Eternal history

“The sooner things start popping, the better I’ll like it and I aim to be in on it. The sooner we all get in there, the sooner we’ll get to go home. If I ever get back to Portland, I’ll never leave the old town again.”

Pfc. Milo William “Bill” Ludy wrote those words to his brother-in-law, Lee Atha, on May 25, 1944.

He never saw his hometown again.

Ludy and Pfc. J.M. Clifton, both of Jay County, lost their lives a couple of weeks later as part of the D-Day invasion during World War II.

While there isn’t much information available about Clifton at Portland’s Museum of the Soldier — a copy of the book “Britain’s Homage to 28,000 American Dead” inscribed in his honor is on display — Ludy’s experience is detailed in photos and letters donated by his family.

In addition to the letter to his brother-in-law is a letter to his wife Leah June (Atha) Ludy, who he had married two years earlier. They were husband and wife for just seven months before he entered military service.

In that letter, dated May 9 and postmarked in Portland on June 10, four days after his death, he tells of a baseball game played against the officers the night before. Ludy’s squad won 7-4.

“I get a big kick out of it when we play them and beat them,” he wrote. “We’ve won every game we played except two.”

In the letter, he asks about his wife’s job as a waitress and apologizes for not writing more often. He then closes by writing, “Darling, I love you with all my heart. You are the only one for me. I am thinking of you always.”

Ludy, a paratrooper, was part of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division — the group featured in the HBO series “Band of Brothers” — and was assigned to fly aboard a C-47 of the 77th Troop Carrier Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group in a plane piloted by Capt. John H. Schaefers of Detroit, Michigan, notes the display at Museum of the Soldier. They left England about 11:30 p.m. June 5, 1944, and encountered German anti-aircraft fire as they neared their drop zone in France early on June 6 as part of D-Day, which remains the largest seaborne invasion in history.

The display offers two accounts of the fate of the plane Schaefers was flying.

•“When we were a few minutes from our DZ, Capt. Schaefers’ left wing burst into flames,” said Jesse Harrison, another pilot in the squadron. “I’m not sure whether the underneath of the ship was on fire or not. We were flying about 1,800 feet at 140 mph. My co-pilot gave me the time of (1:19 a.m.) that Capt. Schaefers’ plane caught fire. He continued on course, then peeled off and went down under me. I did not see him crash.”

•“On approach to the drop zone, the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and I was ordered by the crew chief to jump,” said Sgt. Charles F. Word, jumpmaster for the plan. “The crew chief was in contact with the pilot by phone when he gave the order to jump. I yelled, ‘let’s go,’ and jumped. To the best of my knowledge, the crew chief did not have a parachute as far as I know, none of the crew got out of the plane. I landed near Picouville (sic), France.”

Ludy, the son of Carl and Emily (Journay) Ludy, was one of those killed as the plane went down in France.