Polk County

 
Lt. Sam O'Brien

 

 

 

Iowans Enjoy Rest Period in Holland
(Photos included)

These photographs were taken in Holland while front-line troops of the 35th Infantry division were enjoying a rest period.  They were sent to The Register by First Lt. E. H. Zielasko, a former S.U.I. student, who writes that Iowans in Europe receive much pleasure from the pictorial reports of home towns in the rotogravure section, and adds:
“It occurred to me that the people in Iowa would be equally interested in a pictorial report of their sons, relatives and friends overseas . . .”

Pictures were taken by Signal Corps Photographer Armond R. Guinn, Los Angeles.

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Lt. Sam O’Brien of Des Moines (left) and Master Sgt. Wayne Anderson of Akron, don’t appear too happy about having their pictures taken as they put out their laundry to dry,” confides the caption on this candid study.  “Maybe,” Zielasko explains, “Sgt. Anderson is afraid his wife will get ideas some Monday after the war.  Bachelor O’Brien has no such worries.”

Source: The DesMoines Sunday Register, May 6, 1945 (photo included)

Samuel Greenough O’Brien was born July 11, 1920 to Maxwell A. and Virginia Slade O’Brien. He died Oct. 13, 2010 and is buried in Masonic Cemetery, Dallas Center, IA. 

Samuel served in World War II with the U.S. Army as a Regiment Liaison Officer with the 320th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division. He participated in the campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), and Central Europe. 

Among the cities his unit helped liberate were: St. Lo, Mortain, Chataudun, Le Mans, Troyer, Nancy, as well as the Gremecey Forest. He was awarded the Bronze Star and French Legion of Honor. 

Source: ancestry.com