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Cumberland County World War II veterans will head to France later this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
Retired Army Colonel Sam Kitchen, who turns 98 on April 5th, has been living in the area since he was a teenager when the legendary paratroopers of World War II flew into Normandy and liberated the region on June 4th, 1944. He said he wanted to visit.
Kitchen was born in Waukegan, Illinois, and lived throughout the United States, including Florida and New England, before settling with his family in Petersburg, Virginia, as a teenager.
He was still in high school when World War II broke out.
“I was running around with all the older boys and they were all getting drafted, so I decided I wanted to go too, but my mom… They wouldn’t let me go,” he said. She said, “She said I wasn’t old yet. I was only 16.”
After much pleading, Kitchen said, his mother agreed to tell recruiters that he joined the Marines on February 25, 1943, at age 17.
After boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina, and training at Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Kitchen was assigned to an aviation squadron based in Atlantic, North Carolina.
Second World War
When his unit was deployed overseas, Kitchen said he was attached to the U.S. Army Air Support Control Unit based in Hawaii.
“From there I went to Okinawa and after Okinawa was secured, our team was sent to Manila, Philippines and assigned to an Army unit,” he said.
A few months later, the unit was assigned to what was then Beijing, China, now Beijing.
After World War II ended, Kitchen returned to Virginia to finish high school and remained in the Marine Corps Reserve.
korean war
After graduating from high school, he went to Washington, D.C., and became a motorcycle police officer, but the Korean War broke out.
“One of my favorite hangouts was the Army recruiting center because I love coffee and most people who drink coffee love drinking coffee,” Kitchen said.
The major in charge of the recruiting office asked Kitchen about military service in the Marines and recommended that he transfer to the Army and serve.
Kitchen joined the Army as a sergeant and then attended leadership school, cadet school, and jumping school at Fort Benning, Georgia.
“I wanted to join the 82nd Regiment, but Colonel ‘Bulldog’ Bizard (people called him Bulldog because he spit whenever he got angry) said, ‘ All the airborne (soldiers) want to go to jumping school,” Kitchen said. “I said, ‘No, not that. I want to go to No. 82. His words were, ‘I’m going to let you wear (expletive) straight-legged clothes.’
“Legs” refers to soldiers who do not have airborne qualifications.
A few days later, Kitchen said, Bizard sent him to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where he applied to flight school in San Marcos, Texas. He then went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
He served in the Korean War with the 25th Division, 90th Field Artillery Battalion, flying L-19 and L-20 aircraft as a pilot and participating in two tours.
Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War, Kitchen was assigned to the 121st Attack Helicopter Squadron and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.
“I helped (rescue) the captain. The captain was a Vietnamese advisor, and they were completely surrounded by VC (Viet Cong) and they were trying to get him out. We couldn’t get it out,” Kitchen said. “I volunteered to go inside, jumped in, grabbed him, and was able to get him out of there safely.”
Kitchen said he was eventually assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division after his tour of duty in Vietnam.
“I always loved the 82nd. I heard what they did in Europe (during World War II) and wanted to serve with them,” he said.
Mr. Kitchen was assigned to the division as an aviation maintenance officer for several years before being assigned to the Magistrate’s Court General Corps as a prosecutor and later serving as a liaison officer between military and civilian authorities.
He retired from what was then Fort Bragg in 1977 and settled near Fayetteville, working for Kelly Springfield Tire Company and then serving as a motel manager with his wife for several years.
Veterans return to Normandy
Kitchen said all military combat took place in the Pacific during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, but he wants to go to Normandy to see where legendary paratroopers like retired Sgt. He said he had always thought that. “Rock” Major Merritt fought.
He said he served under Merritt at what was then Fort Bragg when Merritt was a sergeant major in the 18th Airborne Corps.
The retired sergeant said that while in Washington, D.C., last year, Kitchen happened to meet French national Valérie Gauthier. Maj. Roger Vickers, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division Historical Society and a friend of Kitchen’s.
Gauthier first became involved in supporting World War II paratroopers when she was a teenager and her family helped U.S. veterans. Vickers said the veteran was looking for a family member who hid him from the Nazis during World War II.
Gauthier said she was 14 when she met the sergeant last week via video chat from France. Bob Murphy during a D-Day commemorative event.Murphy is a veteran of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment and is believed to be the first paratrooper to touch the ground during the Normandy landings.
Years later, Murphy introduced Gauthier to Locke Merritt, and she said he became something of a father figure whenever she visited the United States.
As an adult, she organized free trips for World War II veterans to attend memorial services in Normandy and worked to host them through the Veterans Association Return to Normandy. is coordinating with local French residents.
“People recognize and appreciate the freedom of World War II veterans,” Gauthier said. “So we cannot and do not want to forget them.”
The organization is raising funds for the trip and is sponsored by the 82nd Historical Society.
Vickers said that from May 30 to June 12, Kitchen will be in the St. Mere-Eglise area with other World War II veterans.
Kitchen said she got emotional when she heard she was going to Normandy and thought it was a joke.
“I’ve always heard about Normandy since World War II, but I’ve never been there and I’ve always wanted to go,” he said. “So, it looks like I can finally go.”
Vickers said Kitchin is one of eight veterans currently registered for the trip, and the VA will send two more World War II veterans back to Normandy. It is said that
Anyone who knows a World War II veteran who would like to go can email Vickers at n888yw@gmail.com.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at 910-486-3528 or rriley@fayobserver.com.
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