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WESLEY C. WYERS
Cpl Wesley C. Wyers, 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Wyers, 411 S. Limestone st, a member of a paratroop battalion in the Invasion of France, in which he received four wounds, has written his parents that he has recovered and is helping to train replacement troops in France.

Entering the Army In November, 1942, Cpl. Wyers received his training at the Paratroop School, Camp McCall, N. C. Following a transfer to Los Angeles, and later to Ft. Benning, Ga. he was reassigned to Camp McCall in October, 1943. He was sent overseas last December and was stationed in Ireland and Southern England prior to the Invasion on June 6. After recovering from his wounds, he was with one of the first paratroop contingents to land near Nijmegen, Holland. In the "All American Paraglide." a periodical published by the paratroop division in Nijmegen, a copy of which Cpl Wyers mailed to his parents. a terse description of the troop landing is described. A brief excerpt follows:

The air over the DZ was filled with flak, but no other gunfire was heard as our 1st and 2nd Battalions reached the ground and began to assemble. The 3rd Battalion. jumping near the edge of the DZ came down squarely upon a 20-mm anti-aircraft position. The crew fled in panic and jointed [sic] a small party of die-hard enemy firing from the edge of the area.

They were driven off and the assembly completed. The battalions moved out to their objectives."

Cpl. Wyers attended Charlevoix High School. Charlevoix. Mich. A brother, Pvt. Robert B. Wyers, 22, is undergoing training with a paratroop battalion at Camp McCall. N. C.

[source: Springfield Sun [MO] - courtesy of Darrin Mason]


(courtesy of April May)

Grave marker for Wesley C. Wyers in the Hillcrest Memorial Park, Jackson (Jackson County), Michigan.

After the war ended, Wesley returned to Nottingham, England to marry Eileen A. Adkin and they tied the knot in March 1945.

Wesley was discharged shortly thereafter and his "war-bride" joined him in Jackson, Michigan where, in 1946 they lived at 929 Maple avenue, Apartment #3.

In 1946 Wesley was employed as a switchman by the New York Central Railroad which at the time had lines stretching west as far as Chicago, IL and St. Louis, MO. 

However, the following year, 1947, he became a press operator for Hayes Industries and the couple moved to 307 Watts Street.

In 1949 a better opportunity came his way and Wesley went to work for Loud & Jackson Diaries as a salesman and no other change of address nor employer was found in records available through 1952.

Wesley died on February 11, 1968 at the age of 47, cause unknown, and he was buried in the same town where they had been living.  It can be presumed that no other major changes took place between 1952 and 1968. 

His wife apparently remarried and subsequently died in 1981 at age 55. 

Her grave marker reads as "Eileen Wyers Fairbanks".  She is buried in the same cemetery, although in a different section, as Wesley.  Her bronze plaque has a format identical to Wesley's, probably due to her second husband being a WW-II veteran as well.

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