Invasion kid USCG landing craft Gerald W. Haddon
“He’s only 15, but he’s doing a man’s job, this Coast Guard “Invasion Kid.” Gerald W. Haddon, seaman second class, has been under the fire of battle and is a veteran of 13 landings on the Normandy Beach. Granted to be the youngest invader in the Allied Forces, “The Kid” enlisted when he was 14 and celebrated his 15th birthday under a Nazi bombing attack in the Mediterranean. The truth of his age came out after Normandy, when he failed to report for morning muster aboard a Coast Guard-manned LST. He was found fast asleep in his bunk, too tired to “hit the deck.” But Coast Guardsman Haddon, now in England, is fighting to stay in the fight. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Haddon, of 4150 West Harrison Street, Chicago, Ill.”