Galen, William R. (01044825): Difference between revisions

On June 16, 2022, Christopher Galen, son of Ritchie Boy Lt. Bill Galen, visited the site of Camp Ritchie. He shared with Landon Grove, the Ritchie Museum's Director, many stories about his dad's service as a Ritchie Boy and the amazing story attached to this photograph. The photo was taken in July 1943 in Sicily. Bill Galen is in the center wearing a helmet, and Ritchie Boy Sgt. Visko is on the far left. Both served with the 3rd Infantry Division. In the article, Chris Galen describes how RB Visko was killed in action in Anzio, Italy, on March 27, 1944, and how Chris' father was unable to locate any family members of RB Visko after the war. Visko has rested for seven decades beneath a white cross in the U.S. military cemetery along the Italian coastline where he died. He left no family to speak of, no one to speak in his memory. For Visko, then, perhaps the only tribute can be seen in the faces of those whose lives and livelihoods were made possible by his short time on Earth."

Earlier this week, we wrote about Christopher Galen's visit to the Ritchie Museum and the stories he shared about his father's service as Ritchie Boy Lt. The Signal Corps photo caption says Galen is with the 6695 Military Intelligence Service.

Chris Galen, son of Ritchie Boy William Galen, has created a website (work in progress, more to be added) of the letters his father sent home. It also has photographs! It is quite interesting and a very unique and interesting perspective. I highly recommend you take a look and keep checking back as Chris has more letters to add!

One of the Ritchie Boys who was killed in action during WWII was Sgt. [[Visko, George W. (32298547)|George Visko]] of New York City. Visko was a restaurant maître d' at Manhattan’s famous Stork Club before serving in the Army. After training at one of the earlier 8-week classes at Camp Ritchie, he was assigned to a G-2 intelligence team in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, and was among the first Allied soldiers to invade Europe, landing in Sicily in July 1943. Visko saved the life of three other GIs in Palermo just a week later, when he talked a truckload of German soldiers into surrendering. Visko also distinguished himself as a front-line chef. One meal for his G-2 team in Sicily featured a menu of “aperitif of vermouth, salad of freshly stolen garden vegetables, pommes de terre ‘GI,’ turkey a la Sicilienne, tree fresh figs for dessert, topped off with coffee royale with Kummel.” Sgt. Visko’s luck turned from good to bad six months after the Sicilian campaign when he was at the Anzio beachhead south of Rome. He was mortally wounded by an artillery shell on March 27, 1944. He is buried just a few kilometers from where he fell, in the military cemetery in Nettuno. Visko’s friends, including Lt. Bill Galen, knew only a little about Visko's stateside ties in Manhattan. Visko had not spoken of siblings or parents, just a wife and daughter. But when Galen’s brother back in Illinois reached out to her, he was informed that Visko’s “wife” was married -- but not to Visko -- and the little girl was not Visko's daughter. Galen was unable to find out more about any connections Visko had, meaning that his memory is (as far as we know) only preserved in these photos.

Lieutenant Bill Galen was trained in the third Camp Ritchie class of World War II, from which he graduated two days before Christmas 1942. He went on to serve 31 months overseas during the war, mostly in Italy, often where he had frequent contact with enemy combatants, both in battle and during interrogations. Galen was a native of Cleveland and grew up speaking some German because of his family heritage. He attended Valparaiso College during the Great Depression and was a schoolteacher in Ohio prior to being drafted in 1941. When the Army learned of his fluency in German, he was sent in 1942 to Officers Candidate School and then the G-2 training program at Camp Ritchie. Galen was shipped to North Africa in April 1943, then was among the first wave of Allied troops to invade Sicily in July. He subsequently joined two other amphibious landings in Italy, at Salerno and Anzio, was promoted to captain, and liberated Rome in June 1944. Expecting to be sent to France after the Normandy invasion, he instead was promoted to be the executive officer in charge of POW interrogations for the Fifth Army headquartered in Florence, where he spent the last eight months of the war. In northern Italy, he commanded HQ Detachment 2680, consisting of G2 teams staffed by noncoms and junior intelligence officers. In all, Galen served with the 3rd, 36th and 85th divisions, along with II Corps and the 5th Army HQ, and earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in the process. After the victory in Europe, Galen was assigned to the U.S. occupation force in Austria that summer, finally coming back to the states in November 1945. He returned briefly to the Midwest after leaving the Army, but moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to pursue a career as a professional singer (after having taken singing lessons in Italy, which spurred his dreams). He never got his lucky break in show business, but thanks to the GI Bill, obtaining a graduate degree at the University of Southern California eventually led to a career as a music professor. Galen married in 1961 and settled in Nebraska, where he and his wife Betty raised two sons while he taught voice, piano and even some German at a small private college. He died in 1994 at age 80. For more on his role as a Ritchie Boy, the website www.G2warletters.com features hundreds of letters and photos Galen shared with family during the war.