Grade : Technician 4th Grade  

Activité pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale :

Dad started with the 95th Division in July of 1942 at Camp Swift, Texas and then was sent to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He went from there to Camp Coxcomb, at Twenty Nine Palms,California for desert training and then from there to Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, he trained in the mountains of West Verginia and had gunnery training in North Carolina. He left Camp Miles Standish for Boston and sailed on the Mariposa to England in August of 1944. Arriving in Liverpool around August 16th, they were sent to a camp in England to assemble their equipment for a channel crossing. He left from Southampton, around the middle of September and landed on Omaha Beach. He said his unit stayed with some French Farmers for a while and then began driving for the Red Ball Express around September 16th. Dad received a Meritorious Service commendation for the period, 15 September to 5 October, 1944 for," Duty performed as mechanic for Provisional Truck Co. 958. With untiring efforts Tec 4 Koentz performed his duty in an exemplary manner thus contributing materially to the low deadline percentage of vehicles in Provisional Truck Company 958 ". Around November 23 dads' unit arrived in the Metz area and assisted in the capturing of Fortress Metz, under the command of Capt St Jacques of the 378 Service Company. Their exploits during that campaign are related in the official history of the 95th Division book. Dad was awarded the Bronze Star for exemplary conduct in ground combat against the enemy on or about 26 November, 1944 in the European Theater of Operations, while assigned as Tech. Fourth Grade, 378th Infantry Regiment. Dad mentioned many places after Metz such as Lisdorf, Bastogne, St. Lo, St. Vith, St. Cloud, Versailles, Krefeld, Saarlautern, Lizdorf, Ensdorf and crossing the Siegfried Line. He left many photos of the areas he was in and later in 1945 his unit was in Kirkrad, Holland and then in May of 1945 they ended things in Bremen , and from there back to LaHarve and returned to the US on tyhe same ship he left on, the Mariposa. He was discharged at Ft Sill Oklahoma in late 1945. Koentzie came back to his home town of Trenton, Il and continued his profession as a plumber with his father Julius and uncle Oscar and then with Brefeld Plumbing and Gas for the remainder of his life. He and his wife Mildred had three sons and a girl and although he never became a wealthy man he he left this world on 25, May 2008 at 7:17am a man proud of his wartime service and the accomplishments of his children. He left behind, not only the many friends he made but a collective history of his home town. History was dads favorite subject and he spent his life proud of the fact that he was the 12th generation Grandson of William the 1st of Holland, also known as William the Silent. Through his family he preserved the history of Trenton fron 1857 until his death and his mind never clouded to the end.

Campagnes : Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe.

Médailles :