Fred Wilson Goad was born on 9 October 1912 in Carroll county, Virginia to Marion Lee and Mary Eunice (Cox) Goad; he had eight sisters and one brother, he was the middle child. Fred registered for the draft on 16 October 1940 in Independence, Virginia standing 6’2” tall, weighing 168 pounds with blue eyes and blonde hair working for the Appalachian Electric Power Company. He enlisted on 18 April 1941 in Roanoke, Virginia as an electrician.

Fred was a Staff Sergeant with HQ Company of the 29th Infantry Division, 116th Infantry Regiment when it landed on Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944. HQ Company was to land at the right of Dog Red sector of the beach but boats that were supposed to have landed prior, landed elsewhere; no troops were on the beach, just smooth sand and the sounds of battle far off. Unfortunately, as with other boats, once the ramps were let down, the cross fire started and those first out were hit, five medics were killed exiting the boats. There were tanks standing in about two feet of water behind which men tried to take refuge. The men made it to the sea wall but were pinned down the rest of the day. Sniper fire was worse than the automatic and artillery fire. Anyone to tried to cross the beach to retrieve supplies left by the dead or wounded, drew sniper fire. HQ’s first boat lost six men with about half the remaining wounded getting across the sand bar and up the beach. One group was behind the boulders strewn across the beach; another group was in the gullies. Losses gradually immobilized the unit.

S/Sgt. Goad is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. He earned his Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman and Marksmanship badges, WW II Victory, American Campaign and Good Conduct medals, Army Presidential Unit Citation and European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign ribbons. He may or may not have made it out of the boat, across the beach or up the hill but he gave his all for our freedom – may we always remember.

*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. If you notice anything missing in this profile, you may contact the author. Click on the author’s name located at the bottom of the story page next to the words “added by”.

SOURCES:

Find-a-Grave:

HonorStates.org

American D-Day.org

Ancestry

Fred W Goad