ATHOL – It will be 75 years ago on Tuesday, Sept. 24 that Lenwood E. Tuttle of Athol was killed while aiding a wounded soldier. In the book, “Athol In World War II: A History,” published in 1950, the caption next to the photo of Tuttle in uniform reads, “All available sources have been investigated and no information could be obtained on this soldier.”
Athol resident Suzanne Gionet’s mother, Rita (Harty) Gionet, grew up in Barre and attended a one-room school at the age of 7 with her sister and two brothers. The two older boys, who later served in WWII, would walk ahead to school to get the boiler going so there would be heat for the younger children. Another student at the school was an older boy named Lenwood “Buster” Tuttle.
Suzanne and her father, Dolor Gionet, were recently out for a ride around town and came across some free books that someone had put outside. In the collection was a copy of “Athol In World War II.” Gionet found her father listed in the book and recognized Tuttle’s picture. Rita had always talked about the Tuttle family and Suzanne realized that Tuttle’s photo matched clippings that her mother kept in a scrapbook during WWII about local soldiers who were serving and people she knew. Suzanne thought it was interesting that there was no information available about him in the “Athol in World War II” book, and her mother’s newspaper clippings chronicled not only his death but his own personal account of his D-Day experiences. The names of the newspapers in which the articles appeared are unknown.
Tuttle worked in the Union Twist Drill as an adjuster and was among the first to land on French soil on June 8, 1944 during the invasion of France, according to one of the articles from the scrapbook.
It was written that Sgt. Tuttle’s wife Barbara (McLean) Tuttle received a letter at their 216 Prospect St. home in Athol notifying her of his death in Holland on Sept. 24, 1944. The letter said he would posthumously receive the Distinguished Service Cross and was previously awarded the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. The letter also stated that Sgt. Tuttle had participated in the airborne invasion of Holland on Sept. 17, 1944 and upon landing his units were immediately engaged in battle. On Sept. 24, Tuttle, “with utter disregard for his own safety, left his position and crossed an open field riddled by enemy machine gun fire to go to the aid of a wounded comrade. While administering first aid to the wounded man, he was instantly killed by an enemy machine gun.” Tuttle was buried in Holland with full military honors.
In the second clipping from the scrapbook, months before his death, Tuttle shared his experiences as a paratrooper on D-Day and as a member of the first battalion to jump in France. Prior to being inducted into the army, Tuttle sustained a compound fracture in his leg from an automobile accident and learned to lessen the impact of a jump by landing on his other leg. He wrote of France, “Everything is still moving one way, and that is towards Germany, but it’s going to be tough going for a while yet… The night we took off from England was just as good a night to jump as I have seen. A whole bunch of the leading men of Eisenhower’s staff, some Naval officers and the General himself watched us take off and wished us lots of luck, and we sure needed it, too.” He said once they hit the coast of France, “the Germans threw everything but the guns at us.” He marveled about how he made it through “with the grace of God” as the field below “had a cross of machine guns.” He ended the letter with, “Well, to make a long story short, I’m sure proud to be a paratrooper. Our regiment got a Presidential citation for its work and the men sure earned it, too. Will close for this time. Buster Tuttle.”
Dolor Gionet, 92, was stationed in Okinawa during World War II. His biography in the “Athol In World War II” book, says he served in the Navy in the Pacific Theater and was awarded the Victory Medal, American Area Ribbon, and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon. After the war, he met Rita, who had moved to Athol and worked at Starrett’s. Suzanne said her mother, who passed away in 2011, kept many more scrapbooks that included family, the Dionne Quintuplets and her favorite actor, Ronald Reagan.
She is glad her mother saved the articles about Sgt. Tuttle and said, “He was definitely a hero.”