PVT James R. O'Meara

courtesy of Robert Comeau

PVT James R. O'Meara was born in 1911 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He was the 3rd of 6 children born to Patrick Emmett and Margaret C. (Corbett) O'Meara. One sister died at age 12, another in infancy and his older brother at age 21. Patrick supported the family as a house painter. James followed in that work. Mother Margaret died in 1939. Father and son reported a 1939 income of $600 and $500 respectively.

James was drafted in March 1941. At that early date in the war it was probably not long before he was assigned to B Company 116th Infantry and trained with the unit at Fort Meade, Maryland and Camp Blanding, Florida. He would have boarded the Queen Mary with the unit when it was sent to England in September 1942. James would also have trained with the unit for the amphibious landing that was a planned part of the invasion of occupied France. PVT O'Meara apparently took part in that assault on the morning of 6 Jun 1944, survived and continued to fight with the unit until he was killed in action near Saint-Lo on 10 Jul 1944.

PVT O'Meara was repatriated and will rest forever with his family in the Saint Rose Cemetery in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

James never married. His father would die in 1949. It is unknown why his year of birth is given as 1913 on the headstone but is 1911 in all other records.