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PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JOSEPH
A. ADAMONIS was born in 1922 in Pennsylvania to parents who had come to
the USA from what was then Lithuania. His father worked as a coal miner.
The family lived in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Schuylkill County,
Pennsylvania, in a town called Norwegian. By April of 1930 Joseph
Adamonis' parents had divorced. He lived with his father, older sister
Eva, and older brothers Albert, Frederick, and Frank.
Joseph Adamonis had a
grammar school education prior to entering the workforce. By 1941 he had
moved to New Jersey, making his home with his
sister, Eva Barowsky, at 1185 Jackson Street in Camden. Brothers Albert
and Frederick would also relocate to South Jersey. Inducted into
the United States Army on December 11, 1942 at Camden, he trained with
the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th infantry Division.
The 8th Infantry Regiment
of the 4th Division was one of the first Allied units to hit the beaches
at Normandy on D-day, 6 June 1944. Relieving the isolated 82d Airborne
Division at Ste. Mere Eglise, the 4th cleared the Cotentin peninsula and
took part in the capture of Cherbourg, on June 25.
Private First Class
Adamonis was killed in action during the fighting at Cherbourg, France of June 24,
1944. His death was reported in the August 4th edition of the Camden NJ
Courier-Post. The
Adamonis family remained in Camden through at least the early 1970s. His
sister Eva Adamonis Barowsky was active for many years with the Polish
American Citizens Club. She passed away in March of 2003, in Blackwood
NJ. |
