Vernon Albert Slate was born on April 4, 1918 in Oklahoma. His parents William and Minnie were born in Texas and Indiana, respectively. His father worked as a farmer. His mother died in 1939. Vernon had three older sisters, two older brothers, and one younger sister. By 1940 Vernon had completed eight years of schooling and was working on the family farm.

He was drafted into the army in March 1941. He became a corporal in the Headquarter Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Division (nicknamed "Spearhead"). The 3rd AD arrived in Normandy at the end of June 1944.

Cpl Slate was killed in the Battle of Mortain, where the Germans sent Panzers in a desperate attempt to cut through to the beaches supplying the advancing Allies. The attack was quickly halted at the cost of up to 3,000 dead Allied soldiers including Cpl. Slate on August 10, 1944.

The danger of battle was shared by all levels of men and officers. The 36th AIR commander, Colonel W. William Cornog was killed around the same time by a direct artillery hit at his command post. Since Cpl. Slate was in an HQ company, it is possible he was killed by the same explosion.

His grave is at Hillside Cemetery, Purcell, Oklahoma.

Thank you Vernon for your sacrifice.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Vernon A Slate