U.S. Navy vets
Angelos Tom Chatas - Navy Frogman - UDT6
Chat was a very sympathetic man. He lived 2 miles from where I grew up. He is credited as being the very first Allied soldier to step foot on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944. The frogmen were sent in in LCIs (not swimming in as scuba divers as one might think). Their job was to clear all of the obstacles before the landing craft arrived. They arrived about 20 minutes before the first wave. They cleared a 50-yard swath to allow the boats an entry point. His unit suffered 52% casualties on the first day. In the Southern France invasion of August 15, 1944, they actually did swim in to clear the obstacles. He was also used in Tokyo bay to ensure that the Japanese did not mine the harbor before we arrive to accept the surrender.
Charles Massey - Navy
My cousin from WWII. He fought in the Pacific. He told me he shot down 2 Japanese planes with the 20MM Bofors. Also, he ran the landing craft into the islands. He stated that a Japanese ship was sunk, and they went to pick up survivors when the Japanese started shooting at them from the water. He said they just shot them all in the water.
Seaman Melburn Ballard
EM 1st Class Melburn Ballard was born Nov.19, 1912, in Kyle, Texas. He went to school in Elgin then Inez and graduated from high school at Bethel, TX. He joined the army in 1929 and spent 5 years at Schofield Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. He left the army in 1933 and worked several jobs as an auto parts clerk before he joined the navy in 1943. He then served on a supply ship in the Pacific and was discharged in 1946. He died in Austin, TX in 1988.