Woman tells of friend's time with 101st Airborne

Roger F. Hahn was 21 years old when he enlisted. After training for many years he became a fledgling soldier with the 101st Airborne.

One of the screaming Eaglemen, he jumped from a C-47 parachuted to Utah Beach on the coast of Normandy during the D-Day invasion. Landing in chest-deep water where his parachute became tangled he was rescued by his buddy.

After much resistance and fighting the unit rejoined having accomplished its mission. Roger and four buddies then made friends with the French nuns and the orphans they cared for.

Roger has a photo taken in France where he and three other buddies, decked out in their paratroopers baggy trousers, are each holding two little French children.

Roger continued with the 101st and returned home to Iowa on V E Day in 1946. Roger is now 84 and lives in Carson City.

Editor's Note: Loretta M. Ferguson is an 80-year-old Carson City resident and a 35-year friend of Roger F. Hahn. She wrote in tribute "to one of the finest gentlemen I ever met." Her brother, Peter, landed on Omaha Beach with the Canadian Army where he lost his left eye.