April 22nd 1942 in Akron, Ohio.

Rank:

He was a Corporal. With this rank he had two possible roles in his unit. The first would be that of the Company Clerk. In essence the Company Clerk assisted the Captain, the XO, and the First Sergeant in keeping morning reports, casualty reports, and other administrative duties. The other possibility is that of the Assistant Unit Foreman. In this role he would assist the Unit Foreman lead a squad sized unit of engineers. 

Unit History:

The unit Bekelesky joined would have been called the 5th Battalion of the Provisional Training Detachment, Company 18, of the 29th Infantry Division at Fort Meade. Then June 7 1942 the unit headed to A.P. Hill, Virginia via route 301 across Morgantown Bridge.  They were redesignated back to the 121st Combat Engineer Battalion, Company B. They left by motor for Camp Sutton, North Carolina, on July 7 1942. 

At Camp Sutton they did 3 weeks of training for their role as Engineers. They learned demolition, bridge construction, and field combat skills. Then they partook in a division wide exercise to figure out how to work with their fellow units within the 29th Division.  

Then August 17 the departed Wadesboro, North Carolina by motor for Camp Blanding, Florida. They arrived on the 19 and continued to train and prepared for overseas deployment. A month later they moved again by train for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey where they made the final preparations for deployment overseas. 

On October 9, they left for New York and immediately board the Queen Elizabeth. The ship was originally part of the British Cunard Line, and now used by the American Navy to transport Army Soldiers.

They ship, along with Bekelesky, departed for Scotland without an escort to guard against the Germans U-Boats. Thankfully they miraculously had no issues and arrived in Grennock on the Clyde in Scotland. Immediately they left for Tidworth Barracks in Wiltshire. From their they went to several locations, all the while training and going through drills in preparation for the invasion of Normandy. 

Then finally, Bekelesky and the rest of his company boarded LST 408 on June 3rd and eventually on June 6th they embarked on their great crusade. 

Company B was separated into two different boats and deployed onto Omaha beach in support of the 116th Combat Regiment and suffered 50% casualties and lost 75% of it's equipment. It was at that time were Bekelesky drowned. 

Equipment: