Edward Maloney earned the Silver Star for Gallantry on D-Day.

Tom Brokaw celebrated the "Greatest Generation" with a best-selling book by the same title.  He certainly could have included this tale.   Ed Maloney was a young man growing up in Blackstone, Massachusetts when on September 10,1942 he signed up to serve in the Navy. Two years later he would find himself as the boatswain of a landing craft, the USS Thurston, on Omaha Beach in Normandy.  

 His service began with basic training at Naval Station Newport and then Little Creek, VA.  He underwent amphibious training with an LCT or landing craft tank.  He served at Bayonne, NJ before leaving for Bermuda from where he would participate in a 33 day convoy.  He participated in the invasions of Sicily and Italy before June 6, 1944. The craft took a direct hit by German forces disabling it and knocking Maloney from the deck to the beach but not before he replaced the gunner who was killed and firing upon enemy positions taking out several gun batteries.

 

Besides the Silver Star and Purple Heart, he would receive the Croix de Guerre from France.   Along with one of my best students, Lauren Drew, we interviewed Mr. Maloney, with video technology teacher Ben Schur filming our session, it was forwarded to the Library of Congress' Veterans Project.  This was an example of collegiality at its best.