Name and Rank, Sergeant Sylvester F. LaBonte.
Unit/Placed in, 127th Infantry Regiment ”First Wisconsin”, 32nd Infantry Division ”Red Arrow”.
Sylvester was born approx. on March 15,1916 in Leelanau County, Michigan.
Father, Peter La Bonte.
Mother, Katherine (Schaub) La Bonte.
Sister, Alice La Bonte.
Brothers, Emory C. and Theodore La Bonte.
Sylvester entered the service from Michigan in no record with service number # 36156125.
Sylvester F. La Bonte was a Sergeant in the 127th Infantry Regiment.
Sylvester died non battle (accident) in Aitape New Guinea , on May 17, 1944, he is honored with a Combat Infantry Badge, Marksmanship Badge, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, Army Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WW II Victory Medal.
Sylvester is buried at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Metro Manila, National Capital Region, Philippines.
He also has a Memorial Grave at Saint Marys Cemetery, Lake Leelanau, Leelanau County, Michigan, USA.
Thanks to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
Jean Louis Vijgen, WW2-Pacific Website.
Air Force Info, Rolland Swank.
ABMC Website, https://abmc.gov
Marines Info, https://missingmarines.com/ Geoffrey Roecker
Seabees History Bob Smith https://seabeehf.org/
Navy Info, http://navylog.navymemorial.org
POW Info, http://www.mansell.com Dwight Rider and Wes injerd.
Philippine Info, http://www.philippine-scouts.org/ Robert Capistrano
National Historian
Navy Seal Memorial, http://www.navysealmemorials.com
Family Info, https://www.familysearch.org
Info, https://www.pacificwrecks.com/
Medals Info, https://www.honorstates.org
Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com
Tank Destroyers, http://www.bensavelkoul.nl/
The 32nd Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army National Guard that fought primarily during World War I and World War II.
During World War II, the Division was credited with many “firsts”. It was the first United States division to deploy as an entire unit overseas and among the first of seven U.S. Army and U.S. Marine units to engage in offensive ground combat operations during 1942. The division was among the first divisions to enter the war and were still engaging Japanese soldiers after the official Japanese surrender. The 32nd logged a total of 654 days of combat during World War II, more than any other United States Army division. The unit was inactivated in 1946 after occupation duty in Japan.
Note: The adoption of the nickname and unit insignia of the “Red Arrow” piercing a bar came at the end of World War I when an officer commented that the division “shot through every line the Germans put before it.”
