At midnight on D-Day, an unarmed medic from Vermont paracutes
into danger. Private Hasletine's story...

Private Robert Haseltine, Jr., from Waterbury, was killed on this day in 1944. Two days earlier, at midnight on D-Day, Haseltine had parachuted into France as an unarmed medic.

He had volunteered to stay with two wounded GIs while his patrol moved on to make sure the next town was safe. When the patrol returned they found all three men dead from head wounds, killed by a German patrol.

It took his family two months to be notified. His young wife had only spent 12 days with her husband. Haseltine is buried in Duxbury's Fairmont Cemetery, and a marker stands for him in the Palisades.

Image courtesy Marion Haseltine Grace via Brian Lindner.

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