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Personal info

Full name
TURMENNE, Roger Arthur
Date of birth
26 August 1915
Age
29
Place of birth
Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine
Hometown
Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine

Military service

Service number
31399722
Rank
Private First Class
Function
unknown
Unit
38th Infantry Regiment,
2nd Infantry Division
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
14 February 1945
Place of death
Hellenthal, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle
Plot Row Grave
E 10 47

Immediate family

Members
Alphonse Turmenne (father)
Leda Turmenne (mother)
Yvette Turmenne (sister)
Simonne Turmenne (sister)
Femande Turmenne (sister)
Theresa (Fortin) Turmenne (wife)
Bobby Turmenne (son)

More information

Pfc Turmenne was employed at New England Counter Company in Auburn, Maine. He liked hunting and fishing. French was his primary language. English was second.

He enlisted in Portland, Maine on 2 November 1943 and trained at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, Camp Niantic, Connecticut, and Camp Wheeler, Georgia, and was sent overseas on 17 July 1944.

Roger, whose primary language was French, worked at the South Portland Shipyard. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, and spending time with his family. He also possessed a very loving personality. Roger enlisted in the military November of 1943, just five months after his son’s birth. He trained at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, Camp Niantic, Connecticut, Camp Wheeler, Georgia, in addition to Camp Carson, Colorado, before deploying overseas in July 1944.

His son Bobby wrote the following poem titled My Father:
"How sweet it is upon your life to ponder
To rest secure, nor question, nor insist,
Knowing so well that in the country yonder
I shall find you again and all that I have ever
missed.
I sometimes think that when the day shall greet me,
Binding earth’s broken friendship’s fragile chain,
How I shall thrill as you come to meet me,
The dear one I have longed to see again.
I have no fear, no worrying sense of loss,
For thoughts of the glad meeting will enthrall;
I shall be strong to bear my daily crosses,
My loved one waits and I shall find you.
Oh, softly will your voice fall upon me,
My deaf ear opened to your every word,
My poor eyes dazzled by your greater glory
Of which no eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard.
How I shall smile as tenderly you fold me
In your loving arms, the arms I knew so well,
And trembling in a joy no words have told
As I join the ranks today invisible.
And so I wait and work, the vast expansions
Of doming Heaven nearer I go,
Content to feel within the many mansions
You wait for me, the one who loves me so.
Until we meet again, may the merits of Jesus
Christ,
Our Redeemer, keep you in the eternal radiance of Heaven.
You will never be forgotten.
Your son,
Bobby Turmenne"

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, The Lewiston Daily Sun 1-Mar-1945, www.ancestry.com - Maine Birth Records / 1940 Census, www.archives.gov - WWII Enlistment Record

Photo source: Aimee Fogg, The Lewiston Daily Sun 1-Mar-1945, They Speak-The Voices of Henri-Chapelle