Filed under: 3rd, Cemeteries, Navarre, Operation Dragoon, WWII | Tags: 15th Infantry Regiment, Anzio, North Africa, Roy Navarre, Russ Littel, Russ Navarre, St Francis Home for Boys
A few years ago, I’d joined the Society of the 3rd Infantry Division after meeting and helping CPT Monika Stoy and LTC Tim Stoy with the Operation Dragoon and Colmar Pocket reunions/commemorations/seminars. I’d developed an affinity for the 36th Infantry Division when I was assigned that as my research task, enhanced tremendously when my good friend, SGT Russ Littel deployed with the 136th MEB, of the 36th ID, to Afghanistan.
I was utterly shocked then, a few days ago when my sister dropped me a note asking if I knew anything about the 15th Infantry Regiment. It turns out that our father’s uncle, Roy Joseph Navarre, served in Headquarters Company of the 15th Infantry Regiment during World War II. My father, Russ Navarre, never met his uncle because he was raised in the St Francis Home for Boys (which unfortunately burned in 2011 and was demolished). So, this comes as news to all of us. Fortunately, Tim is the historian of the 15th Infantry, so I fully expect to be able to learn far more about Uncle Roy.
For those who don’t know the story of the 15th, or it’s parent unit, the 3rd Infantry Division, in World War II, it fought in North Africa, in Sicily, at Anzio, landed in southern France (Operation Dragoon!), fought up the Rhone River valley, then through the Colmar Pocket and into Germany. I’m not sure when Roy Navarre joined the Regiment or if he remained in Europe to the end, but it will be interesting to discover and explore.
Now, I can join the 15th Infantry Regiment Association as well!
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
We're not lost, Sergeant, We're in ... France 
If I recall correctly, another 3rd inf vet was Audie Murphy, the most highly decorated infantryman of WWII. About 10 years after the war, a movie was made about him. He was such a young looking guy that he played himself! The title was “To Hell and Back”. My father, who was a veteran of the Bulge, said the battle scenes were realistic.
Comment by Jerry Mullen 13 December 2013 @ 18:55My Dad was in the 15th Infantry, Company D.
Comment by Charles Bottieri 14 December 2013 @ 15:11Ernest Bottieri was a Staff Sergeant in this troop in years, 1944-1945. He was a heavy mortar crewman and machine gunner. Battles and Campaigns: Rome Arno, Rhineland, Central Europe.
I don’t have much more information than that, but I’d like to share any information there is on this unit.