I just posted this to my daughter's Facebook page. Sad to say his story has been overlooked to the point of being forgotten by the other side of the family. Thanks to the internet I was able to gather some information.
"Something for you to think about this Memorial Day. In the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer France there is a marker, plot C, row 19, grave 30, for a young Army paratrooper assigned to the 505th Parachute Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was part of the first wave of the assault on D-Day, 6/6/1944. His unit parachuted into enemy territory at night and liberated the first town in France, St. Mere Eglise, where to this day a mannequin of a paratrooper suspended from the steeple of a church hangs in remembrance. He had previously jumped into combat in the fight for Italy where he was wounded. He was wounded again at Normandy and died from his wounds on 7/3/1944. This is your Great Uncle Private First Class John R. O'Byrne, your Grandmother's brother on your mother's side of the family."
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