PVT Joseph Veenstra Jr. was born in Lansing, Illinois on 3 Mar 1924. He was the 6th of Joseph and Katherine (Zeldenrust) Veenstra's 7 children. Both parents were natives of the Netherlands. His father worked as a laborer on a truck farm and in a quarry. The family lived in several small towns in Cook County, Illinois just outside of Chicago. Joseph went to work for the Pullman-Standard Company in Hammond, Illinois.
Joseph was drafted in February 1942 and trained at Fort McClellan, Alabama and Camp Edwards, Massachusetts before being sent to England in December 1943. With little time left for training for the planned amphibious landing on the coast of France, he was assigned to A Company 116th Infantry. PVT Veenstra was killed in action on 6 Jun 1944 in the amphibious assault at Omaha Beach.
PVT Veenstra was repatriated in 1947 and re-interred in the Homewood Memorial Gardens in Homewood, Illinois.
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