Duchossois, Richard L. (610th)

Richard L. Duchossois

Biography: Richard Louis Duchossois, “Dick”, was born on October 7, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Alphonse C. Duchossois and Erna Hoessler. He attended high school at the Morgan Park Military Academy and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve in recognition of the training he had received. He later enrolled at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Kentucky. Dick was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Service Time: In January, 1942, he was notified that he was now commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry. He was quickly sent to the 610th Tank Destroyer Battalion and was eventually assigned as Company C Commanding Officer. The unit had been activated on April 11, 1942, at Camp Barkley, Texas, as a towed anti-tank gun battalion. They trained within the U.S. at a number of military facilities, including Camp Bowie and Camp Hood, TX, Camp Forrest, Tennessee, at the Tennessee Maneuvers, and Camp Atterbury, Indiana, among others.
On July 23, 1943, while on leave from the unit, Dick married the former Beverly E. Thrall, who was also born in Chicago, IL, and was the daughter of Authur J. Thrall and Mildred Steuber. The marriage took place at the Trinity Methodist Church in Chicago.

The 610th were finally sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for final preparations before overseas deployment. Thinking they were headed overseas, they were sent to Camp Kilmer, New York, but they were soon headed back to Fort Dix. They were again sent to Camp Kilmer and this time, on June 3rd, they boarded the Dutch liner, Nieuw Amsterdam, and sailed for the United Kingdom. The unit arrived at Greenock, Scotland, on June 11th and about six weeks later, they boarded transports and landed at Utah Beach, Normandy, France, on July 31st. They were equipped with the 3″ towed anti-tank gun and committed to action on August 10th near Craon, France, participating in the elimination of the Falaise Pocket. Racing east to the Moselle River by September, they converted to the self-propelled M36 tank destroyer in September–October and were the first TD unit to do so.

On September 15, 1944, Captain Duchossios was wounded during an enemy counterattack at Ste. Genevieve, France. He was evacuated, eventually ending up hospitalized in Paris. At some point, men in his unit found out where he was and drove back, picking him up and returning to the unit sometime late in the year. The 610th helped clear Maginot Line fortifications in November and were then ordered to the Ardennes on December 21st. On the 29th of December, Captain Duchossios took over command of Company B. They helped to eliminate the Bulge in January, 1945, and battled through the Siegfried Line in February, near Brandscheid, but were then transferred back south in March, crossing the Rhine River at Worms on March 29th. The unit raced through central and southern Germany in April and reached the vicinity of Munich by month’s end. He received credit for each of the unit’s campaigns, including Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe.

Following the end of combat, the 610th was assigned occupation duties in the district of Kreis Eichstatt, in central Germany. The Military Government Detachment was shorthanded and asked for the services of one officer from the battalion. Dick was sent on this mission on May 18th. He returned from this assignment on June 28th, and immediately took over the construction and operation of the Grand Hotel in Nurnberg as a transient Officers Mess. As that was the last mention of Dick’s duties, we don’t know exactly when it ended. The return home ship docked at the Port of Boston on December 6th and the men began shipping to the various Separation Centers for discharge the next day.

Dick left the service at the rank of Major. He was awarded the Purple Heart medal for wounds received and a Bronze Star Medal. He also earned the EAME, with credit for the campaigns of Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe, along with the Occupation of Germany Medal.

After returning home to Beverly, Dick eventually went to work for his father-in-law’s company which repaired railroad freight cars and in 1952, would become CEO of the Thrall Car Manufacturing Company. Over the years, he and Beverly had four children, Bruce, Craig, Dayle and Kimberly. In 1983, he bought the Arlington International Racecourse, a thoroughbred racetrack. Two years later, it burned to the ground, but he rebuilt the facility into a world class racecourse. Sadly, Beverly passed away in 1980. It would be 20 years later in the year 2000, that Dick would marry again to the former Judi Marchi. Dick passed away on January 28, 2022, in Barrington Hills, IL.

In addition to Dick, his brothers George and Albert also served in the enlisted ranks of the Army during WWII.

We would like to thank the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Duchossois family for use of the photos.