Oneonta WWII Fallen

Company G

Many of the Oneonta area men profiled here joined the New York National Guard before World War II and became members of the 10th Infantry, Company G. The 10th had 12 companies, all initially recruited from communities in upstate New York. Companies A, B, C, and D were recruited from Albany. Companies E and H were from Binghamton. Companies F, G, I, and K were from Walton, Oneonta, Mohawk, and Oneida respectively and companies L and M were formed in Utica. Additional Regimental troops were drawn from Catskill, Hudson, and Rome.

Image: Pictorial History 27th Division, United States Army, Army-Navy Publishing, Atlanta, Georgia,

On October 15 1940, with a World War looming, the 76th U.S. Congress retracted Section 61 of the National Defense Act of 1933 to allow State Military Forces to be federalized. According to this Act, each National Guard member had two military statuses—a member of the National Guard of his or her state, and a member of the National Guard of the United States when ordered into active duty. By October 21, 1940 the 10th became the 106th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division and men from Company G, with men from the other upstate New York companies, were sent to Ft. McClellan, Alabama for basic training.

More than 400,000 National Guardsmen from all sections of the United States were immediately called up and integrated into existing military units, doubling the size of the regular U.S. Army. Eighteen Army divisions, 80 separate regiments, and 29 Army Air Corps squadrons were mobilized from National Guard units. These National Guardsmen went from being fulltime members of their communities and part time military personnel to becoming fulltime members of the U.S. Army living on military bases located in sections of the country foreign to them. At this point in time it would be over a year before the United States entered World War II. Men of Company G were gone from Oneonta, leaving behind their love ones – parents, wives, children, sweet hearts and others.

Those Company G men from the Oneonta, NY area who lost their lives in World War II are listed below.

Pfc Lester C "Buddy" Borst

Staff Sgt. Frederick Russell Heck

Pfc Ralph T. Marino

Capt. Lloyd S. Mayo

Pfc Henry J. Spargo

S/Sgt. Louis S. Super (Suprynowicz)

Chandler "Star" Spoor