My Father

S/Sgt. Robert Dukes West
Co. A, 17th Tank Battalion, 7th Armored Division (The Lucky Seventh)
Killed in Action in Sillegny, France, 18 September 1944
Memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing, Lorraine Cemetery, St. Avold, France

and 

In My Heart 

                                                                 
Robert Dukes West 2/11/28                            FEBRUARY 15, 1909 - SEPTEMBER 18, 1944                    Robert Dukes West 2/11/38 

Anne, Robert and Mable West August 2, 1941                    S/Sgt. Robert D. West,                                               Anne and Mable West - 
           "You Are My Sunshine"                                             in California's Mojave desert                                     Easter, 1944
                                                                                                 on maneuvers - 1943

My Dad was a member of the 2nd Armored Division (Hell on Wheels) until the 7th Armored Division (The Lucky Seventh) was activated in March, 1942, whereupon he was transferred to the 7th, 17th Tank Bn. and instructed new recruits.  They were assigned to Camp Polk, LA and in March 1943 they went on maneuvers  to The Desert Training Center in the Mojave Desert for five months of training. They were assigned to Fort Benning, GA in August of 1943.  They left  Ft. Benning in  1944 and traveled to Camp Miles Standish, MA  where they waited for the return of the Queen Mary which they boarded at Camp Shanks, NY on June 6, 1944.  They sailed on June 7, and disembarked  in Gurock, Scotland about June 15¹ and trained at Tidworth Barracks in Wiltshire, England.  About  August 10, 1944 they landed on Omaha Beach and advanced rapidly through France.  On September 18, 1944 they were engaged in a battle in the town of Sillegny, France where they encountered fierce resistance from  German anti-tank guns.  My father's tank took a direct hit; so he was reported as "missing in action" then later declared "killed in action." 

He was a career soldier who had been in the U.S. Army since the age of 17 and was 35 at the time of his death.  He is my hero.

¹This information provided to me by Bill Houp, a member of the 7th Armored Division, 17th Tank Battalion, who knew my dad.

My sincere thanks and appreciation to the people who have inspired me to search for information about my dad
and to create this web page, the members of AWON.  (American WWII Orphans Network) 
Click on the link below to find a wonderful group of people and a great organization.

 I discovered AWON  when I went in search of information and found a great website regarding WWII which recommended AWON.
It is called "Dad's War" and is the creation of Wesley Johnston who also lost his father in WWII.
http://members.aol.com/dadswar/