PFC Warren Kerrigan Carney (ASN 17068499) was born on October 5, 1917 in Lisbon, Linn, Iowa. His father, Thomas Edward Carney, and his mother, Beatrice Pierce Walters, were both born and raised in Linn County, Iowa. His father was a WWI veteran and he was a baker until he retired. Warren was the second of his parent’s three children and he had an older sister and a younger brother. He also had a younger half-sister and two younger half-brothers from his father’s second marriage.

Warren was raised and went to schools in Linn County, Iowa. When he was a teenager his parents divorced and he lived with his mother and stepfather. After his parents divorce, he left school and worked as a truck driver and later in an auto salvage yard. On April 8, 1940 Warren married Missouri native, Juanita Hazel Porter, in Iowa City, Johnson, Iowa. In 1941, their son, Warren Kerrigan, Jr., was born followed by son, Thomas Leroy, in 1943. On September 9, 1942 Warren enlisted in the Army infantry at Camp Dodge in Iowa.

After Warren completed his basic training he was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia where he would become a paratrooper. He was assigned to Company I in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and was stationed at Camp Mackall in North Carolina. The 508th PIR practiced night jumps and participated in the Tennessee maneuvers. In September 1943 the 506th PIR left for England.

The 506th PIR as part of the 101st Airborne Division began training in England in October 1943. They started with night landings and marches and by early 1944 the training became more focused on the upcoming invasion of Normandy. In May 1944 there was a full dress rehearsal for the 101st Airborne’s role for the invasion. D-Day would be the first combat jump for the 101st Division. Their mission would be to jump before dawn into German occupied territory west of Utah Beach. The 101st Airborne would be landing on the southern flank of Utah Beach and eliminate the German’s secondary beach defenses and secure bridges between St. Martin-de-Varreville and Pouppeville.

The 506th Parachute Regiment arrived at Exeter Airfield and started loading up at 22:30 hours on June 5, 1944. PFC Warren Carney and the other paratroopers from Company I in the 3rd Battalion of the 506th PIR boarded troop carrier C-47 #42-100905 the “Donna Mae” (Chalk #15). The first planes departed Exeter at 23:20 hours on June 5, 1944. The scheduled jump time was 01:40 hours on June 6th and the drop zone was about 2 miles north of Carentan and several miles west of the southern portion of Utah Beach. The journey across the channel was uneventful but when they reached the western shore of the Cotentin peninsula the planes ran into a thick fog bank that obscured the ground and upset the plane formation. The planes came out of the fog and into enemy fire. The last sighting of the “Donna Mae” was at 01:35 hours when she went into a cloud bank several miles south of Cherbourg. The plane was shot down by German fire and at 01:40 hours the plane crashed in a field near Magneville about eight miles from the drop zone. The four crewmembers and the eighteen paratroopers on board the plane all perished.

The body of PFC Warren K. Carney was laid to rest at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Basse-Normandie, France. He was survived by his widow and his two sons. He was also survived by his father, his two siblings, and his three half-siblings. His younger brother, Thomas Edward, served in the Army Air Corps during WWII.

Sources:

1920 United States Federal Census
1930 United States Federal Census
1940 United States Federal Census
Iowa, U.S., Delayed Birth Records, 1856-1940
Iowa, U.S., State Census Collection, 1836-1925
Iowa, U.S., Marriage Records, 1880-1951
U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current
U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56643044/warren-kerrigan-carney
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69594435/the-gazette/?xid=637
http://www.database-memoire.eu/prive/en-us/normandy-all-soldiers/20-colleville-c-us/1216-carney-warren-k-506-pir-101-ad-us
https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/battle-of-normandy/after-action-reports/101st-airborne/506th-pir-1st-bn
https://history.army.mil/documents/wwii/506-nor/506-nor.htm
https://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/506/506.html
https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=707&MemID=994
https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=32118

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.

Warren K Carney