Army Badge
  • Name: Eugene "Gene" Paul LaFond
  • Location of Birth: Marble, Minnesota
  • Date of Birth: September 5, 1917
  • Date of Death: October 16, 1982
  • Parents: Paul LaFond & Mary (Major) LaFond
  • High School and Class:
  • College:
  • Highest Rank: TEC 5 (Technical 5)
  • Branch: Army
  • Other Branch:
  • Date Sworn In: May 15, 1942
  • Place Sworn In: Fort Snelling, Minneapolis, Minnesota
  • Date of Discharge: August 10, 1945
  • Place of Discharge:
  • Military Awards:

  • Military Highlights:
    WW II Draft Registration Cards – 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947
    State: Minnesota
    Name: Gene Paul LaFond
    Race: White
    Age: 23
    Birth Date: September 5, 1917
    Birth Place: Marble, Minnesota, USA
    Residence Place: Marble, Itasca, Minnesota, USA
    Registration Date: October 16, 1940
    Employer: Oliver Iron Mining Company, Marble, Itasca, Minnesota
    Weight: 140
    Height: 5-11
    Complexion: Dark
    Eye Color: Brown
    Hair Color: Brown
    Next of Kin: Mary LaFond, mother, Marble, Itasca, Minnesota

    World War II Army Enlistment (1938-1946)
    Name: Gene P. LaFond
    Race: White
    Marital Status: Married
    Rank: Private
    Birth year: 1917
    Nativity state or country: Minnesota
    Citizenship: Citizen
    Education: 2 years of high school
    Civil Occupation: Skilled construction machinery operators, n.e.c.
    Enlistment date: May 15, 1942
    Enlistment place: Fort Snelling, Minnesota
    Branch: Branch immaterial - Warrant Officers/USA
    Component: Army of the United States – includes the following: Voluntary enlistments effective December 8, 1941 and thereafter; One year enlistments of National Guardman whose State enlistment expires while in Federal Service; Officers appointed in the Army of
    Source: Civil life
    Height: 69
    Weight: 127

    Newspaper article: Duluth News-Tribune, Duluth, Minnesota - 1944 –– “3 IN FAMILY ARE IN SERVICE – Marble – Three sons of Mrs. Mary LaFond are in service. The oldest, Cpl. Clement E. LaFond, of Culver City, Calif. is a radio technician in the Army Air Corps. He is now taking advanced training at Newark, N.J. and Florida. He entered service in November 1942. Another son, Cpl. Gene P. LaFond of Marble, is in the engineering corps of the Army taking his training at Camp Shelby, Miss. and Shreveport, La. He is now on desert maneuvers in California. He entered the Army in May 1942. The youngest, Pvt. Maurice M. LaFond, also of Marble, is in the Army specialized training program now training at the University of California. He entered service in March 1943.”

    Newspaper article: March 1945 – “A letter to their sister, Mrs. Walter Strand of Coleraine, written by S/Sgt. Morris (Maurice) LaFond, tells her that he and his brother, Cpl. Gene LaFond, met recently in Italy. Sgt. Morris LaFond has been across since the autumn of 1944, and Cpl. Gene LaFond, who has been in service two and a half years, has been across since December of 1943. This was their first meeting, and they spent several wonderful days together. They are sons of Mrs. Mary LaFond of Marble. S/Sgt. Morris LaFond writes of receiving The Itasca Iron News; that the copies are late and that many times a late dated paper will arrive long before a paper which is dated several weeks earlier; which is due to the forwarding of mail only when space for second class mail is available on ships or planes. In his letter written Feb. 27, he says that regardless of when they arrive, they are more than welcome, as they keep him informed as to the whereabouts in service of many of his former schoolmates in Marble and later in Greenway high school in Coleraine. Both LaFond boys are well, and Morris wrote that he likes Italy very much.”

  • Wars Involved:
    World War II

  • MIA / POW:

  • Civilian Life:
    Gene LaFond married Elizabeth Bubany in 1940 in Minnesota. He served in Italy and Africa as a mail clerk during World War II. He was a lifelong area resident and retired as a shovel operator for U.S. Steel. He was a member of Disabled American Veterans No. 1, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

    Gene died in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Coleraine, Minnesota (Block 30). He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; three sons, Paul, Jerome, and David; three daughters, Frances (Donald) Frank, Bernadette (James) Adamietz, and Margaret (Jerome) Gjerstad; four sisters, Elvira (Walter) Strand, Margaret Calder, Loretta (Art) Daigle, and Melvina Daigle; two brothers, Maurice and Lawrence; and seventeen grandchildren.

  • Tribal Affiliation(s):

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