Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Pictured is the grave for Cpt. Elton Edmiston in Oakland Cemetery. He was killed in action in Germany on March 26, 1945.

“FORMER CO. I OFFICER IS WAR CASUALTY”

That was the headline to an April 7, 1945 story in the Warren Times-Mirror.

“News that Captain Elton A. Edmiston, of Clarendon RD 1, was killed in action on March 26, has been received by his wife over the weekend,” the report read. “Graduate of Warren Area High School of 1928, the officer was employed by the Crescent Furniture Company prior to entering the service.”

Elton “Tad” Edmiston was born in January 1910.

A member of the National Guard, Edmiston answered the call and went to active duty in February 1941, significantly older than the average age — 26 years — of a GI.

His call to duty was also well before the United States declared war in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attacks.

After a few transfers, the report indicated, Edmiston went overseas on Jan. 25, 1945, leaving his wife, Janet, and two daughters, Mae Jean and Sally Ann, behind.

The action that took his life in Germany on March 16, 1945, is detailed in a submission to the World War II Memorial registry.

Edmiston was “posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for gallantry in action as commanding officer, Company B, 354th Regiment, 89th Infantry Division, on two occasions in Germany. On March 16, 1945, his company received heavy enemy machine gun fire near Riel; he took a squad of riflemen and boldly led them in silencing the hostile weapons.”

An engagement 10 days later would be the one that cost him his life.

From the Memorial registry: “On March 26, during an assault crossing of the Rhine, he volunteered at great risk to his own life, went forwarded from his company’s covered position and for eight hours assisted in the loading of personnel for the assault waves. When severe enemy fire disrupted launching operations, he moved from group to group calming his men and inspiring them to push ahead in the crossing.

“As he was securing information in preparation for his company’s crossing, he was killed by enemy 20 mm fire.”

“A 20mm shell ricocheted off a gas pump and hit Captain Elton Edmiston, CO of Company B, in the chest, killing him instantly,” according to a history of the 89th Division.

It would take over three years for Edmiston’s remains to be returned to Warren County.

The Oct. 4, 1948, Times-Mirror reported that Edmiston’s wife had moved to Meadville and had “been advised by the Department of the Army that the body of her husband … is enroute home from a military cemetery in France.”

His remains returned to Warren later that month when a funeral was held at the Peterson Funeral Home.

He rests at Oakland Cemetery.