PFC Thomas Francis Monaghan

courtesy of MLC

PFC Thomas Francis Monaghan was born 24 Nov 1917 in Kinross, Iowa. He was the 3rd of 6 children born to Joseph Henry and Sarah Catherine (Waters) Monaghan. His father farmed.  Older brother Donald Edwin Monaghan died suddenly of an un-named illness in September 1935. Francis (as he was known in the family) married Anna Leola Malley on 2 Oct 1939. The couple would have a daughter in September 1942.

Francis was drafted in February 1943. Like all soldiers, Francis went through his training and he may have had a furlough before being sent to the European theater. PFC Monaghan was transferred from the replacement depot to D Company 116th Infantry on 5 Jul 1944 where he served as an ammunition handler (there was some report that he was a mortarman). He was wounded on 30 Jul 1944 and evacuated to hospital. PFC Monaghan died of his wound(s) on 31 Jul 1944.

PFC Monaghan was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Saint Patrick's Cemetery in Keokuk County, Iowa.

Older brother Eugene Joseph Monaghan served as a GM3 aboard the USS Pennsylvania.