T5 Richard Miller Palmer

T5 Richard Miller Palmer was born 29 Oct 1916 in Littlestown, Pennsylvania. He was the 2nd of 3 sons born to Lee Elmer and Augusta Eliza Jane (Miller) Palmer. His father farmed near Union, Pennsylvania. Richard was president of his class which graduated from Littlestown High School in 1935. He then attended and graduated from Millersville State Teachers College in 1939 after which he earned a Master's degree from Elizabethtown College in 1940. He taught one year in the Slate Ridge school and two years in the Ash Grove school in Germany, Pennsylvania.

Richard was drafted in May 1941. Because of the mobilization policy at the time he was probably pretty quickly selected for the intensive medical training given to all medics and then sent to England in August or September of 1942. He was probably then assigned to the 116th Medical Detachment from which he was attached to Headquarters and Headquarters Company 2nd Battalion 116th Infantry. He trained with those units for the amphibious assault that was to be a part of the invasion of occupied Europe. T5 Palmer was killed in action on 6 Jun 1944 during that amphibious assault.

T5 Palmer was repatriated in 1947 and re-interred in the Christ United Church of Christ Cemetery in Littlestown, Pennsylvania.

His brother, John Leonard Palmer, served as a Pharmicist's Mate in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific.