unsurmountable odds were in great measure responsible for a highly important tactical victory in the Normandy Campaign.
*Posthumously
http://www.history.army.mil/moh/wwII-a-f.html#DEGLOPPER
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Pics of DeGlopper (w/SSG McDonald C Co Supply Sgt) and valor awards.
"McDonald, the Co-C Supply Sgt, sent this photo to his girlfriend (now his wife of many years). This photo was taken in March 1944 at our Camp March Hare, Scraptoft (Leicester) England. I've heard several stories about how big DeGlopper was. McDonald tells me that he was about 6 ft 6 inches although others have said 6' 4". McDonald is around 5' 8". McDonald also said that DeGlopper weighed about 240 ibs. and wore a size 13 shoe."
"I did not know DeGlopper. I came to Company C as Company Commander the morning that DeGlopper was KIA. During that fight, I was with our battalion commander, Teddy Sanford. We were following the left flank of Company C. We were close enough for Sanford to throw a grenade but we were not eye-witnesses to the action in which DeGlopper was KIA. The eye-witness acount for the citation came from Lt. Paul Kinsey, now deceased."
http://www.geocities.ws/glidertroop325/deglopper.html
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List of Normandy Invasion MOH recipients.
http://www.history.army.mil/html/reference/Normandy/nor-moh.html