Skip to main content

Jeremiah Joseph Cronin

T/5 in 406th Engineer Combat Co

Military occupational specialty: 35 (carpenter, heavy construction)

ASN#32861683

Born 1907 in Ireland, Died 1982

County of residence at enlistment: Bronx County, NY
Other residence(s): Dorchester, MA; New York, NY; Delray Beach, FL
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: skilled switchmen, railroad
Source: Special Order 19, 23d HQ, Camp Forrest, 7 April 1944; militaryyearbookproject.org/references/old-mos-codes/wwii-era/army...

Jerry Cronin was born on July 14, 1907 in Dromdarragh, Glencar, County Kerry, Ireland. He was the 8th of 11 children born to a farmer and his wife; the family lived in a two-room stone cottage and their property also included two "cow houses".  The Cronins were literate in Irish and English, and Jerry earned a grammar school education. There were 39 residents of the townland of Dromdarragh in 1911, and 34 of them were named Cronin!

Jerry emigrated to the US in July 1928, less than a week after his 21st birthday. He originally came to the Boston area—his older sister Sheila was living in Brookline MA, and he got a job as a waiter and a place to live in Dorchester. But in the summer of 1929, he moved to New York City. By 1930 he was working as a laborer with the Third Avenue Railway, a streetcar system serving the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx as well as lower Westchester County. He lived in a rooming house near Columbia University with 18 other boarders—mostly Irish.

Jerry married Sarah L. Malvey on April 15, 1934. Sarah was a native-born New Yorker and had been a telephone operator in the 1930 census, but by 1940 she was working as a hospital matron and Jerry had worked his way up to switchman on the railroad. They were living in the Bronx and shared their apartment with Sarah's cousin.

He received his US citizenship in 1935.

Jerry registered for the draft on October 16, 1940 and enlisted on March 12, 1943. He was assigned to the 406th Engineer Combat Company as a heavy construction carpenter, and served in Europe with the unit. He was discharged on September 2, 1945 with the rank of T/5 and returned to the Bronx.

Presumably he continued to work for the railroad, since later records show Sarah collecting a railroad pension. And it was likely the pension that allowed the couple to retire to Delray Beach, FL where they lived for the last decade or so of their lives.

Jerry died on June 27, 1982 in Delray Beach and Sarah died there the following year. They are buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Valhalla, Mount Pleasant NY.

Photo:

From "Pat All in One" ancestry family tree

https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/154432209/person/372040616368/media/d3c55404-3388-40f5-ba67-c7d3eb8562d2?_phsrc=kOy20&usePUBJs=true

Sources:

1911 Irish census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/17495512:70564?ssrc=pt&tid=163369998&pid=422133827299

1928 immigration record

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2618773:8745?ssrc=pt&tid=154432209&pid=372040616368

1930 census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/43207976:6224?tid=&pid=&queryId=133f57811351c5da7240850d5347a95b&_phsrc=BtV6&_phstart=successSource

1934 marriage index

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=9105&h=4394581&tid=&pid=&queryId=7e09e9560514af0c321ab26cede6c6b2&usePUB=true&_phsrc=BtV7&_phstart=successSource

1935 naturalization record

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2499&h=4352958&tid=&pid=&queryId=7ba6c46b8df7060283144b99cff22438&usePUB=true&_phsrc=BtV3&_phstart=successSource

1940 census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/15461227:2442?ssrc=pt&tid=154432209&pid=372040616368

1940 draft card

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/193819169:2238?tid=&pid=&queryId=8f322a2029eb5e93a817bcf12badaa25&_phsrc=BtV2&_phstart=successSource

1943 enlistment record

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=4295572&tid=&pid=&queryId=8f322a2029eb5e93a817bcf12badaa25&usePUB=true&_phsrc=BtV1&_phstart=successSource

1982 VA death record

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/6271124:2441?tid=&pid=&queryId=6c2b2e704f33993601ca7927bf07df4d&_phsrc=kOy6&_phstart=successSource

1982 Social Security death index

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3693&h=13242825&ssrc=pt&tid=154432209&pid=372040616368&usePUB=true

1982 Find a Grave record

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/260680990/jeremiah-joseph-cronin

1983 wife's obituary in New York Daily News

https://www.newspapers.com/image/486396911/?article=bd1b78b6-d481-4fa6-85c9-32ba6296feba&focus=0.4924396,0.79755765,0.6330135,0.8572487&xid=3355&_ga=2.189772716.627206720.1630008831-1392210334.1630008831

1983 record of wife receiving railroad retirement pension

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61597&h=855912&ssrc=pt&tid=154432209&pid=372040849647&usePUB=true

Please Support Our Ongoing Efforts

The soldiers of The Ghost Army used inflatable tanks, sound effects, and imagination to fool the Germans on the battlefields of Europe. The Ghost Army Legacy Project is ensuring that these men and their accomplishments are never forgotten.

Give via credit card by clicking the yellow “Donate” button.

Or, send a check to:

Ghost Army Legacy Project
1305 S. Michigan Ave. #1104
Chicago, IL 60605

All donations are tax-deductible!