PVT John Linas Wittbecker

courtesy of Dominique Potier

PVT John Linas Wittbecker 22 Mar 1922 in Lansing, Iowa. He was the youngest of the 3 children of Robert Fulton and Jennie Josephine (Beck) Wittbecker. John's father farmed but then worked as a salesman for an aluminum fabricating shop while the family was living 6857 Marshfield Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. That job ended, perhaps due to the effects of the great depression and the family moved to Custer, Michigan where John's father took up farming again. John's older brother had remained in Chicago working as a proof reader and died there at the age of 30 in 1938. John was able to complete high school and then went to work for his father then working in a local cannery.

John was drafted in November 1942. After completing his basic military training he likely was assigned to duties for some time before being sent to England as a replacement for the casualties expected in the invasion of occupied France. PVT Wittbecker was transferred from the replacement depot to G Company 116th Infantry on 19 Jun 1944. PVT Wittbecker was struck by fragments from an artillery shell during the drive on Saint-Lo, France and killed in action on 11 Jul 1944. 

PVT Wittbecker rests forever in the Normandy American Cemetery.