US ARMY WORLD WAR II
~
SSG. John R. Gacek was born on June 9, 1911, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On October 13, 1942, he enlisted in the Army at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he reported to have one year of high school and he held an occupation as an athlete. He also reported being divorced with dependents.
SSG. John R. Gacek died on November 13, 1944, of wounds he received the day before during a firefight with the enemy in the vicinity of the town of Opheusden on the Island, the Netherlands. SSG. Gacek was buried at Lakeview Cemetery at Rib Lake, Taylor County, Wisconsin. He left behind two children (a boy and a girl, names are unknown), his parents, Benedict and Tekla (Niemic) Gacek, one brother (Frank George Gacek) and seven sisters (Helen, Sophie M. (Gacek) Kroll, Eleanor, Marie, Emily, Gladys and Evelyn). He was preceded in death by his brother Stanley Gacek who was killed late at night in 1941 on the dirt road leading to the farm of his parents.
Just recently, on the SLAM Sports webpage (Wrestling), a great article was published on SSG. Gacek, written by Steve Johnson. This is an excerpt of the article:
On Nov. 12, 1944, a day after the 26th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, SSG. John Gacek was fighting along the Lower Rhine River in the Netherlands, where Allied soldiers rotated on a 24-hour basis to bring relief to battered, hollowed-out towns. Under cover of darkness, members of a U.S. Army Glider Infantry Company moved over narrow canals to defend their positions. They'd fought through D-Day five months before and now were engaged in an epic 72-day fight that became the basis for a famous movie (Note: A Bridge Too Far). At one of the canals outside of Opheusden, a German patrol was waiting.
“A sharp firefight ensued and three Company A men lay dead including Staff Sergeant John Gacek, the pro wrestler. All of the Germans were killed, but one of the 401st's heroes was, too," Robert Bowen, who served in the battle, wrote in ‘Fighting with the Screaming Eagles’.” At 33, SSG. John Gacek became pro wrestling's first fatality in World War II. He died a day after he was shot, leaving behind two children, fans around the world, and an unfinished career on the mat.
SSG. John Gacek was a good athlete who went 5-foot-9 and 208 pounds. He started his wrestling career close to home in the fall of 1933. His final recorded match was July 1941 in Atlanta; he was touring the Deep South states where promoter Gus Kallio identified him as "the peppery Polish matman." After his enlistment, he kept his tights on, wrestling in the service and maintaining an open challenge to Army sparring partners. In fact, in the months before D-Day, Gacek and a handful of GIs were training in England when they put on matches to crown a European Theater wrestling champion and keep the troops entertained. During one set-to at an airbase, SSG. Gacek beat Bob Kawka, who wrestled professionally as Bobby Roberts in the 1930s, with his vaunted octopus lock. "There is fear here among prospective opponents for Gacek that he might forget how to untie himself from his newly conceived 'hold,' and since it hasn't been recorded, some might suffers," military newspaper Stars and Stripes said tongue-in-cheek.
As part of the 327th Glider Infantry, Gacek and his co-fighters were deployed into Normandy to engage the enemy. SSG. Gacek is mentioned in the book ‘Rendez With Destiny’ by Leonard Rapport, Jr. and Arthur Northwood:
“At the time – June 10, 1944 – the 327th had the only American troops across the Douve River in the Carentan area. General Taylor had received a report that unidentified troops were in Auville-sur-le-Vey, a village on the banks of the Vire River three miles southeast of Brevands. Shortly after noon he ordered Colonel Allen of the 3rd Battalion, 327th, which was in Brevands, to send a company to the village to investigate and report to him within an hour. Allen assigned the mission to Company A (the battalion, still officially the 1st Battalion of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, retained its A, B, C, D company designations), reinforcing it with a section of heavy mortars, and he went along with the company.
“About halfway the village they ran into small-arms fire. Instead of stopping, the company, which had been hurrying anyhow, broke into a run. Two men at the head of the column (one SSG. John R. Gacek, a professional boxer and wrestler, ETO champion in the latter sport, later killed near Opheusden in the Netherlands), each took a light machine gun in his arms and, as he ran, sprayed the countryside. At about 1400, in the village of Auville-sur-le-Vey, the first known contact between the troops of the two beaches occurred.”
~
SSG. John R. Gacek was born on June 9, 1911, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On October 13, 1942, he enlisted in the Army at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he reported to have one year of high school and he held an occupation as an athlete. He also reported being divorced with dependents.
SSG. John R. Gacek died on November 13, 1944, of wounds he received the day before during a firefight with the enemy in the vicinity of the town of Opheusden on the Island, the Netherlands. SSG. Gacek was buried at Lakeview Cemetery at Rib Lake, Taylor County, Wisconsin. He left behind two children (a boy and a girl, names are unknown), his parents, Benedict and Tekla (Niemic) Gacek, one brother (Frank George Gacek) and seven sisters (Helen, Sophie M. (Gacek) Kroll, Eleanor, Marie, Emily, Gladys and Evelyn). He was preceded in death by his brother Stanley Gacek who was killed late at night in 1941 on the dirt road leading to the farm of his parents.
Just recently, on the SLAM Sports webpage (Wrestling), a great article was published on SSG. Gacek, written by Steve Johnson. This is an excerpt of the article:
On Nov. 12, 1944, a day after the 26th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, SSG. John Gacek was fighting along the Lower Rhine River in the Netherlands, where Allied soldiers rotated on a 24-hour basis to bring relief to battered, hollowed-out towns. Under cover of darkness, members of a U.S. Army Glider Infantry Company moved over narrow canals to defend their positions. They'd fought through D-Day five months before and now were engaged in an epic 72-day fight that became the basis for a famous movie (Note: A Bridge Too Far). At one of the canals outside of Opheusden, a German patrol was waiting.
“A sharp firefight ensued and three Company A men lay dead including Staff Sergeant John Gacek, the pro wrestler. All of the Germans were killed, but one of the 401st's heroes was, too," Robert Bowen, who served in the battle, wrote in ‘Fighting with the Screaming Eagles’.” At 33, SSG. John Gacek became pro wrestling's first fatality in World War II. He died a day after he was shot, leaving behind two children, fans around the world, and an unfinished career on the mat.
SSG. John Gacek was a good athlete who went 5-foot-9 and 208 pounds. He started his wrestling career close to home in the fall of 1933. His final recorded match was July 1941 in Atlanta; he was touring the Deep South states where promoter Gus Kallio identified him as "the peppery Polish matman." After his enlistment, he kept his tights on, wrestling in the service and maintaining an open challenge to Army sparring partners. In fact, in the months before D-Day, Gacek and a handful of GIs were training in England when they put on matches to crown a European Theater wrestling champion and keep the troops entertained. During one set-to at an airbase, SSG. Gacek beat Bob Kawka, who wrestled professionally as Bobby Roberts in the 1930s, with his vaunted octopus lock. "There is fear here among prospective opponents for Gacek that he might forget how to untie himself from his newly conceived 'hold,' and since it hasn't been recorded, some might suffers," military newspaper Stars and Stripes said tongue-in-cheek.
As part of the 327th Glider Infantry, Gacek and his co-fighters were deployed into Normandy to engage the enemy. SSG. Gacek is mentioned in the book ‘Rendez With Destiny’ by Leonard Rapport, Jr. and Arthur Northwood:
“At the time – June 10, 1944 – the 327th had the only American troops across the Douve River in the Carentan area. General Taylor had received a report that unidentified troops were in Auville-sur-le-Vey, a village on the banks of the Vire River three miles southeast of Brevands. Shortly after noon he ordered Colonel Allen of the 3rd Battalion, 327th, which was in Brevands, to send a company to the village to investigate and report to him within an hour. Allen assigned the mission to Company A (the battalion, still officially the 1st Battalion of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, retained its A, B, C, D company designations), reinforcing it with a section of heavy mortars, and he went along with the company.
“About halfway the village they ran into small-arms fire. Instead of stopping, the company, which had been hurrying anyhow, broke into a run. Two men at the head of the column (one SSG. John R. Gacek, a professional boxer and wrestler, ETO champion in the latter sport, later killed near Opheusden in the Netherlands), each took a light machine gun in his arms and, as he ran, sprayed the countryside. At about 1400, in the village of Auville-sur-le-Vey, the first known contact between the troops of the two beaches occurred.”
US ARMY WORLD WAR II
~
SSG. John R. Gacek was born on June 9, 1911, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On October 13, 1942, he enlisted in the Army at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he reported to have one year of high school and he held an occupation as an athlete. He also reported being divorced with dependents.
SSG. John R. Gacek died on November 13, 1944, of wounds he received the day before during a firefight with the enemy in the vicinity of the town of Opheusden on the Island, the Netherlands. SSG. Gacek was buried at Lakeview Cemetery at Rib Lake, Taylor County, Wisconsin. He left behind two children (a boy and a girl, names are unknown), his parents, Benedict and Tekla (Niemic) Gacek, one brother (Frank George Gacek) and seven sisters (Helen, Sophie M. (Gacek) Kroll, Eleanor, Marie, Emily, Gladys and Evelyn). He was preceded in death by his brother Stanley Gacek who was killed late at night in 1941 on the dirt road leading to the farm of his parents.
Just recently, on the SLAM Sports webpage (Wrestling), a great article was published on SSG. Gacek, written by Steve Johnson. This is an excerpt of the article:
On Nov. 12, 1944, a day after the 26th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, SSG. John Gacek was fighting along the Lower Rhine River in the Netherlands, where Allied soldiers rotated on a 24-hour basis to bring relief to battered, hollowed-out towns. Under cover of darkness, members of a U.S. Army Glider Infantry Company moved over narrow canals to defend their positions. They'd fought through D-Day five months before and now were engaged in an epic 72-day fight that became the basis for a famous movie (Note: A Bridge Too Far). At one of the canals outside of Opheusden, a German patrol was waiting.
“A sharp firefight ensued and three Company A men lay dead including Staff Sergeant John Gacek, the pro wrestler. All of the Germans were killed, but one of the 401st's heroes was, too," Robert Bowen, who served in the battle, wrote in ‘Fighting with the Screaming Eagles’.” At 33, SSG. John Gacek became pro wrestling's first fatality in World War II. He died a day after he was shot, leaving behind two children, fans around the world, and an unfinished career on the mat.
SSG. John Gacek was a good athlete who went 5-foot-9 and 208 pounds. He started his wrestling career close to home in the fall of 1933. His final recorded match was July 1941 in Atlanta; he was touring the Deep South states where promoter Gus Kallio identified him as "the peppery Polish matman." After his enlistment, he kept his tights on, wrestling in the service and maintaining an open challenge to Army sparring partners. In fact, in the months before D-Day, Gacek and a handful of GIs were training in England when they put on matches to crown a European Theater wrestling champion and keep the troops entertained. During one set-to at an airbase, SSG. Gacek beat Bob Kawka, who wrestled professionally as Bobby Roberts in the 1930s, with his vaunted octopus lock. "There is fear here among prospective opponents for Gacek that he might forget how to untie himself from his newly conceived 'hold,' and since it hasn't been recorded, some might suffers," military newspaper Stars and Stripes said tongue-in-cheek.
As part of the 327th Glider Infantry, Gacek and his co-fighters were deployed into Normandy to engage the enemy. SSG. Gacek is mentioned in the book ‘Rendez With Destiny’ by Leonard Rapport, Jr. and Arthur Northwood:
“At the time – June 10, 1944 – the 327th had the only American troops across the Douve River in the Carentan area. General Taylor had received a report that unidentified troops were in Auville-sur-le-Vey, a village on the banks of the Vire River three miles southeast of Brevands. Shortly after noon he ordered Colonel Allen of the 3rd Battalion, 327th, which was in Brevands, to send a company to the village to investigate and report to him within an hour. Allen assigned the mission to Company A (the battalion, still officially the 1st Battalion of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, retained its A, B, C, D company designations), reinforcing it with a section of heavy mortars, and he went along with the company.
“About halfway the village they ran into small-arms fire. Instead of stopping, the company, which had been hurrying anyhow, broke into a run. Two men at the head of the column (one SSG. John R. Gacek, a professional boxer and wrestler, ETO champion in the latter sport, later killed near Opheusden in the Netherlands), each took a light machine gun in his arms and, as he ran, sprayed the countryside. At about 1400, in the village of Auville-sur-le-Vey, the first known contact between the troops of the two beaches occurred.”
~
SSG. John R. Gacek was born on June 9, 1911, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On October 13, 1942, he enlisted in the Army at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he reported to have one year of high school and he held an occupation as an athlete. He also reported being divorced with dependents.
SSG. John R. Gacek died on November 13, 1944, of wounds he received the day before during a firefight with the enemy in the vicinity of the town of Opheusden on the Island, the Netherlands. SSG. Gacek was buried at Lakeview Cemetery at Rib Lake, Taylor County, Wisconsin. He left behind two children (a boy and a girl, names are unknown), his parents, Benedict and Tekla (Niemic) Gacek, one brother (Frank George Gacek) and seven sisters (Helen, Sophie M. (Gacek) Kroll, Eleanor, Marie, Emily, Gladys and Evelyn). He was preceded in death by his brother Stanley Gacek who was killed late at night in 1941 on the dirt road leading to the farm of his parents.
Just recently, on the SLAM Sports webpage (Wrestling), a great article was published on SSG. Gacek, written by Steve Johnson. This is an excerpt of the article:
On Nov. 12, 1944, a day after the 26th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, SSG. John Gacek was fighting along the Lower Rhine River in the Netherlands, where Allied soldiers rotated on a 24-hour basis to bring relief to battered, hollowed-out towns. Under cover of darkness, members of a U.S. Army Glider Infantry Company moved over narrow canals to defend their positions. They'd fought through D-Day five months before and now were engaged in an epic 72-day fight that became the basis for a famous movie (Note: A Bridge Too Far). At one of the canals outside of Opheusden, a German patrol was waiting.
“A sharp firefight ensued and three Company A men lay dead including Staff Sergeant John Gacek, the pro wrestler. All of the Germans were killed, but one of the 401st's heroes was, too," Robert Bowen, who served in the battle, wrote in ‘Fighting with the Screaming Eagles’.” At 33, SSG. John Gacek became pro wrestling's first fatality in World War II. He died a day after he was shot, leaving behind two children, fans around the world, and an unfinished career on the mat.
SSG. John Gacek was a good athlete who went 5-foot-9 and 208 pounds. He started his wrestling career close to home in the fall of 1933. His final recorded match was July 1941 in Atlanta; he was touring the Deep South states where promoter Gus Kallio identified him as "the peppery Polish matman." After his enlistment, he kept his tights on, wrestling in the service and maintaining an open challenge to Army sparring partners. In fact, in the months before D-Day, Gacek and a handful of GIs were training in England when they put on matches to crown a European Theater wrestling champion and keep the troops entertained. During one set-to at an airbase, SSG. Gacek beat Bob Kawka, who wrestled professionally as Bobby Roberts in the 1930s, with his vaunted octopus lock. "There is fear here among prospective opponents for Gacek that he might forget how to untie himself from his newly conceived 'hold,' and since it hasn't been recorded, some might suffers," military newspaper Stars and Stripes said tongue-in-cheek.
As part of the 327th Glider Infantry, Gacek and his co-fighters were deployed into Normandy to engage the enemy. SSG. Gacek is mentioned in the book ‘Rendez With Destiny’ by Leonard Rapport, Jr. and Arthur Northwood:
“At the time – June 10, 1944 – the 327th had the only American troops across the Douve River in the Carentan area. General Taylor had received a report that unidentified troops were in Auville-sur-le-Vey, a village on the banks of the Vire River three miles southeast of Brevands. Shortly after noon he ordered Colonel Allen of the 3rd Battalion, 327th, which was in Brevands, to send a company to the village to investigate and report to him within an hour. Allen assigned the mission to Company A (the battalion, still officially the 1st Battalion of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, retained its A, B, C, D company designations), reinforcing it with a section of heavy mortars, and he went along with the company.
“About halfway the village they ran into small-arms fire. Instead of stopping, the company, which had been hurrying anyhow, broke into a run. Two men at the head of the column (one SSG. John R. Gacek, a professional boxer and wrestler, ETO champion in the latter sport, later killed near Opheusden in the Netherlands), each took a light machine gun in his arms and, as he ran, sprayed the countryside. At about 1400, in the village of Auville-sur-le-Vey, the first known contact between the troops of the two beaches occurred.”
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