My father Corporal T/5 Frank William Kosman served in WWII as a Radio Operator for the 904th Field Artillery Battalion, 79th Infantry Division. The campaigns my father served in were Normandy, Northern France, Rhinelans, and Central Europe. Ever since I was a little kid my father use to tell me many stories about the war. The one story he always talked about was when two of his best friends entered a building in La Haye du Puits France, July 27 1944 when a German Grenade landed among both of them and went off. My father never ever forgot that.
My father enlisted in the army in 1942 and was assigned to the 904th FA BN. Then on June 14,1944 came across Utah Beach and traveled through the town of Ste Mere Eglise. It wasent long before my father got wounded. On June 23,1944 the division was making its push toward Cherbourg when a German mortar shell landed next to my father and a piece of shrapnel went right into his arm. As he was waiting at the aid station to be looked at, I can remember my father saying to me "that shrapnel was so hot and painful I had to remove it" and did. A few minutes go by and Doc Rosenthal enters the room only to find out my father had already removed it.
My father has told me alot of stories from the war but the one story that stands out the most is the time my father and I were sitting in a car together when he told me the story of this little French girl. The little girl somehow got a hold of a grenade and tried to kill herself. My father then saw the little girl pull the pin out of the grenade, ran over to her as fast as possible and grabbed it out of her hands and threw it as it went off in the air. I then turned to my dad in the car and said "your a hero". My father just looked at me and said " no son, im not". By the end of the war my father had received the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal and the ETO Medal with 4 Campaign stars.
My father passed away on March 24, 2001 from a heart attack. My dad left me with alot of stories that I will never forget. May God Bless the United States.
As told by Mark Joseph Kosman, Frank's Son
