Hello, all! I'm a college student majoring in history. I was raised in the south and now live in the Midwest. I prefer American history, and WWII is one of my favorite areas of study. I'm researching a WWII veteran named Gayle Eyler. Gayle was drafted, enlisted at Fort Leavenworth, trained at Camp Abbot in Bend, Oregon, and spent time at Camp Shenango/Camp Reynolds before shipping to England via the RMS Aquitania. I've been able to find out that he was assigned to the 48th Replacement Battalion (Company B ), and then reassigned to FUSAG HQ Special Troops. On DDay, FUSAG HQ became the 12th Army HQ Co, Special Troops. He was on one of the gap assault teams (the best I can tell, he landed on Easy Red) on Omaha Beach. He was injured by shrapnel in the Bulge, and went home in November of 1945 (on the MIT Victory). He passed away in 2003. I learned about Gayle in a newspaper article. He wrote a letter to his grandson, found after his death, that claimed he was the origin of the code name "Omaha Beach." While he and another carpenter were building the FUSAG HQ at Bryanston Square, they would have coffee and donuts with the likes of Eisenhower, Monty, and Bradley. One morning, Bradley was trying to come up with two code names for the US invasion sites, and asked the two carpenters where they were from. Gayle was from a tiny town across the river from Omaha, Nebraska, and the other soldier, "Sam," was from Provo, Utah. Gayle wrote that in appreciation for getting the place ready in such a hurry, Bradley named the beaches after his hard working carpenters. Most of Gayle's story checks out, but I'm still searching for absolute proof that Gayle and Sam were the reasons for the beach code names. If anyone knows where I could find any information about the following topics, I would really appreciate any suggestions of where to research! - gap assault team rosters (for the Army engineers) - rosters from 10th Replacement depot, especially officers - any reports and memos from FUSAG HQ - any information on Major Edward J. Masso (FUSAG) - rosters from Camp Abbot I will be attending the Normandy Academy this summer, spending a week at the WWII Museum in New Orleans and then a week in France. I will be studying the DDay invasion and researching more about Gayle Eyler. For more info about Gayle (including his letter) please visit gayleeyler.com. I have been lurking for a while and look forward to communicating with you all!
Welcome to the Forum, wwiihistorybuff. That's an interesting story. If I read Mr. Eyler's notes correctly, Bradley named two beaches and two dogs Utah and Omaha. Is it just me, or is there there serious potential for a joke in that.
