RAYNARD AUDRY HALE

March 12, 1921-May 11 1995

Raynard A. Hale joined the United States Army on July 11, 1942 at the age of twenty-one. He was inducted and attended basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama and shipped out for the European Theater on December 12, 1942. He arrived in Morocco December 24, 1942, joining the 2nd Armored Division shortly after its participation in the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa. There, he received amphibious operations training in preparation for the invasion of Sicily.

_He first saw combat in Sicily in July of 1943 as part of Operation Husky, a campaign which drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island. In November that same year, Hale went to England for over six months of additional training for Operation Overlord, the codename for the Allied invasion of Normandy. _

_After landing in France in June of 1944, Hale saw action in Northern France until he was hit by shrapnel on August 3rd, 1944; during the Third Army’s advance into Brittany. Hale later rejoined his unit but was again wounded in action by a sniper in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium as part of the Battle of the Bulge, on January 5th, 1945. After recovering, he returned to combat operations and was with the first Allied forces to reach the Elbe River in Germany on April 11, 1945, witnessing the meeting of the American and Russian armies. _

Hale departed the European Theater on September 20th, 1945; arrived in the US on October 7th and was honorably discharged on October 12th, 1945.

_He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster for the two wounds he received in action and the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal with one silver star indicating his participation in five campaigns during the war – Sicilian, Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes and Rhineland. He also received the Combat Infantryman Badge. _

Raynard A Hale