 Family
Vacation, September 23, 1925
found three-year-old Gerrit with his mother and two siblings on the
SS Nieuw Amsterdam from Rotterdam to New York
His mother, Anna (nee) Berendsen) is listed as of Dutch birth but
her three children war all born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Young
Gerrit was apparently named after his maternal grandfather
 Note
the multiple uses of "DO" in this document, an old abbreviation for the
word "ditto" meaning "same as above or before." Later the
quotation mark of " came to be used in the same manner.
In the days of mimeograph, or so-called spirit
duplication machines, a popular brand was known as a Ditto Machine.
|
Gerrit Van Vels gave up his occupation: as a trades
apprentice to enlist in the Army in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on 25 July
1942. He volunteered for parachutist duty and
was assigned to Company H, of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
After jumping to intro Normandy on D-Day, Gerrit was
severely wounded on 4 July 1944.
He recalled during an interview, "I was shot in the
throat; my arm was shattered, and shells exploded near me and hit me in
the back, I couldn't move. I didn't know if I was going to bleed to
death or the Germans would find me or what was going to happen. I
remember a soldier giving me a shot of morphine, and the next thing I
knew I was in a field hospital."
Gerrit survived the wounds and lived to the age of 81
before his death on 23 April 2003 in Grandville (Kent County), MI. |
