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SGT FRANCIS J. YOST


(courtesy of James S. Yost)

News article from unknown New Jersey newspaper

Francis J. Yost Killed

The soldier who gave his all for the nation was Sergt Francis J. Yost who was killed in France July 4,1944, giving up his life to save a comrade who had been wounded. Only seconds after he carried his wounded buddy to safety, he was shot down.
His father recently accepted, in his behalf, a posthumous award of the bronze star for gallantry and the Purple Heart. Sergeant Yost was a graduate of St. Angus’ Parochial school and St. John’s parochial High School.
     The best description of his gallantry in France is contained in an Army publication, a copy of which has been forwarded to his parents.
     Sergeant William H. Chapman writing in the Devils Digest, the official publication of the 508th parachute infantry regiment said, “If I told you that once a guy in I company took a rifle and knocked out four machine guns and killed 13 Krauts, you’d probably think I’d been drinking too much French beer. Several of my Buddies saw it and we know it really happened.
“If you ever knew Sgt. Francis J. Yost you could more easily believe what I’m going to tell you. He was from Paterson New Jersey, and at the time of his death he was only 24 years old. He was a regular guy who liked to have a good time, just the same as anyone else, but to him, duty was a pleasure, rather than an obligation. When he was on the job he was what we call "Strictly GI"
     He fought like a lion from the first minute we hit the DZ until he was killed during the invasion of Normandy. When the S2 section reported the location of four machine guns he took off to get them with an M1 and bayonet as his only weapons.
     “We watched him as he picked them off one at a time, until he

had killed most of them. Then he went directly into the nests and finished the job with his bayonet, and all the time he was doing this he was acting as platoon leader because both our officers had been hit. One of them was dead and the other had been evacuated. We would have followed him down the mouth of a cannon because we believed he would never ask us to do something he wouldn’t do himself.
     “The next day we were going forward to hill 95 lots of our men had been hit. Corp D. [Donald] L. Dicks, now first sergeant of “I” company was shot up badly, so Yost went out to get him. The Jerries saw him and turned all hell loose trying to get him too, but by some queer quake of fate he wasn’t scratched. He got Dicks and had him across his shoulders as he brought him back to the aid station. Just as he laid him down and was beginning to stand up again, a Nazi 37mm caught him. He never knew what hit him. He had saved his friends life at the expense of his own.
     There was a certain something about him that made everyone who knew him want to be like him.
     It’s impossible to say what might have been, but if he hadn't gone out and brought his fellow soldier back, he might be today. He was killed on the fourth of July. He never saw us Hill 95, which we could never had done if it had not been for his calling curtains to those four Kraut machine-guns “Most of the old men from “I” company are gone, but I believe that wherever they are they still think of Francis J. Yost to be one of the bravest, most courageous and intelligent men ever to serve in this company.
     This message has proven to be of great comfort to bereaved parents, who are extremely happy that their son was not found wanting when he was called upon to display courage.
 


(courtesy of Robin Liashek-Delaney)

Grave marker of Francis J. Yost in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery & Mausoleum, Totowa (Passaic county), New Jersey.

Francis enlisted in the Army at Newark, NJ on 20 November 1944 and was a member of Company "I", 508th.

He was killed immediately after successfully rescuing a badly wounded member of his company from the battlefield.

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