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MY HERO: Navy Veteran Honors ‘Uncle Bill,’ World War II Medic
Bill Purdy considered his fellow soldiers 'the best bunch of boys in the world'
David Martin (right) in Normandy.
Sabina Cowdery/Anibas Photography
Almost eight decades after Private Curtis W. “Bill” Purdy was wounded shortly after fighting in the last major battle of World War II, his nephew was able to visit the lands he liberated and pay tribute to the American soldiers who did not make it home.
David Martin, 87, a Navy veteran from Clear Lake, Minnesota, remembers “Uncle Bill” taking him and his cousins out for ice cream and showing off items from his time in Europe, such as a German helmet.
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Uncle Bill, a medic with the U.S. Army’s 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, was hit in the head with shrapnel after the Battle of the Bulge. After several months in hospitals in England and Luxembourg, he was discharged in 1945 with steel plates in his skull that remained there for the rest of his life.
“He was just a wonderful, warm-hearted person,” said Martin, who served in the U.S. Navy for a decade as a sailor and then as a public affairs officer for 30 years. “As little kids, we loved him very much. He was our hero.”
Martin honored Uncle Bill on a 2023 trip to Normandy with Road Scholar, an educational travel organization for older adults. On the all-veteran trip to the D-Day beaches, Martin joined three other veterans whose family members served during World War II in laying a ceremonial wreath at the Normandy American Cemetery.
“I always wanted to learn more about events that my uncle may have been involved in, and to share it with other veterans was even more special,” he said. “It was very moving.”
‘Uncle Bill’ during his service.
Courtesy David Martin
Born in 1919, in Ithaca, New York, Uncle Bill enlisted in 1942 and was sent to France in October 1944, shortly before the Battle of the Bulge, in which 19,000 Americans were killed. He reported later that many of the dead he recovered from the battlefield were frozen solid and that some of the German soldiers were teenagers, crying for their mothers.
Uncle Bill’s letters showed his devotion to his fellow soldiers.
“Mother, I’m with the grandest bunch of boys in the world,” he wrote from Germany in December 1944. “They are so brave and such great fighters, as the whole world will soon know. You must not worry about me too much, for you know that I am here to help some of the wounded men.
“I'm not so sure of myself at times, but I've prayed so many times for the courage to do my job well. I pray that this war can end without much bloodshed.”
Martin said: “When I read the letter, I realized how much he respected the people who he was with and how close he got to them. He expresses that again and again throughout his letters — how he loved his fellow servicemen.”
In February 1945, Uncle Bill wrote from a hospital in Luxembourg shortly after he was wounded: “I hope that by the time this letter has reached you, the fighting will be over. I'm anxious to get back to my outfit. They're the best bunch of boys in the world.”
The following month, he wrote from a U.S. military hospital in England: “I’m a little upset about what happened to the boys in my old gang… It sounds like there could have been casualties. They always wanted ‘The Doc’ to have the best of everything. They treated me so well... It sort of haunts me to know that they are out there fighting, and I am back here in this warm, safe place.”
Uncle Bill was entranced by the peace of England after the horrors he had experienced in France. “The countryside and the villages look almost like home as I rode by them. Quite the change from the ruined homes, cities and countryside back in France.
“I wake up in the morning and I hear a kind of chirp, couldn't believe it at first — all I ever heard back in France were shells waking me up in the morning.”
Uncle Bill returned home to Ithaca and worked as a salesman for the rest of his life. In 1955, he married Mary Duddy of Boston, who was working with the USO at an Air Force Base in New York State. They had a son, Christopher. Curtis Purdy — Uncle Bill — died in 1981 at the age of 62.
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