Susan Browning of Jersey Shore accepted nine WWII service medals on behalf of her late father, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the European theater during World War II.

Military Service

Browning was born in 1917 in Hyndman, Pa., and enlisted in the U.S. Army in October 1941. He served in Company D, 302nd Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division, and was assigned to a heavy weapons role, overseeing a .50-caliber machine gun crew, a .30-caliber crew and a mortar crew supporting front-line infantry.

According to his daughter, Browning was initially trained for the West Coast defense at Fort Lewis in Washington state, prior to Pearl Harbor, out of concern the country could be attacked from the Pacific. He later crossed the Atlantic aboard the Queen Elizabeth along with roughly 5,000 other soldiers, without a naval escort, before deploying to the European theater.

Postwar Life

After returning home, Browning worked as a deputy game commissioner before reenlisting during the Korean War era. He later used the GI Bill to train as a precision machinist and worked at Rayovac.

Susan Browning said her father did not come back from the war the same man who had left the small town of Wood. “He was in the thick of it, so hand-to-hand combat was suffered, and unfortunately it stayed with him the rest of his life,” she said.

The Medals

Browning was awarded nine medals, including the Bronze Star Medal, Good Conduct Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. The medals were presented to his family by a representative from Thompson’s office.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.