Grandpa Rodney, from his personal photographs he returned home with.

Class of 1939, Chautauqua Lake High School, found on Fulton Newspapers Site.

“As member of crew of a medium tank or medium tank-mounted assault gun used in the attack of enemy positions, performs one or more of the following duties: Drives the vehicle to secure maximum fire effect without undue exposure to enemy fire.
 
Operates the radio to maintain communication with other elements. Fires weapons of vehicle, including cannon and machine guns, to destroy enemy personnel, lines of communication, Vehicles, pill boxes, and other targets, and to protect vehicle against attack. Inspects and checks engine, oil levels, inner phone headset communication, radio, vehicle operating equipment, turret mechanism, tracks, bogie wheels, ammunition, and weapons. Cleans and services .30- and .50-caliber machine guns and cannon, and bore-sights cannon.
 
At supervisory level, is responsible for control, coordination, and tactical employment of tank and crew member.
 
Must have sufficient knowledge of tactical employment of armored Vehicles to be able to anticipate commands, take advantage of cover, and maneuver to obtain targets. Must be skillful in entering and leaving vehicle under combat conditions and capable of fighting with hand weapons when dismounted. Must be familiar with gunnery techniques of direct and indirect fire.”

Newspaper article referencing Rodney's Purple Heart

Official discharge paperwork, short form.

“In Re the Matter of Rose is not a typical adoptee rights case. I expect, however, that it may become more and more common as adoptees age and die – and then their children pursue a parent’s OBC. In Rose, the petitioner sought the OBC of his deceased adopted father so that his family could seek dual Italian-United States citizenship. Here’s how the appeals court summarized the case:
 
Petitioner seeks certified copies of his late father’s, the adoptee’s, original birth certificate so that he and his children can obtain Italian citizenship. Petitioner asserts that the adoptee would have been 96 years old at the time of the filing of the petition, that the adoptee has no siblings, and that the adoptee’s biological and adoptive parents are deceased.
 
Importantly, though, the adoptee’s mother was just that: the birth mother listed on both birth certificates. Her husband, the adoptee’s stepfather, was the only adoptive parent.
 
The trial court first denied the petition in 2014, stating that a legitimate interest in citizenship was insufficient to demonstrate good cause to unseal an OBC. Rose appealed. The appellate court first determined that Rose had in fact presented a prima facie showing of good cause to release the OBC. But the appellate court said he had not provided adequate notice of the petition to his mother (the adoptee’s widow, who was in her 90s), to his biological sister, or to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which held the vital records. The appeals court sent the case back to notify family members and the health department so that they could choose to participate in another court hearing.
 
When it came back again to Judge Rita Milla for a hearing [in early 2017], the petitioner’s elderly mother had since died and his sister had submitted a document that consented to release of the OBC. But the New York department of health objected to release, arguing that the department “has a vested interest in maintaining the strong policy of the State of New York to afford confidentiality to all parties to an adoption.”
 
And despite the appellate court stating earlier that Rose had shown a prima facie case of good cause, Judge Milla denied the petition again in April of 2017, essentially determining that privacy rights that had not existed in New York law in 1917 trumped legitimate personal rights and interests of an adoptee and his family in pursuing Italian citizenship today.”

“The New York legislature secured history on an extra day of the legislative session by reversing more than eight decades of discrimination against New York adopted people. With the bill moving through three committees on the final two days of an extended session, the Assembly Members voted 126-2 to pass S3419/A5494 and forward it to Governor Andrew Cuomo for signature and final enactment. If you have not been following this, the soon-to-be enacted law will:

• restore the right of all adult adoptees to request and obtain a certified copy of the “original long form line by line, vault copy birth certificate,” otherwise known as the OBC, with no restrictions other than the adoptee is at least 18 years of age at the time of the request;
• if the adoptee is deceased, allow direct line descendants or a lawful representative of the adoptee to request and obtain the OBC;
• address issues related to people born outside of New York but whose adoptions were finalized by a New York state court. If a copy of the OBC from the other jurisdiction is not available from a New York registrar, then information that would have appeared on the OBC must be provided by the adoption agency;
• address original birth certificates on file with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, an extremely important provision because New York City currently possesses many pre-adoption birth certificates;
• address certain OBCs that may also be held by registrars in Albany, Buffalo, and Yonkers;
• be effective January 15, 2020.” (nyadopteerights.org)

“Finding my birth family was the single most important moment of my entire life, it was (as) if I’d been holding my breath my entire life and for the first time, I could let it out. My ability to be a healthy adult depended on the chance to sit in a room with people who look like me and to feel truly known for the first time in my entire life.”
--Rebecca Dolan, (Adoption.com)