Reber, Roy D.

ROY DALE REBER

PRIVATE 1st CLASS
U.S. ARMY

Roy Reber was born December 31st, 1919. He was born in Washington Township, Adams County, Indiana. He was born to George Noble Reber and Hazel Catharine Shady. His paternal grandparents were Ezra Reber and Mary Elizabeth Reber. His maternal grandparents were Rueben Curtis Shady and Alice Barbara Ritchey. He had four siblings they were Rueben Wayne, Charles Wendell, Lois Irene (Lesh), and Janet Marie (Worthington). In his early childhood he lived near Pleasant Mills but by 1940 the family had moved to Bluffton, Indiana. In July 1941, Roy was employed by Delco-Remy in Muncie working as a "plate poker on an assembly line" according to his draft registration card. 

On May 5, 1942 it was reported in the Decatur Daily Democrat that Roy plead guilty to a speeding charge. The judge, John Decker, initially sentenced him to ten days in jail with five days off for good behavior. Roy's mom, however, interjected that her son had received his draft notification that morning and was to report the next Thursday. The judge, then, suspended the entire sentence.

Roy entered into the U.S. Army on June 13, 1942 at the age of 22. He was 5’11’’ and 184 pounds, brown hair, and had blue eyes. His military training took him to Camp Lee in Virginia, North Carolina, and ultimately stationed at the Atlanta Motor Base in Georgia. Upon completion of basic military training, he was assigned to CO. H. 128th Ordnance Battalion, which was a unit responsible for maintaining and repairing military equipment on the battlefield. 

While in Georgia, however, PFC Reber was killed when the jeep he was driving collided with/crashed into a civilian semi-trailer. He was admitted for a fractured left kneecap and arm, fractured skull, and his liver was cut in two. A blood transfusion was attempted to help save his life; but peritonitis (a redness and swelling (inflammation) of the lining of your belly or abdomen, in his case it was his liver.) set in.  He died June 2nd, 1943 at the army hospital at Maxwell Field, Alabama. He is interred at Elm Grove Cemetery in Bluffton, Wells County, Indiana.

The 128th was later attached to the 6th Armored Division that came ashore in Normandy in July 1944. The "Super Sixth" as it was called, went on to fight as part of Patton's Third Army across France. The division fought in the Alsace Campaign, the Battle of the Bulge and assisted in the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in April 1945.

For his service and sacrifice, Private First Class Reber earned the American Theatre Campaign Medal and the WWII Victory Medal. 

Information researched and collected by Jackson Harris, 2018 and Jadon Burkhead, 2024.

SOURCES

Ancestry. "George Noble Reber in the U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current."
      Ancestry.com, 6 June 2015, www.ancestryclassroom.com/search/
      collections/60525/records/
      27510060?tid=&pid=&queryId=7541c8fb-45f9-48ee-9d6c-adbeda536a37&_phsrc=cNE37&_phs
      tart=successSource. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

 "Hazel Katherine Reber in the U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current."
      Ancestry.com, 6 Apr. 2014, www.ancestryclassroom.com/search/
      collections/60525/records/
      8320382?tid=&pid=&queryId=cc725815-31ae-454c-92ea-111e617c456d&_phsrc=cNE39&_phst
      art=successSource. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

"Roy Dale Reber in the Indiana, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1907-1944."
      Ancestry.com, 4 Mar. 2016, www.ancestryclassroom.com/search/
      collections/60871/records/
      7299220?tid=&pid=&queryId=37c24cb1-3c6c-4c59-9f13-170eb5291265&_phsrc=cNE33&_phst
      art=successSource. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

"Roy Dale Reber in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men,
      1940-1947." Ancestry.com, 5 Aug. 2015, www.ancestryclassroom.com/search/
      collections/2238/records/
      40930740?tid=&pid=&queryId=441d999a-49e8-463a-9891-dc811e3ee21c&_phsrc=cNE35&_phs
      tart=successSource. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

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Find a Grave. "Roy Dale Reber in the U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current."
      Find a Grave, 19 May 2005, www.ancestryclassroom.com/search/collections/
      60525/records/
      8320388?tid=&pid=&queryId=fa6c2f47-4cf8-412a-a259-bc49be7cfb7b&_phsrc=cNE28&_phst
      art=successSource. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

Holocaust Encyclopedia. "The 6th Armored Division during World War II."
      United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust
      Memorial, Dec. 2024, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
      the-6th-armored-division. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

"Suspends Sentence to Enter Marines" The Decatur Daily Democrat. Print. 5 May 1942.

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