US AIRBORNE

My father, Howard Miles McLaughlin, was born in Newark, NJ on January 25, 1924 to Irish immigrants, Frank and Helen Ryan McLaughlin.
At 16, lacking parental approval to enlist in the Army, he ran away from home and hitchhiked to Toronto, Ontario. He enlisted in the Canadian Army, but his mother, a wiry no-nonsense wisp of a woman learned of her son’s escapade and rushed to Toronto and demanded the Canadians release her minor child immediately. Embarrassed, Canadian authorities complied.
Once he was old enough, he enthusiastically enlisted in the US Army. Eager to earn the extra pay and attracted by the tough regimen, he wanted to become a paratrooper. After completing jump school he was assigned to a hand-picked “school troop”, the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment attached to the 13th Airborne Division.He was part of D Company. His best friend, Marty Schlocker saw my father die at Monte in the Battle of Dead Man's Ridge just before he was taken POW. Marty was liberated at Bad Orb 9B in late April 1945.
My father was reported Missing in Action (MIA) on January 8, 1945. He is one of 462 men whose remains were never recovered or identified and whose names are inscribed on the Wall of the Missing at the Ardennes Cemetery.

"During Memorial Day, I placed a flower on the plaque bearing the name of Howard McLaughlin."