Hi all. My name is Andrew. I’m trying to research my grandfather, Roy Napoleon Hearne, Jr., during WWII. He passed away before I was born. He was not very talkative to my father about his war experience. He was in Company M, 323rd Infantry, 81st Infantry Division. My dad knows he was at Peleliu. After he passed away, my dad and grandmother found a small Japanese flag and several letters in Japanese, so I’m assuming he may have picked them up as souvenirs. He didn’t speak much about the war mainly because he re-enlisted before Korea and was wounded and left behind for several days in the freezing cold during the Chinese intervention in November of 1950. In Korea he was in the division HQ company of the 2nd Infantry Division. My dad said he was a quiet man who never was involved in American Legion or the VFW or really in any unit reunions. He was a gruff but sweet man who lived history and even took my dad to see war movies such as “The Dirty Dozen”. I recently became a father and my son is named after my grandfather. I’m trying to find out a little more about him. I’ve got a newspaper clipping from when he returned from Korea. I just have to figure out how to post it.
Hi Andrew. Welcome to the forum. You might glean some information from this site, even though it was a different Company 323rd Inf, 2nd Battalion, Co H (Heavy Weapons), 81st "Wildcat" Division (soldier with a camera) Look for info in this website for the 81st Infantry Division.