PVT Roy Freeman Wheeler was born 22 Apr 1925 in Glasgow, Kentucky. He was the 2nd of the 3 sons born to Claude William and Eva N. (Pickerel) Wheeler. Claude worked as a sawyer earning a reported $250 for 29 weeks work in 1939. This being the Great Depression, he had to move his family to where he found work. Consequently, Freeman, as he was called, did not continue his formal education past the 8th grade and by 1943 he was also working in a mill, this being Hickory Mill in Monticello, Kentucky.
Freeman was drafted in August 1943. After completing his basic military training he was sent to Europe. PVT Wheeler was transferred from the replacement depot to G Company 116th Infantry on 13 Jun 1944. He was transferred to F Company 116th Infantry sometime between 22 and 28 Jun 1944. PVT Wheeler was killed in action when he was struck by artillery fire on 1 Jul 1944.
PVT Wheeler was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in the Mills Spring National Cemetery in Nancy, Kentucky.
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