Plot F, Row 6, Grave 31

Thousands of Americans died 76 years ago Saturday when Allied forces turned the tide of the European part of World War II in France.

A 21-year-old parachutist, from a longtime Rockdale family, is still there.

Pfc. Francisco “Frank” Garza was one of the first American casualties of that historic day. Garza was shot down around 2:30 a.m. as he parachuted into Normandy hours before the invasion’s main force hit the beaches.

His parents, Jose and Magdalena Garza, had just moved the family to Rockdale from Malakoff when the D-Day invasion took place.

SACRIFICES—Garza was not the only D-Day casualty with Milam County ties.

Pvt. Weldon Douglas Scroggins of Thorndale and Major Paul Jones Stach of Cameron also gave their lives on June 6, 1944.

VOLUNTEER—The late Florence Garza Nieto, Frank Garza’s sister and a longtime Rockdale resident, recalled when she last saw her brother in 1943 before the family moved from East Texas.

“He wanted to be a paratrooper, so he volunteered for the Army,” she recalled.

The summer of 1944 saw him in England, preparing to be a part of the invasion. He was a member of the U. S. Army’s 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Destination was behind enemy lines, northeast of Ranville, France.

Mission was to destroy vital German supply bridges and capture causeways inland. Primary targets were the bridges over the Douve River, at Brienville and Beuzeville-la-Bastille.

Mrs. Nieto said she was told her brother had been shot “before he hit the ground.”

In a letter to the Garza Family dated Aug. 18, 1945, one of Frank’s buddies wrote: “I can tell you everything

“I can tell you everything about Frank but I won’t … he was killed about one minute after he hit the ground, he did not know anything. He jumped behind me and I was the first man to get to him but it was too late. We killed the Jerry (German) that got him … there were five of them and we shot them after they gave up.”

Mrs. Nieto said Frank Garza had told his family if something happens to me, don’t bring me home, just leave me wherever I am.”

The family honored that request. He is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial Colleville-Sur-Mere (on sea), France.

Plot F, Row 6, Grave 31.

KOREA—Sadly, Frank Garza would not be the last of his family to give his life in an American war.

His brother, Nicholas Garza, barely 19, died of illness in December, 1950, while a prisoner in Korea.

Like his big brother, Nicholas Garza was an Army private-first-class.

MIA—Scroggins, also a parachutist like Frank Garza, was classified as missing in action (MIA) until March, 1945, when his body was found near Chef du Pont, France.

The family was told Scroggins was the first to jump from his aircraft and he and the second man out were originally listed as MIAs.

Investigators theorized he was killed while in the air and was dead before he hit the ground. His body was identified by dog tags and paybook found on the remains as well as equipment which carried his embossed name.

Scroggins was originally buried in the Blosville-Carentan Cemetery in France but in 1948, the family had his remains returned and he was re-buried at South Park Cemetery at Pearland.

He was the son of William Henry and Ada (Jones) Scroggins. He attended Thorndale High School and members of the Scroggins family still live in the Thorndale area.

PILOT—Stach was the pilot of a Martin B-26B Marauder. He was leading his formation to bomb a road junction at Caen, France, when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The plane went down with six chutes opening out of the seven-man crew.

During a subsequent investigation, an unnamed French citizen stated:

“Three Allied soldiers, one with a bandage around his head, approached the German First Aid Station opposite my house. The German captain came out, and they shot the three against the wall of my house and buried them in a shallow pit. I got permission from the Kammandant to re-inter them deeper and buried them in my garden, against the road.”

SURVIVOR—There was a legendary Rockdale business-owner-to-be at D-Day too. But Adolph McVoy came back.

McVoy—a 24-year-old-Army Pfc.—was in the second wave at Omaha Beach, the epicenter of the invasion.

He survived the landing, although a shell hit his helmet and a large piece of shrapnel narrowly missed him, but he almost didn’t survive his first night in France, in a foxhole on the beach.

McVoy came back to that hole to find a 50-caliber shell had penetrated the three layers under which he slept—an overcoat, raincoat and blanket—and buried itself in the ground.

McVoy returned to Rockdale and established a legendary feed and grocery store at Main and Milam.

He passed away in 2006 at age 87.