New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo and Assemblyman Brian Miller recognized the exemplary military service of Kenneth Thayer, a 99-year-old World War II veteran who lives in Clinton.
PFC Thayer served as a combat infantryman of Company K, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division in the U.S. Army.
He is believed to be one of the first soldiers of the Allied Armies to cross over from Belgium into the Netherlands prior to the Allied combined ground/airborne operation known as Market Garden.
The goal of the operation was to seize key River Rhine crossings to advance into northern Germany.
Thayer’s 11-month tour of combat duty in the European Theater from July 1944 to May 1945 saw him actively participate in some of the most critical campaigns of the war.
He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, two Bronze Stars, four Purple Hearts and the Presidential Unit Citation Medal, one of the highest honors a U.S. military unit can receive.
A retired Air Force civilian employee who served four decades in a supervisory capacity at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, Thayer was recently honored by the ...
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