SSG Robert Lee Patsel Jr.

courtesy of Des Philippet

SSG Robert Lee Patsel was born 7 Feb 1918 in Botetourt County, Virginia. He was the 7th of the 10 children born to Robert Lee and Emily Gertrude (Fulton) Patsel. The family was not well off. While his father repaired furniture, employment was spotty and in 1939 he reported no income while the family lived in a house at 27 Tenth Street in Roanoke, Virginia which they rented for $4 a month. Young Robert and his sister Dorothy were the only ones in the household working and only Dorothy reported an income in 1939 and that for only $185.

That was undoubtedly one of the reasons that Robert Junior enlisted in the local national guard unit. He was with that unit when it was federalized/activated in February 1941. He would have then trained with the unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in the Carolinas and at Camp Blanding, Florida. He would have then sailed with the unit aboard the Queen Mary in September 1942. Assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company 1st Battalion 116th Infantry he was later a section leader. PVT Patsel took part in the D-Day landings and was promoted to SSG on 20 Jun 1944. On 30 Jun 1944 he was wounded by a bullet in his right arm but remained on duty. On 9 Sep 1944 he was reported as a non-battle casualty (probably resulting from an accidental injury) and evacuated to hospital. He returned to the unit on 21 Sep 1944. SSG Patsel was killed in action on 21 Nov 1944 in the vicinity of Koslar, Germany.

SSG Patsel is buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery.

Robert's oldest sibling, brother S1C Arlie McKinley Patsel was killed in action on 13 Nov 1942 aboard the USS Juneau in the battle for Guadalcanal. Youngest brother SGT David Alexander Patsel served in the U.S. Marine Corps for many years.