Thomas Ward Winfield
CPL in 3132nd Signal Service Co
Born 1924 in CT, Died 2005
Other residence(s): Bridgeport, CT; West Haven, CT; New Haven, CT; Valley Stream, NY; Stratford, CT; Southbury, CT
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
College education after the war: Fairfield Univ.
Thomas Winfield was born on August 11, 1924 in Bridgeport, CT, the oldest of six children. His father was a World War I veteran who worked for the Knights of Columbus, managing their print room for publications and news releases. The family moved to Stratford, CT when Tom was in elementary school, and then later to West Haven, CT.
Tom registered for the draft on December 11, 1942, while he was still a high school student, working part-time at Carroll Cut Rate in West Haven. He graduated from West Haven High School in 1943, where he played varsity baseball.
He served in the 3132 Signal Service Company during the war. After returning home he pursued a college degree at Fairfield University, majoring in social studies education and graduating in the university's first graduating class in 1951.
In the early 1950s, he was living in New Haven, CT with his parents and siblings; the 1953 directory lists him as a publisher in Norwalk. He married Mary Frances Durica, a West Haven school teacher, on July 15, 1954; by 1957, Tom and his wife and daughter had moved to Valley Stream, NY. They would go on to have three children: Mary Beth, Thomas, and James.
Tom spent most of his career working as an insurance adjuster analyst for General Motors; he would remain there until his retirement. The family moved back to Stratford, CT sometime before 1969.
Tom had loved his history studies at Fairfield, and became avidly interested in World War II military records in his retirement. When the Ghost Army information was declassified in the mid-1990s, Tom, according to his obituary, "began a personal quest for historical documentation [of the unit], and assisted several writers who published war accounts of the 'Ghost Army,' liberation activities, and the role of the company during the war. He provided personal insight [into his Ghost Army experience], which was noted in Ghost Army of World War II, written by Jack Kneece, and Ghosts of the ETO: American Tactical Deception Units in the European Theater, 1944-1945, by Jonathan Gawne."
Tom died on May 18, 2005 in Southbury, CT and is buried at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Cemetery in Stratford, CT.
Sources:
1930 census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/91605844:6224?ssrc=pt&tid=5151814&pid=420012242546
1940 census
1942 draft card
1947 New Haven city directory (listed as student)
1950 census
1951 New Haven city directory (listed as student)
1951 article in the Fairfield Stag (Fairfield Univ.) about his teacher training
https://newspaperarchive.com/fairfield-stag-mar-01-1951-p-6/
1951 Fairfield Univ. yearbook (see p. 150)
https://archive.org/details/manor51unse/page/150/mode/2up?view=theater&q=winfield
1953 New Haven phone directory
1954 marriage license index
1954 wedding announcement in the Bridgeport Post (CT)
1959 article in the Bridgeport Sunday Post (CT); he is living in Valley Stream, NY
1979 US public records index
2005 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14548305/thomas-ward-winfield
2005 US Veterans' Gravesites
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/6266766:8750?ssrc=pt&tid=5151814&pid=420012242546
2005 Social Security applications and claims index
2005 Obituary in the Republican-American (Waterbury, CT)