Tech Sergeant Roman P. Granrath
– F Company, 39th Infantry Regiment –

Roman (Ray) P. Granrath was born November 4, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY.  The family moved to Clark, New Jersey in 1921 due to the health condition of his mother. Other than his time in the US Army, Ray lived in Clark his entire life. Prior to entering the Army he worked at General Motors in Clark as a Pressman.

Ray was the first person from Clark to be drafted in the nation’s first Peacetime Draft on January 22, 1941, drawing Order Number 29. He entered service at Fort Dix in New Jersey and then reported to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina for Basic Training. This was to be a one year enlistment of service to the United States. Just prior to discharge, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the fight was on.

Ray was assigned to F Company, 2nd Battalion in the 39th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division. On September 26, 1942,  F Company was aboard the USS Thomas Stone in the Mediterranean Sea when it was torpedoed in the stern of the ship and sat in the water exposed to enemy assault. Seven hundred men were loaded onto landing craft for the 160 mile journey to Ain-Taya in North Africa. The flimsy craft were not suited for long-range sailing and began to fall apart. A British Corvette brought the men and equipment on board and brought them to Ain-Taya.

Ray took part in seven campaigns of the 9th Division. While in Sicily during the battle of Troina, Ray was wounded in the left leg and calf by shrapnel, waited 11 hours in a fox hole  for help. This wound resulted in a three month recuperation in the hospital. He was then sent to England to prepare for D Day. The 9th Infantry Division was not part of the initial D-Day assault on June 6th, 1944, but landed a couple days later. The division would help to cut off the Cotentin Peninsula.

The 39th Infantry Regiment landed at Utah Beach, June 10, 1944. Fighting through France he was wounded twice in the same day near Cherence Le Roussel and received the Silver Star.

After fighting in Belgium, F Company reached the Siegfried Line where he took part in the battle of the Hürtgen Forest. After several terrible weeks in this battle, on December 6th, 1944 he was given a furlough to visit home in the US. He returned to his unit again on March 24, 1945.

When the war ended Ray found himself in Dessau, Germany. He spent his last weeks in Germany in the small town of Klein-Kuhnau.

He was discharged from the Army using the point system, having accumulated 136 points. His ending rank was that of Technical Sergeant.  Final date of separation was June 25, 1945 at Fort Dix, New Jersey.  He often told his children it was only because of Almighty God that he survived the war.

After the war he was self-employed as a Night Club/Tavern owner in Newark, New Jersey. He married in 1954 and along with his wife raised five children. Ray passed away November 5, 2004 at his home in Clark, New Jersey.

Recently two of his daughters followed his footsteps through Germany and ended in Klein-Kuhnau where they found the house Ray stayed in while waiting to be discharged.

We will never forget Ray’s actions in World War 2, resulting in the freedom we enjoy today.


_{Thank you to Debra Granrath for sharing this wonderful tribute to her father.}