# @usabmc on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C55rWitR7TV
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/30414189-usabmc-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d318e49ef1.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-04-18T11:30:31.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** ABMC (@usabmc) — https://gondola.cc/usabmc

## Caption

“My dad, Staff Sergeant Stephen J. Coleman is buried in Normandy American Cemetery... He was one of the first to storm Utah Beach in the invasion on June 6th, and then he was killed six days later...

He was from Orange, New Jersey. He lived there all of his life… He was not intending, from what I gather, to be a career soldier. In fact, as the story goes, when he came home he had hoped to continue a baseball career, he played for a semi-pro minor league team, or become a firefighter. 

I think just looking at pictures he played on a baseball team in the service someplace. Maybe it was just a pick-up game, but he has a lot of pictures of when my mom would come to visit him, or they'd be in Fort Dix. 

There were a number of them from Orange who were drafted pretty much at the same time. He had a very good friend, Joe Cullen, who was in the fourth… Joe was killed three days after my dad and is also buried in Normandy… When about eight guys came home, they brought me a doll that they knew my dad would have bought me. At the time, it was in '45, I was about a year old, and I think this doll was bigger than I was. I have pictures of it, so I guess he was very close to a lot of them…

Even though he was drafted, he willingly went and did the job that his country was asking of him at the time. I think he probably felt, or at least he thought he would come back. I think a lot of them, or most of them, felt the same way... He wanted to make this place, I know it sounds corny, but a better place to live. A safe place for people to live. Not just in the United States, but all over the world.” – Carol Donahue, daughter of Staff Sergeant Stephen J. Coleman– 4th Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Regiment

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 224
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 11

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Baylee Lakey | @bayleelakey | https://gondola.cc/bayleelakey | Senior Social Media Manager |

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