Bob Greenstrand, 513-F, was born in Granada, MN on 18 May
1925. He entered service in 17 July 1943 at Fort Snelling, MN, where he
volunteered for the parachute troops and was assigned to F-Company,
513th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, GA. He remained in
that unit from beginning of training till the end of the war. He
participated in the major battle actions of the 17th Airborne and, at
war's end, he was transferred to the 508th Parachute Infantry to serve
as Honor Guard for USFET Hqs at Frankfurt, Germany. He returned home
with the 82nd Airborne and was discharged on 17 January 1946 at Camp
McCoy, WI.
Returning to Minnesota for a few years, he moved on to California to
pursue a fire service career by joining the Daly City Fire Department,
and worked his way through the ranks to become the Fire Chief of Daly
City, CA, several miles south of San Francisco.
It was he who located the gravesite of one of our
Medal of Honor recipients, Stuart Stryker, buried at the Golden Gate
National Cemetery at San Bruno, CA. The Stryker gravestone was in such a
bad state of presentation that he went the cemetery office and chewed
out the manager for such a disgraceful display of our war hero. Due to
Bob's effort, the Stryker gravestone is now a pure white slab of marble,
with the Stuart Stryker name engraved in gold letters, to bear a very
distinctive symbol of a Medal of Honor winner. Another national hero,
Admiral Nimitz's headstone, located nearby, paled in comparison.
Bob's greatest reward in life was his memberships in various fire
services and Masonic organizations. His most favorite role was as a
Shrine Clown to have brought so much happiness to the crippled,
handicapped and retarded children in hospitals. He became active in the
17th Airborne Association in 1970. He has served on the Board of
Directors, and was its President for the 1985-86 term. Bob is married to
Dorothy with two children, a son and a daughter, and one grandson, and
retired to live in Mesa, AZ in 1983. By two strokes of great misfortune,
both of their children are now unexpectedly deceased, their son in 2000
and their daughter in 2004. Only the Good Lord knew the reasons why. He
sadly confided in me that the only family he had left was the members of
the 17th Airborne. He was one of the strong advocates to dissolve the
17th Airborne Association since many of us are getting too old, and most
of us were unable by health or financial reasons to attend any of our
reunions. So, Bob asked me to write up a small newsletter to keep the
guys apprised of what is happening to his 17th Airborne family. Bob had
had a stroke and was not able to attend our San Antonio reunion and
sadly, he passed away and missed the Final Reunion at Hampton, Virginia.
Source:
17th Airborne Division Re-enactors, Czech Republic
Chapter |
