Fulton Eugene New was born 18 May 1920 in Halifax county, Virginia to Adrian Floyd and Ella Baker (Landrum) New; he had one brother and three sisters. His mother died when he was about ten with his father passing when he was 12. He came from a military family, his grandfather fought in the Civil War, ggrandfather in the War of 1812, gggrandfather in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted as a corporal from the National Guard on 3 February 1941 in South Boston, Virginia.

Fulton was a Staff Sergeant with Company F of the 29th Infantry Division, 116th Infantry Regiment when it headed for Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944. “F” Company was to be in the first wave landing. Its assigned sector (Dog Red) was directly in front of the strongly fortified German positions. The ramps dropped into waist high or deeper water when the enemy opened fire, instantly laying a cross fire of very heavy, accurate automatic fire from both sides of the beach; the safest way off the boats was to dive off into the water. “F” Company lost many officers and was disorganized due to these losses. Naval and aerial bombardment pounded the German defenses but aerial bombardment was ineffective and naval failed to destroy most of the German gun emplacements.

S/Sgt New is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. He earned his Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman and Marksmanship badges, WW II Victory, American Campaign and Good Conduct medals, Army Presidential Unit Citation and European-African-Middle Eastern campaign ribbons. He may or may not have made it out of the boat, across the beach or up the hill but he gave his all for our freedom – may we always remember.

*This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see *www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen’s name and read his/her story. If you notice anything missing in this profile, you may contact the author. Click on the author’s name located at the bottom of the story page next to the words “added by”.

SOURCES:

Find-a-Grave:

HonorStates.org

American D-Day.org

Ancestry

Fulton E New