RESIDENCE (DURING WWII):
Brackenridge, Pennsylvania
FULL NAME:
James A. Petracco
ARMY SERIAL NUMBER (ASN):
13010810
- DATE OF BIRTH: April 9, 1924
- DATE OF DEATH: Feb 15, 1977
DATE / PLACE OF ENLISTMENT:
-
DATE OF ENLISTMENT:Sept 17, 1940
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PLACE OF ENLISTMENT:New Kensington, Pennsylvania
ORGANIZATION:
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MAIN UNIT:23rd Infantry Regiment
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SUBUNIT:Company G, 2nd Battalion
RANK / POSITION IN UNIT (LAST KNOWN):
-
RANK:Private First Class (Pfc.)
-
POSITION IN UNIT:Rifleman
BATTLES AND CAMPAIGNS:
✭ Rhineland Campaign (15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945), ✭ Central Europe Campaign (22 March – 11 May 1945)
DECORATIONS AND CITATIONS (AWARDS):
🎖European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, 🎖American Defense Service Medal, 🎖WWII Victory Medal, 🎖Honorable Service Lapel Button, 🎖Combat Infantry Badge
SUMMARY OF HIS SERVICE:
James Anthony Petracco enlisted in the U.S. Army on 17 September 1940 from Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. James was sixteen years old having lied about his age.
Deployment:
• December 1940: Completed Basic Training at Fort Nix, New Jersey
• September 1941: Completed USA Continental Service as Medical Laboratory
Technician at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C.
• September 1941: Transferred to the 168th Station Hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland
• August 1943: Transferred to 168th Station Hospital in Appleton near Warrington,
England (married Englishwoman Lilian Davies on 9 December 1944)
• January 1945: Assigned to the 23rd Infantry Regiment 2nd Infantry Division near
Elsenborn, Germany, as a sharpshooter/scout
• May 1945: Entered Czechoslovakia with the 23rd Infantry Regiment 2nd Infantry
Division liberating besieged towns including Pilsen
• 11 October 1945: Received Honorable Discharge at Separation Unit B Separation Center
#45, INMR, Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, PA; Service: 5 years and 25 days
James received the following Field Certificate of Merit in Recognition of Conspicuously Meritorious and Outstanding Performance of Military Duty:
Pfc. James A. Petracco was a member of a daring night patrol which was sent out to reconnoiter an extensive wooded area in the vicinity of M’Dvorce, Czechoslovakia. For three hours the patrol fought a superior enemy force and, after overcoming intense machine gun and small arms fire, captured a German officer, nineteen additional prisoners, and eleven machine guns. This aggressive action cleared the route for a successful company attack which followed.
J.B. Lovless – Commander.
(Colonel Jay B. Lovless assumed command of the 23rd Infantry Regiment on 16 June 1944.)
*(On the 28 January 1945, James’s brother Victor Joseph Petracco, 88th Infantry, was killed in action near Mt. Beni, Italy.)"
