This web site is dedicated
to my fellow World War II
4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron
“A” troopers.
My “Fighting Fourth”
was a regular US Army unit
with a history reaching back
before the Civil War.
Before entering World War II combat,
all the commissioned officers
were graduates of West Point
or the Virginia Military Institute.
The non-commissioned officers
had all served five to 25 years
in the mounted cavalry.
These were men who devoted their lives
to the defense of their nation.
All the privates
were wartime volunteers
from every corner of the nation:
Brooklyn Italians,
Chicago Poles, Irish, and Jews,
Carolina Appalachians,
Minnesota Scandinavians,
Dakota Sioux.
For the D-Day assault on Normandy,
in the wee hours of the morning,
long before H-Hour,
“A” troop
cleared a fortified island
lying off the Normandy coast,
opening the way to the mainland.
My sergeant, Harvey Olson,
and Corporal Thomas Killoran,
both of the 2nd platoon,
were the first American soldiers
to land on a French beach,
swimming ashore with only flashlights
to guide the landing craft.
As a boy, Sergeant John Onken,
of the 3rd platoon,
came to America from Germany
with his parents after World War I
and retained a slight accent.
Especially friendly toward Jewish troopers,
John could not understand
why Germany followed the Nazis.
John Onken was the first American soldier
to die on a French beach.
In 11 months of combat,
from Utah Beach to the heart of Germany,
“A” troop,
no more than 140 men at full strength
(and never at full strength),
suffered more than
a hundred battle wounds
and
36 deaths,
including
two captains
and
four lieutenants.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
awarded his Distinguished Unit Citation
to the 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron
for its
“...gallantry and esprit de corps...
above and beyond the call of duty...”
during the “Battle of the Bulge”.
These troopers saw their country in peril,
and, in keeping with the highest traditions
of the US Cavalry,
they rode to its rescue,
and did extraordinary deeds of valor.
While honoring their service,
may this web site also enhance
the heritage they preserved.
Thanks for your interest.
Marvin Sussman, retired engineer
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