By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
My father-in-law Robert Comeau, a man I had never seen weep, teared up one day as he watched me riding bikes outside with my young son Danny, his grandson. “This is how my dear uncle, killed in the war, played with me when I was a boy,” he explained. He was talking about Edmond Nicholas Desmarteau, who died heroically 75 years ago this week.
Born in Damar, Kansas in 1921, Edmond was the son of French-Canadian immigrants George and Olive Desmarteau. He grew up on the family farm with his five brothers and one sister, Lucilla, who was Robert’s mother and Danny’s great grandmother. When not working on the farm, Edmond helped build aircraft at a nearby Curtiss-Wright manufacturing plant.
When Edmond was in his early twenties, World War II intruded into his happy and pastoral life. Just 5’2’’ and 120 lbs., but with a spirit larger than his frame, in April 1943 Edmond traveled to Denver and enlisted as a private in the United States Air Force. The USAF assigned him to its 23rd Bombardment squadron.
The 23rd squadron, which specialized in long-range over-water missions, initially flew Boeing’s B-17E Flying Fortresses but then switched to B-24 Liberators. His military commanders trained Edmond to serve as a bomber radio gunner. He operated the radio and often stood in an open bay window on the side of his plane shooting at enemy fighter planes with a belt-fed .50 caliber machine gun.
The closing days of WWII were momentous ones for the Desmarteau family. Two of Edmond’s older brothers, Elmer and Raymond Ulysses, both sergeants, were also in the fight.
Raymond, aka “Shorty,” was a U.S. First Army tank commander under famed General Omar Bradley and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. This was the last major German WWII offensive campaign (December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945) and played out in the heavily forested Ardennes region of eastern Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg.
The surprise attack by the Germans killed many soldiers and civilians, including 19,000 Americans, but the Allied forces won the battle. Raymond was wounded in the leg and awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Good Conduct medals.
War also raged, of course, halfway around the world. Edmond’s brother Elmer, an army cook stationed in The Philippines, was hurt too. Japanese bombers attacked and destroyed his kitchen. He barely escaped with his life.
Edmond, also serving in the Pacific theatre, was not as fortunate as his two brothers. Stationed in New Guinea, Corporal Edmond Desmarteau was killed in action on December 5, 1944, during a mission over The Philippines. It was the day before his 23rd birthday.
He received the Purple Heart. Initially interred in New Guinea, Edmond’s body was moved three years later (July 1948) and now rests in honor at the Fort Leavenworth military cemetery in his home state of Kansas.
A short article in the local newspaper, The Plainville Times, reported this Desmarteau family casualty trifecta on March 1, 1945. I can only guess it was a devastating time for Edmond’s mother Olive and the rest of the Desmarteau family. Based on events sixty years later, I know the news devastated Edmond’s playmate and young nephew Robert Comeau, who was just age 8 years old at the time.
We also lost Robert five years ago, after a life well-lived as a husband, father, grandfather, coach, and teacher…perhaps the kind of life Edmond sacrificed.
America and the world now are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the various landmark events of World War II. Our family will do so too. We just may choose, however, to dwell on a happier and simpler vision—an uncle and his beloved nephew once again riding bikes together, but this time along Heavenly trails.
*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is writing a book about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah.
