SGT Roger Jay Van Oss

SGT Roger Jay Van Oss was born 8 Nov 1914 in Jamestown, Michigan. He was the oldest of 3 children born to Lambertus Jay "Bert" and Allis (Atwood) Van Oss. His father farmed in the Jamestown area. Roger graduated from Hope College in  Holland, Michigan in 1938 and became a school teacher, still living with his family on the farm they owned, earning a reported 1939 income of $900. He then moved to Ottowa County, Michigan to teach in the public schools there. He then became a Michigan State Trooper in August 1941 and was working out of the Flint Post in 1942.

Roger was drafted in August 1942. After completing his basic military training he was sent to England and assigned to G Company 116th Infantry. He trained with the unit for the amphibious assault that was a planned element of the effort to liberate Nazi occupied France. He took part in that effort, was shot and killed in action on 8 Jun 1944. 

SGT Van Oss was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Roger's only brother, Willis Burton Van Oss, served in the U.S. Navy during the war and ultimately retired as a CMDR in 1970.