11 Jan 08 - James

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Yak, Ted and Steve.  It’s great to reconnect with you all.

 Thanks to everyone for their condolences on the passing of my father.  It has been very difficult these past few weeks, but already the healing process is well under way.  I visited my father on New Year’s Eve for a couple of hours at the home and he was relatively fine.  I brought Krispy Kreme doughnuts and he really enjoyed the chocolate covered one.  I took him outside in the courtyard and he liked the blue sky and warm breeze.  Later that night he went into the hospital for severe pneumonia.  There were ups and downs, but he finally succumbed on 4 Jan at 0130.  Thank God the suffering and indignity is over.  It still hurt though. 

Here’s the obituary that my brother, sister and I collaborated on.  We were happy with how it sounded:

Paul E. Osborne - SAVANNAH - Paul E. Osborne was born in Glasgow, WV on August 1, 1923 and died in Savannah, GA on January 4, 2008. He entered the US Army in 1943 serving with the 7th Infantry Regiment 3rd Infantry Division and participated in the liberation of Europe fighting in the Rome Arno, Southern France, Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns. Rising from private to Technical Sergeant he earned the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action, 3 Bronze Star Medals for valor and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Following his war service he received a direct commission and spent the 1950’s in Germany as the Cold War heated up. His US tours of duty included Fort Knox and Fort Hood with a final combat zone assignment in Vietnam in 1962 as one of the earliest military advisors under the Military Assistance Command. After serving as active duty advisor to the Maryland National Guard he concluded a distinguished career at Hunter Army Airfield in 1969 and retired with the rank of Major. He is survived by his wife of over 62 years - Mary Gwendolyn Osborne; his daughter Paulette A. Quinn and her husband Carl S Quinn; his sons, Richard Hays Osborne and James David Osborne and his wife Annette Osborne; granddaughter, Sarah Rachel Osborne; and sister, Gloria Moats.. His family and friends will suffer the loss of a yet another member of the Greatest Generation to whom we owe so much as husband, father, brother, friend and warrior.  Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.

The idea for an Arlington burial just popped into my mind when my brother and sister were upset that my mother wanted to put him in a plot in Hagerstown, MD that they bought in 1947 when their second baby died.  They didn’t think they would ever get to visit the grave in a small town 700 miles away in a town we no longer have a connection to.  After some research and phone calls to the office at Arlington, we were given a 20 Feb/0900 date.  We are all very happy and we know he would have been greatly honored to rest there.  He certainly loved the Army.

In other news my daughter, Sarah, did graduate the University of Houston on 14 Dec and is now starting a job with a small hotel in Houston.  It’s not exactly what she wanted, but she realizes it’s a start.  I’m very proud of her.  Bob Goss and I had lunch while I was in Houston and it was great to see him again after many years. 

Anyway, I hope all of you are doing well and I’ll talk to you again soon.

 James

This entry was posted on 11. January 2008 at 14:02 and is filed under Band of Brothers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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