PFC Calvin Earl Luckham was born 1 Mar 1918 in Irvington, Virginia one of six children of Cadmus Carter Jr and Bonnie Belle (Jones) Luckham. His father worked in a ship yard. By 1940 Calvin was a waterman or oysterman, harvesting oysters from the oyster beds in the Chesapeake Bay. He might have been working with his brother, Hiram, who was doing the same work. Calvin reported a 1939 income of $208.
Calvin was drafted in May 1941. Like many others from this draft period he was assigned to a relatively local unit, E Company 116th Infantry and trained with that unit at Fort George Meade, Maryland, Camp A. P. Hill, Virginia and Camp Blanding, Florida before shipping with the unit to England in September 1942. In England the regiment trained incessantly for the coming invasion of Hitler's "fortress Europe" and Calvin was part of that. On 6 Jun 1944, the regiment landed on Omaha Beach. PFC Luckham survived that ordeal and continued to fight with his unit until D+12 when he was killed in action.
PFC Luckham was repatriated and is buried in the Irvington United Methodist Church Cemetery in Irvington, Virginia. Brother, Hiram Luckham, served with the Army in New Guinea.
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