TWO FROM REGION KILLED IN ACTION;  TEN OTHERS WOUNDED

 
   Capt. Gerard A. Ruddy, First Pennsylvania Paratrooper To Land In France, and PFC Frank T. Gbadick, This City, Make Supreme Sacrifice For Their Country –- Three Marines Injured In Saipan.
  The high toll of regional war casualties continued to mount today with the receipt of word that two soldiers have been killed in action, a paratroop captain in France and a private in England, and other servicemen have been wounded, including six soldiers in France, one in Italy and three marines in the conquest of the Japanese stronghold in the Marianas chain of islands in the southwest Pacific.

Killed on June 14

   Capt. Gerard A. Ruddy, thirty, commanding officer of a paratroop unit, was killed in action in France on June 14, according to word received from the War Department by his mother, Mrs. Anna Ruddy, a nurse at the Clarks Summit State Hospital.  A former North Scranton resident, he was a son of the late Dennis Ruddy.
   Captain Ruddy, who joined the army twelve years ago, was the first Northeastern Pennsylvania soldier to volunteer for paratroop duty and received training at Fort Benning, Ga., and Camp Mackall, N.C. 

GIVES LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY

CAPT. GERARD A. RUDDY

He was also the first Pennsylvania paratrooper to jump in the invasion of France.  He was advanced to Captain since going overseas in December 1943    He served in Panama and later was transferred to Fort Jay, N.Y.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant in November 1942, at Fort Benning, Ga
   A graduate of Holy Rosary High School, Captain Ruddy formerly resided on Oak Street before entering the army. 
   Besides his mother, he is survived by two brothers, Sgt. Thomas E. Ruddy, with an engineer unit in Italy, and Joseph, Union City, N.J., and two sisters, both of whom are members of the Immaculate Heart of Mary order, Sister Marie Rita, Wilmington, Del., and Sister Rose Angela, Port Washington, N.Y.

NOTE:  As shown in this newspaper article, Captain Ruddy was reported to have been killed on June 14th but eyewitness accounts from men of the 508, including O.B. Hill, have confirmed that he was actually killed on June 6th, shortly after landing in Normandy.  The reason for this discrepancy in dates can be seen on his Burial Report where a handwritten date is easily mistaken for this all important piece of information.