On This Day 81 years ago: PFC William Clarence Dulabon joins the service

PFC William Clarence Dulabon’s enlistment in the service happened exactly 81 years ago, to this day, on October 28, 1941. William Dulabon choose to serve as a paratrooper and became a 101st Screaming Eagle.  

William’s birth 

William Dulabon was born in East Liberty, Pennsylvania, on September 26, 1918. At the time, his father, Mr. Clarence M. Dulabon, was 20 and his mother, Regina (McCarthy) Dulabon, was 18 years old. Clarence Dulabon was a WWI veteran who had served overseas with the 514th Army Ambulance Section of the American Expeditionary Forces for almost a year (September 20, 1918 – July 19, 1919). This means that Clarence Dulabon had just missed the birth of his son as he had arrived in France the week before William’s birth. 

His pre-Army period 

William Dulabon was a graduate of Washington Vocational High School, after which he was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad before entering the service at New Cumberland on October 28, 1941. He married Gladys Hurd on February 16, 1942. 

PFC Dulabon’s untimely death 

Almost exactly 25 years after his father had left the States, PFC Dulabon sailed overseas to England from New York Harbour on the RMS Strathnaver on September 4, 1943. After additional training in England, he jumped into combat on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Unfortunately, he was never able to put all his hard work and preparations to good use. PFC William Dulabon was among 17 paratroopers of Fox Company who were initially reported as missing in action (MIA) on D-Day. As it turned out he had lost his life that day, as PFC Dulabon’s status of MIA was adjusted to killed in action on June 6 in the Fox Company’s Morning Report of July 21, 1944. 

PFC Dulabon’s burial arrangements 

Any details concerning the circumstances of his death are unknown. PFC Dulabon died in Normandy at the age of 25. He left behind his parents and wife. A newspaper article in The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of Wednesday, July 7, 1948, mentions that PFC William Dulabon was reburied at Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh. According to an application form for a headstone marker, he was again reburied at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Verona in 1965. PFC William Clarence Dulabon was a 101st Screaming Eagle who sacrificed himself for our liberation. Lest we forget!