Lynn Richardson Pitcher
PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : HQ & Service Co
ASN#35655814 Casualty: Killed
Born 1923 in WV, Died 1945
County of residence at enlistment: New York County, NY
Other residence(s): Charleston, WV; Hillside, NJ
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
College education before the war: 1 year
Lynn Pitcher was born on October 1, 1923, in Charleston, WV, the middle of three children. His father was a chemical company executive and had been born in China to American missionary parents.
The family moved to Hillside, NJ sometime prior to 1935. When he registered for the draft on June 30, 1942, Lynn stated that he was working at Dickinson Construction in Charleston, WV, and living there with his maternal grandparents.
Lynn enlisted on March 26, 1943; at that time, he was living in New York County, NY and had completed one year of college.
Lynn was assigned to the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. At some point after June, 1943 he transferred to the 328th Infantry, 26th Division. He went to Europe with that unit in the late summer of 1944. He held the role of platoon runner, responsible for transporting messages to and from headquarters. On March 29, 1945, he was reported missing in action in the Rutland Daily Herald. (By that time his family had moved to Vermont.)
According to military and cemetery records, he died on February 18, 1945 at the age of 21 in Saarlautern, Germany. He was buried in the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial in Luxembourg City, and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star in October 1945.
He is also memorialized on his grandparents' stone at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, MD.
Sources:
1930 census
1940 census
1942 draft card
1943 enlistment record (NOTE: name of Lyon R. Ritcher on enlistment record is a transcription error; ASN on GA records matches this ASN)
1943-1945 his letters home are in the collections of the University of Vermont Libraries
https://scfindingaids.uvm.edu/resources/pitcherlynnrichardson
1945 World War II Hospital Admission Card Files (NOTE: same name error as enlistment record, but age and death date/place match)
1945 US World War II & Korean Combat Veterans Interred Overseas
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/115378:4283?ssrc=pt&tid=183817341&pid=232443458209
1945 death notice in the Rutland Daily Herald (VT)
newspapers.com/image/534183355/?terms=lynn%20pitcher&match=1
1945 Find a Grave record (cenotaph in Maryland)
1945 Find a Grave record (Luxembourg)
1945 US Headstone & Interment Records (Foreign Soil)
1945 American Battle Monuments Commission Record