299th Combat Engineer Battalion - Article1TuckerNews.htm

This website is devoted to all soldiers who served with the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion.

News Report #1: Warrant Officer James W. Tucker

Channel 13 (KOLD) Tucson, AZ 6-7-09 (JD Wallace Reports)

Daughter traces her father's wartime history
The 65th anniversary of D-day will have a special meaning to the daughter of one of the soldiers who landed that day.

Jeannie Tucker's father was Warrant Officer James W. Tucker in the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion. He died in 1983, but she has been contacting his fellow members of the 299th to gather pictures and history. She said that her father landed at Omaha Beach with eight bulldozers, and that he dug a mass grave during the combat for those who died fighting. This year, that history is included in tours of Normandy.

"So from here forward on every other anniversary, they will be able to know and share to anybody who goes there, all year, every day, the very brave men in 299th and my father and his group that personally buried their comrades there that day," Jeannie Tucker said.

Tucker has a website that follows not only the 299ths history then, but its current involvement today.

News Report #2: Warrant Officer James W. Tucker

Channel 4 (KVOA) Tucson, AZ 6-6-09 (Tyler Wing Reports)

Tucson woman preserving D-Day history
Her father's battalion was first to hit the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago this Saturday. Now, Jeannie Tucker is preserving D-Day history through her dad and survivors of the 299th Combat Engineers who served with him.

Warrant Officer James Tucker was awarded the bronze star for his heroics on D-Day. "His men were so important to him," say Jeannie. "Going in that day they lost 1/3 of their battalion and it was bloody beach. There were bodies everywhere."

Tucker says she's determined to pass on her father's testimony of the morning of June 6th, 1944. "It's unbelievable realizing the horror of that day. It was hard sometimes to have him talk about it, but he did. He shared with me."

All eight of James Tucker's bulldozers made it onto Omaha Beach that day and in the early hours of D-Day, he had the only operational heavy equiptment there. "The 299th were the first men to hit the beaches with the job of clearing all of the underwater and beach obstacles."

Tucker and the chaplain, still under Nazi gunfire, helped bury American casualties strewn across the beach head. "That ended up being the first American cemetery on French soil during WWll."

Tucker and the 299th went on to defeat the Nazi's through France, Belgium and into Germany. "My father himself shot the locks off of one of the concentration camps." However it's tales of honor, bravery and sacrifices which fuels Jeannie Tucker's persistent desire to keep the history of the 299th Combat Engineers and their D-Day triumphs alive.

"They were very brave. I've met so many of them. I feel so honored to be the daughter of one of those men."

It's Tuckers wish that Americans don't take for granted their liberties and those who died for it. "So that our young people, our generations to come will always remember their great sacrifice on that day."