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Egerton, George L. (702nd)

George-Egerton-Close-upGeorge L. Egerton

Biography:  George Lawson Egerton was born on May 3, 1926, in Summit, New Jersey.  He was the son of Lawson Egerton and attended local schools, graduating from Summit High in 1944.

Service Time:  George was drafted in June of 1944 and entered the service in Newark, NJ on August 31.  After boot camp, he was sent to Fort Hood, Texas, and trained for service in the Tank Destroyers.  His training was cancelled due to the shortage of man power in the ETO (European Theater of Operations).   He was shipped to France in December of 1944 and landed at Le Havre, France.  He was transferred to Belgium and then Luxembourg where he spent some time in a Replacement Depot.  Many years later, George related a story to his son about his arrival at the depot….he and the men he was with were fresh from the states and were shown a pile of rubber boots.  They were told to find a pair that would fit them, but when they started digging into the pile they found that many of the boots had blood on them.  At that point, they realized the boots had been taken from dead men.  This was the men’s formal introduction to the meaning of war.  In January of 1945, George was assigned to the 702nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, which was attached to the 2nd Armored Division.   He remained with the 702nd until the end of the war when he was assigned to the 1st Army Headquarters for Occupation Duty.  Before leaving the service, George reached the rank of Master Sergeant.  He returned to the U.S. in July of 1946.  

After he returned to his home town of Summit, George attended Boulder University in Boulder Idaho.  He would go to work for the Allstate Insurance Company and in his spare time he enjoyed operating his H.A.M. radio and collecting and shooting fire arms.  He was also a member of the NRA. George passed away on June 26, 2000, at the age of 74.

The photos below show George while on leave after six months in the service, at the Winter Carnival in the Hotel Beachwood and one of George doing his best Napoleon impression.  Another photo shows George standing beside his brother, John, and one with a friend in a jeep.  The last photo was while onboard a Coast Guard manned troop transport crossing the Atlantic.  The text is from the official description of the photo.   I want to thank the Egerton family for providing this information and photographs of George.

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