Name:                                                  EVERETT RODNEY GRIFFIN

            Known as:                                           “Ev”

Hometown per military records:                      Barton

            Date of Birth:                                       January 27, 1925 at Newport Center, VT

            High School:                                        Barton High School

            Entered military service at:                  Orleans, VT

            Entered military service on:                 July 14, 1943

            Rank:                                                   Private First Class

            Army serial number:                            31340246

            Unit:                                                    10^th Mountain Division

                                                                        86^th Mountain Regiment

                                                                        1^st Battalion

                                                                        Company A

            Killed In Action:                                  March 3, 1945 near Mt. della Torraccia, Italy

            Buried:                                                 Newport Center, VT Cemetery

            Medals:                                                            Purple Heart and Silver Star

            On local WWII monument?                 No names shown on monument

            Age:                                                     20

            Details of death:                                  Hit by artillery shrapnel although per his IDPF,

cause of death was bullet to left chest.

Award of Silver Star, Posthumous

EVERETT R. GRIFFIN, 31340246, Private First Class, Infantry, United States Army. For gallantry in Action near Mt. della Torraccia, Italy, on 3 March 1945. When an assault company had captured the summit of a mountain, and was consolidating its position and making preparations for defense, heavy enemy artillery fire began falling among the men, causing many casualties. A forward artillery observer with the company located the source of the fire, but was unable to call for counterbattery shelling because of lack of communications with supporting artillery, until Private First Class GRIFFIN, a radio operator, willingly went into an extremely exposed position to transmit the messages. With shells falling all around him, he doggedly remained in the open to relay directions, and soon effective supporting fire silenced the enemy guns and allowed the company to complete their defensive preparations. During the action, an artillery shell burst nearby, and instantly killed him. His heroism in remaining at his post under fire at a time when the lives of his comrades depended on his getting his message through have earned for Private First Class GRIFFIN the undying gratitude of his fellows. His courage and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Army.

Two years before he lost his life as a member of the ski troops, Griffin wrote this work for his high school English class:

SKIER’S PARADISE

There’s a grand youth-like feeling in that early morning ski, when far below in the morning light lies the rest of man and the madness of the modern age. But, high above there’s peace and a white paradise, a dream land of skiers where soft gentle breezes gaily dance over the soft new fallen snow. There is a brisk, strange feeling. A float in the air, a feeling inviting adventure where ever it may come, it’s grand and the world is yours!

The sun is slowly sinking far beyond the stately evergreens and a calm, peaceful stillness invades this snowland of dreams. Gazing into the beautiful glow of the sunset skies, I really wonder why man must fight. What a peaceful world this would be if only everyone lived in “my skier’s paradise.”

Everett Griffin

January 6, 1943

English [Barton High School]