OSU
History Minute - August 18, 2000
Number
9 of a 12 part series: Honoring Oregon Staters who
died in WWII
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Semon, as pictured in The Beaver, 1939.
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Charles Henry Semon entered Oregon
State from Klamath Falls, Ore., with the class
of 1938, majoring in agriculture and pledging
Phi Delta Theta social fraternity.
He stayed but his freshman year, joining
the Army in Feb., 1942, as a lieutenant in
the airborne infantry.
Shortly after, he was assigned to Co. F of
the 506th Paratroop Infantry Regiment (PIR)
of the Army's famed 101st Airborne Division.
In short order, Semon left for Uppottery,
England to begin intensive training for the
D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944.
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The 506th jumped inland of the Utah Beach sector
and immediately became separated into many small,
isolated units. Semon died the day of the invasion
but the circumstances of his death are not known.
As they disembarked just after midnight on June
6th, companies of the 506th landed everywhere, but
where they were supposed to. And landing was no
picnic!
Many in the regiment, floating down too close to
a village or German fortification, were literally
shot from the sky by enemy aircraft batteries. Only
the very lucky managed to hit the ground in one
piece. Lost and leaderless, their struggle now was
to find other Americans and build numbers to fighting
strength.
Some fought their way from the small village of
Culoville to Houdienville near the coast, others
to Pouppeville just to the south, while a small
group from the 506th stayed penned up just east
of the La Barquette Lock on the Douve River.
The fighting was intense, mostly against tanks
and veteran German paratroopers.
Semon received the Purple Heart posthumously after
the war.
At the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion held
in June 1994, American D-Day paratroop veterans
ranging in age from 67-83 made one more jump out
over the Normandy skies in honor of their comrades
who died June 6. The commemorative jump was coordinated
by Oregon Stater Richard "Dick" Mandich,
'51, a veteran member of Semon's 506th and a retired
engineer who was living at the time in San Diego.
--
By George
Edmonston Jr.
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