Army Sergeant Stephen Charles Roppolo was born on October 3, 1925 in New Orleans, LA, the son of Charles Anthony Roppolo (1905-1941) and Ethel Alice McRacken (1909-1980). By 1924, his parents were married and had relocated to Etowah, Alabama where Charles was working as a shoemaker in a shoe shop. His father would pass away in New Orleans on November 10, 1941 and was buried there. Ethel would relocate to Pensacola that same year and took up residence with Stephen at 900 Davis Street. At that time, Stephen was working at Building #1 for the government at NAS. Ethel would eventually remarry to James Raymond "Pedly" Anchors (1915-2002) who was a metal smith by trade.
When WWII came, Stephen would enlist on December 23, 1943 and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for processing. After basic training, he received advanced training at Ft. Ord, then was sent overseas in January 1945. There, he went to a replacement center and was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment with the 1st Cavalry Division. His regiment had already landed during the Leyte invasion on October 20, 1944 and had retaken Samar Island. The division then invaded Luzon, landing at Lingayen Gulf on January 27, 1945, and fought their way to Manila by February 3rd. By March 12th, they had seized the crossings over the Marikina River and pushed south to Batangas. Here, Stephen was killed in action on March 29th from shrapnel to the chest from Japanese artillery or a mortar round.
His body was removed to a field hospital then forwarded to a temporary military cemetery. Today, his remains are located in the Manila American Cemetery, in the Philippines.
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