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Grand Island Town Board: National Airborne Day proclaimed

by jmaloni

Taken from the Aug. 9 Dispatch

Fri, Aug 16th 2013 04:00 pm

The Grand Island Town Board has proclaimed Aug. 16 as National Airborne Day on the Island.

At its meeting on Monday at Town Hall, the board noted that Grand Island is the birthplace and final resting place of both Pfc. Charles N. DeGlopper, who died in France June 9, 1944, as part of the D-Day invasion, and Lt. Col. Terrance K. Crow, who died in Iraq June 7, 2005. DeGlopper was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions in LaFiere, France. Crow was an airborne trooper with the 98th Division and was killed by hostile fire in Tal Afar, Iraq.

The Parachute Test Platoon began training in July 1940 and performed its first official Army parachute jump on Aug. 16, 1940.

Town Supervisor Mary Cooke, left, presented the proclamation to veterans Joe Synakowski and Kelly Carrigg. (photo by Larry Austin)

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