Edward A Vargo

S/Sgt Edward Vargo was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with Company A, 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment. On the morning of June 6, 1944, this company crossed onto Dog Green Beach in six assault craft directly opposite the landing point, coming under artillery and mortar fire while still hundreds of yards from shore. When the ramps dropped at 0636 into waist-to-head-deep water, the men were met instantly by heavy crossfire from automatic weapons positioned at both ends of the beach; within seven to ten minutes nearly every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded, and one entire thirty-man boat team was lost to the last man. Within twenty minutes the company had ceased to function as an assault force, its remaining men working to pull wounded comrades from the rising tide rather than continuing the advance, and by the time the next company landed behind them barely a third of the unit remained. A small handful of survivors eventually made their way to the base of the cliffs, holding there through the afternoon before rejoining the battalion that night. S/Sgt Vargo was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.