SANDLERs in the Military
Brothers LeRoy SANDLIER1 and Richard (Dick) SANDLER2
[LeRoy is Bruce's Father]
 Carmela DeVITIS SANDLER with sons Richard (Dick) SANDLER2 and LeRoy SANDLIER1 |
 Ralph and Carmela SANDLER with sons Richard (Dick) SANDLER2 and LeRoy SANDLIER1 |
 Richard (Dick) SANDLER,2 Sylvester (Jim) SANDELIER3 [son of Antonio and Flora], Anthony (Tony) SANDELIER4 [Louis' son], Ted DARBY2 [married Aunt Gloria SANDLER] |
 Ted DARBY,2 Carmela SANDLER, Richard (Dick) SANDLER2 Written on picture is year of 1945 |
 Back: Sylvester (Jim) SANDELIER,3 Carmela DeVITIS SANDLER, Tony SANDELIER4 Front: Ted DARBY2 and Richard (Dick) SANDLER2 |
 Ted DARBY2 |
1 Bruce's Father LeRoy SANDLIER was a member of the 88th division of the 5th Army. LeRoy fought with the 350th Infantry Regiment in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The 88th was one of the divisions that liberated Rome. Their insignia was a blue cross design and the Germans said they fought like devils. They became known as the "Blue Devils".
2 Bruce's Uncle Richard (Dick) SANDLER and Ted DARBY met while serving together on the destroyer DD-432 USS Kearny during WWII. Through this friendship, Ted DARBY met Richard's sister Gloria. Ted and Gloria were married April 6, 1946. Ted was from Dearborn, Michigan.
3 Sylvester "Jim" SANDELIER [Bruce's half GrUncle] served on two ships during WWII. One of the ships was the DD-477 USS Pringle. Sylvester's son Jim wrote to us via email: "[The Pringle] was a Destroyer and it was sunk Apr 16, 1945 by a kamikaze at Okinawa." Jim (the younger) does not know the name of the second ship his father served on. His email continues: "Dad told me about another ship he was on that was sunk by a torpedo. Tony said the other ship was one that other ships would go to for repairs. Dad said he did a lot of welding on that ship, some of it under water, he said that they would sometimes flood some of the compartments on the ships to get them to tip over and bring the damaged parts out of the water for repairs. Dad said when they were making repairs they were like "sitting ducks" in the water. They would cover the spots being repaired with tarps to hide the workers but he remembered working under them when bullets from attack planes would come tearing thru the canvas." [Email from Jim Sandelier June 9, 1999, printed with permission]
4 Anthony SANDELIER [Bruce's 1st cousin once removed] served in the Army Air Force. All that we know at this time is that he served in Italy and his unit made oxygen for B-17 crews.
Created June 8, 1999 by Bruce and Marge Sandlier
Updated July 31, 1999
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