Gerard (Jerry) Baszner was born in Whitinsville on 8 May 1925. His mother was Aurore M. Lapierre and his father was EdgarP. Baszner, who was the Controller at the Foundry Office of the Whitin Machine Shop, which manufactured textile machinery. Gerard had one brother, who was one year older and one sister ten years younger. Gerard and Marjorie (St. Andre) married on 21 September 1946. They have two daughters, Andrea Mae born in December 1949 and Gail Marie born in October in 1951.
It should be noted that the U.S. Army records are mostly incorrect, they list Gerard J. Baszner as “Gerald J. Baszner.” Marjorie Baszner recalls that young married they could not afford a home, they lived with his parents; they survived on her “Minimum wages” while Jerry was attending the College of Pharmacy at Wentworth Institute in Boston. He pursued a Degree in Pharmacy thanks to the G.I. Bill of Rights. He later transferred to the Boston School of Pharmacy on Beacon Hill. He graduated from the New England College of Pharmacy in 1950.
Gerard was inducted on 20 August 1943 and entered active service on 20 August 1943 at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. From there he was moved to Camp Grant located in Rockford, Illinois; from there he was sent for further training as a Medic, from 7 January to 1 April 1944, at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC., where he successfully completed the ” Enlisted Specialist Course for Medical Technician”. Then he was assigned to a Rep. Dep.,( Replacement Depot.) Unit, which left for England on 29 April 1944. His unit crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the SS Washington.
He was a member of a large group of Medics, who were shipped to England, where the Medics were assigned to various U.S. Army units spread all over England. Finally only six (6) Medics were left of the roughly four hundred who had arrived in Liverpool, England. The handful of Medics were kept busy by performing non medical duties, such as KP (Kitchen Police = Cleaning trays, dishes, pots and pans.) Jerry told his buddy that he had enough of this nonsense and was going to volunteer for the next job, what ever it was. He did not have to wait too long and a call came for a volunteer. At this time it should be noted that Gerard J. Baszner was a very young man, he was not very tall, he could even be called skinny, and he wore glasses.
The sergeant in charge ordered Jerry to gather his gear and get into the back of two and a half ton truck, which the soldiers called “Deuce and a half”. Dusk crept in and the truck drove off to “Who knows where ?” After quite a while the truck stopped and Jerry was told to get off and jump into another truck, again he was not told where he was heading for.
Some time during night the truck stopped in front of an “Orderly room”, which is usually the main office for a Company. A sergeant ordered Jerry off the truck then opened the door of the Orderly Room, and Jerry faced an Officer sleeping at his desk. As he woke up the Officer looked at Gerard Baszner and said :” What are you doing here?”. Jerry responded: ” I do not know Sir, I have no idea where I am Sir.” Gerard was asked if he always wore glasses. His answer was :”Only when I want to seen Sir!” The Officer immediately shouted :” No one in my unit wears glasses.”
At that time Jerry realized he was facing an 82nd Airborne Officer, who then asked him what was his MOS, ( Military Occupational Specialty.) which is the specific number assigned to each and every enlisted man’s military skill; in this particular case it was the MOS assigned to all “Medics” When the Officer heard this number, he immediately knew he was talking to a “Medic”. It should be noted that very few Medics volunteered to be paratroopers. The Officer’s next sentence was :” You are now a paratrooper!”.
This of course was not at all what Jerry wanted to hear. The next morning he was shown how to drop and roll, then ordered on a truck, which had the tail gate open, as the “Deuce and a half reached the speed of five (5) miles per hour, Jerry was ordered to jump off the truck. This went on in increments of five miles. By the time he successfully jumped out at thirty five (35) miles per hour, he was tapped on the shoulder and declared a “Paratrooper”. That was the total extend of Jerry’s ground training. Since he never had any formal training, another paratrooper folded the parachute for him. An ingenious sergeant took some good old American “Duck tape” and taped Jerry’s glasses to his face.
The criss-crossing of the tape only left two (2) little holes through which Jerry could see. The next he knew was that he was fitted with a parachute and was told to climb in a C-47 “Dakota” twin engine transport plane. Jerry told us that he was scared to death and was not at all ready to jump out of the plane. He was shown how to hook up to the cable stetched along the ceiling of the plane, this would assure that his parachute would be pulled out as soon as he left the C-47. Jerry went on to say that he was more than frightened and was not about to jump out, when the jumpmaster literally kicked him in the butt, and that really hurt, said Jerry. He was thrown out of the twin engine and fainted. He only woke up as he hit the ground.
This very scary training was repeated another time. Again Jerry suffered through the same exercise. He now was officially a Paratrooper/Medic of the 505th PIR = Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. His third (3rd) Jump was early morning ( around midnight) over Utah Beach, Normandy on 6 June 1944 also called ” D Day.” Usually the C-47 flew between 600 and 800 feet above ground level; on 6 June 1944 the German “Flack” = anti aircraft artillery at Omaha and Utah beaches were so intense that the C-47 planes were flying at 400 feet. Jumping at that altitude is very dangerous, the parachute has barely enough time to deploy before the paratrooper hits the ground.
This very exceptional story was told to us at 2:00PM on 27 September 2001 by Gerard and his wife Marjorie Baszner, who lived at 100 Benson Road in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, 01588-1202, U.S.A.
Submitted by Christian de Marcken, Associate