This Ike jacket
was worn by T/Sgt. Roger L Kitchen, Company D, 508th PIR. Displayed
here are the coveted parachutist's wings, Combat Infantry Badge (CIB), and
the so-called "Ruptured Duck' signifying Honorable Discharge. Although
his campaign ribbons are absent, the jacket does have the Presidential Unit
Citation, Netherlands Orange Lanyard and the Belgian Fourragere. Note
also the Pathfinder insignia on the left sleeve.
Although the ribbon is not
displayed on the jacket in this photo, Sgt. Kitchen earned among other things,
the Purple Heart.
Kitchen was a corporal at the
time the regiment made the jump into Normandy on June 6 1944.
Kitchen was hit by shrapnel
while awaiting the green light prior to jumping from the C-47 he and his stick
were in. Nonetheless he completed the jump with a landing somewhere
between the Douve and Merderet rivers. Once on the ground he found that
the wounds in his forehead and on a knuckle of the right hand were minor so
he just bandaged himself before joining into the fray.
After the end of hostilities
Sgt. Kitchen learned that there was a point system being used to determine
how soon a man could go home and that medals counted as points. He went
to an officer who recalled that Kitchen had been wounded, and that officer
saw to it that he was awarded he Purple Heart which was officially awarded
on May 28 1945.
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