Born in 1924, Eugene Paul Moran grew up on a small dairy farm located a few miles south of Soldiers Grove, a small town set in the rugged ridge and valley country of Southwestern Wisconsin. As soon as he turned eighteen in 1942, he volunteered for the Army Air Force and became a tail gunner on a Flying Fortress bomber.
The Army sent Gene to England to join the legendary Eighth Air Force . He was shot down over Bremen, Germany and fell four miles without a parachute and survived. Immediately captured by the Germans, Gene spent seventeen months as a prisoner of war surviving solitary confinement and relocation on the infamous "Hell Ship." At the end of the war, he endured a 600-mile forced march before being liberated in April, 1945.
Gene returned to Soldiers Grove after the war carrying with him many physical and mental wounds from his war years. A few months later, Gene married Margaret "Peg" Finley. The two raised nine children in Soldiers Grove.
Gene worked as a rural mail carrier for three decades, served as a volunteer fire fighter and fire chief, was a charter member of Soldiers Grove's first rescue squad, was elected to the Crawford County Board of Supervisors for twenty years and was a member of the American Legion for nearly seventy years. In 2007, Gene received the first ever Veterans' Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Board of Veterans' Affairs.
Peg, died in 2003. In 2008, at age 84, Gene married Pauline Montgomery. A few days after the wedding, Soldiers Grove named a street after Gene: Eugene P. Moran Park Drive. Gene died on March 23, 2014.
The Army sent Gene to England to join the legendary Eighth Air Force . He was shot down over Bremen, Germany and fell four miles without a parachute and survived. Immediately captured by the Germans, Gene spent seventeen months as a prisoner of war surviving solitary confinement and relocation on the infamous "Hell Ship." At the end of the war, he endured a 600-mile forced march before being liberated in April, 1945.
Gene returned to Soldiers Grove after the war carrying with him many physical and mental wounds from his war years. A few months later, Gene married Margaret "Peg" Finley. The two raised nine children in Soldiers Grove.
Gene worked as a rural mail carrier for three decades, served as a volunteer fire fighter and fire chief, was a charter member of Soldiers Grove's first rescue squad, was elected to the Crawford County Board of Supervisors for twenty years and was a member of the American Legion for nearly seventy years. In 2007, Gene received the first ever Veterans' Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Board of Veterans' Affairs.
Peg, died in 2003. In 2008, at age 84, Gene married Pauline Montgomery. A few days after the wedding, Soldiers Grove named a street after Gene: Eugene P. Moran Park Drive. Gene died on March 23, 2014.