Howard E Aldrich (1915 - 1943)

Born 24 Dec 1915 in New Milford, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Died 4 Jan 1943 at age 27 in England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Private Howard Eugene Aldrich, born 24 Dec 1915 in Pennsylvania, was the son of Floyd Eugene and Maude Moore (Hayden) Aldrich from New Milford, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. New Milford is in northeastern Pennsylvania 38 miles due north of Scranton. In the 1920 census 4-year-old Howard is living with his parents, sister Doris 5, and twin sisters Marjorie and Marie 6 mos, in New Milford. His father is a laborer in a creamery.By the 1930 census 14-year-old Howard is living with his parents and siblings Doris 15, twins Marjorie and Marie 10, Hayden 8 and John 6 on Johnson Street in New Milford. His father is now a rural mail carrier.By the 1940 census 24-year-old Howard is living with his parents, siblings Hayden 18, John 16 and Nephew David Roberts 4, still in New Milford. His father is still carrying mail and Howard is a laborer in a feed mill. Hayden is a “helper” at a trucking company and John is a pin setter in a bowling alley.

Howard enlisted and ended up in Britain in the Headquarters Company of the Services of Supply Branch for Europe (there was a Howard E Aldrich from Erie, PA, but that was a different soldier.The Services of Supply or "SOS" branch of the Army of the USA was created on 28 February 1942 by Executive Order Number 9082 "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department" and War Department Circular No. 59, dated 2 March 1942. Services of Supply became one of the three autonomous components of the Army of the United States on 9 March 1942. Most theatres of war had their own logistical organization, usually also named the Services of Supply. The European Theater, and its SOS was subdivided into the ETO and the MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operations) for the Operation Torch invasion of North Africa, then Sicily, then Italy, though the MTO was largely supplied by the SOS out of Great Britain.The NARA WWII casualty listings by state and county show Aldrich, Howard E., Pvt., from Susquehanna County, PA., as DNB (Died Non-Battle) on 4 Jan 1943^[1]. I found nothing that gave his cause of death. His father, Floyd, died six months later on 7 Jul 1943. Tough year for Maude. HonorStates.org shows the pic below supposedly of Pvt Aldrich but those are stripes of a Tech 4th Grade, not a private, unless he got busted back to private sometime before he died. A cenotaph marker in Howard’s memory was place by his parent’s graves at New Milford Cemetery in Susquehanna, PA.

Sources

1. ↑ honorstates.org/index.php?id=106447.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #56287311