daughters of d-day:

My father, Joe Baker, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1914 to Russian immigrants David Baker and Anna Loss Baker.  He tried to enlist in the army after Pearl Harbor but was classified 4-F because he wore glasses.  He tried to enlist again 18 months later and was accepted, nearsightedness or not.  Because of his expertise and experience in repairing and operating vehicles of all kinds he was assigned to the 3584th QuarterMaster Truck Company, which seemed to be an "organic" unit, that is, it was attached to whatever division needed them. He called his unit the Mechanized Infantry.  He arrived on Omaha Beach on D-Day Plus one, participating in the Normandy campaign in northern France and served with the Army Transportation Corps at the deep water port of Cherbourg.  His combat experiences saw him attached to the 471st QM and the 308th QM Battalion Group through France (Ardennes-Alsace), Belgium, Luxemburg, and on to cross the Rhine and through to Germany.   He returned to Philadelphia after the war and spent the remainder of his life here.  He died in his own bed at the age of 85. Throughout his life he rarely, if at all, spoke of his war experiences.  When I pressed him he would occasionally give me one sentence to sum up a monumental weight of experience. 

-Ilene Baker