When you start asking questions, you get some astonishing answers.

Our friend, Rick Sirois, told us quite a few years ago that he and his brother had come upon military medals and ribbons in a shoebox found in their father’s desk drawer. The two brothers decided to put all of this memorabilia into a shadow box display, which they presented to their Dad, much to his surprise, and pride.

Rick had few details about his father service, and when I began to ask questions, he advised me to contact, his brother, Bill. Which I did.

“Like many Veterans,” Bill told me, his father “did not talk much about the War, but a few tidbits would come out every now and then.”  (Although Bill and Rick’s father, William Sirois, was always, like his son, called “Bill,” I’ll call him “William” here, to avoid confusion.)

What Bill, Rick, and their sister, Deb, knowabout their father’s service

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Technical Sergeant William Sirois made an amphibious (not airborne) landing in Normandy with the second assault wave of US Army’s 101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles). The task: secure the harbors and causeways along the beaches to enable the landings of the 4th Infantry.

From there he treated the wounded on the battlefield and helped set up Field Hospitals across France and then up into Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge.

He was among the first responders when the 101st liberated Kaufering, one of the largest of the Dachau subcamps.

Although the War in Europe ended in May of 1945, William was not discharged until May of 1946. At that point his wife and two young children had not seen him for more than three years.

And the story is not over…

As a non-active reservist, William was one of the first soldiers called up for active duty in Korea. He was then in his second year of college at the University of New Hampshire–and selling vacuum cleaners on the side to support his family, now numbering three young children. Imagine the distress for him and his wife, Fran, who were just starting to get life onto an even keel after their long wartime separation.

At one point during the Battle Choisin Reservoir, which took place from late-November through mid-December, 1950, William was convinced he was about to meet his Maker. He had risen to the rank of Technical Sergeant by then. When the jeep he was driving was hit by an artillery shell, William was catapulted high into the air and landed hard. His most serious injury turned out to be the bursting of his ear drums, which left him deaf. (Years later he told his elder son that the pain felt like being stabbed in the ears by two ice picks.) Yet he was grateful to have fared better than the Captain who had been sitting in the jeep beside him, and was killed outright.

So many unsung heroes–men and women!

William Sirois is just one of the 16 million who served in World War II, as well as one of the nearly 2 million who served in Korea.

I knew and loved William (Bill) Sirois and his wife Fran—truly among the finest people I’ve ever known. He put his life on the line, and as a couple they put their family life on hold. Like millions of other couples of their era, Bill and Fran were both heroes. They were willing to make the sacrifices they because they believed in the the ideals that have guided our nation since the beginning and the blessings we tend to take for granted these days. Freedom and democracy are precious, worth standing up for. And, if necessary, worth fighting for.